From: jonathon (jemery@execpc.com)
Date: Mon Apr 14 2003 - 18:11:39 PDT
>Anybody ever pulled the front axle and inner grease seal on an M35A2?
Yes. I assume your talking about what is called the axle seal, the one you
have to remove the axle shaft from the housing to get at?
> I
>know I have somewhat of an oil leak (not tremendous just enough to make the
>grease behind the steering knuckle slightly thinner an stink to high
>heaven) on the right front wheel. I have heard how to do a drive axle but
>was wondering if there are any differences in the steering axle.
Totally different than the rear. Basically remove the hub (3" 8 point
spindle nut socket required) then the brake backing plate and spindle then
pull out the axle shaft then...... here's where the fun starts. The seal is
a common oil seal but it is pressed into a retainer from the inside. You
must remove the retainer first. Method one is to have both sides open then
stick a long bar all the way thru the axle case so you can drive out one
side while banging with a hammer from the other side. Or make a puller
(which is what I did). I have done several of these now and sometimes they
pop right out and other times they are a BITCH, I bent my puller on one of
them but it did come out eventually. With the retainer out you can replace
the seal and then re-install it. I use a light film of #2 Permatex around it.
But one might ask if there is some other reason why the seal is now leaking.
On my front end I had excessive wear on the bottom load bearing plate that
the kingpin rides on, so much so that I had 1/8" of vertical play in the
knuckle housing. The effect of this was to pull the axle shaft up in the
seal thus exposing a gap, normal lip type oil seals cannot handle that kind
of radial misalignment. So perhaps before you take anything apart, other
than taking the wheels off, you should check the vertical play on both knuckles.
Best of luck,
je
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