Pinion seal problems. Please help!

[Ryanater]

So the other day I noticed that there was a few drops of gear oil under my car. I checked it out and it looked like my pinion seal was leaking. But it was hard to tell because the spinning yoke was flinging oil all over. So I changed the pinion seal and it is still leaking.

I know it IS NOT the gear cover. The oil is coming from somewhere near the pinion seal.

If you guys could help that would be great.

[Ryanater]

[Firebirdjones]

It would help to know if the leak is coming from behind the dust cover/seal protector or from the nut/pinion yoke area.

You didn't mention your method for repair. Did you clean the threads of the pinion and pinion nut and reinstall it with sealant? If it is installed dry it will leak through the threads.

Did you lube the new seal when it was installed? It needs some lube to give it a fighting chance when first used. Otherwise it may leak very shortly.

Did you reassemble with the correct preload on the pinion bearing? If the pinion is moving around at the least bit,,,the seal cannot do it's job.

Setting pinion bearing pre-load is tricky after the rearend has been together and running, since the crush sleeve is already crushed. It's dicey and sometimes leads to premature pinion bearing failure if not done properly. You will need to run the nut past it's original position when reassembling since the original crush has been disturbed, possibly 1/4 turn, or mark the nut before removal and go past your original mark slightly.

Then grab the yoke and make sure it has no side to side play.

[Ryanater]

It would help to know if the leak is coming from behind the dust cover/seal protector or from the nut/pinion yoke area.

You didn't mention your method for repair. Did you clean the threads of the pinion and pinion nut and reinstall it with sealant? If it is installed dry it will leak through the threads.

Did you lube the new seal when it was installed? It needs some lube to give it a fighting chance when first used. Otherwise it may leak very shortly.

Did you reassemble with the correct preload on the pinion bearing? If the pinion is moving around at the least bit,,,the seal cannot do it's job.

Setting pinion bearing pre-load is tricky after the rearend has been together and running, since the crush sleeve is already crushed. It's dicey and sometimes leads to premature pinion bearing failure if not done properly. You will need to run the nut past it's original position when reassembling since the original crush has been disturbed, possibly 1/4 turn, or mark the nut before removal and go past your original mark slightly.

Then grab the yoke and make sure it has no side to side play.

Thanks for the help.

Yes I did set the preload on the pinion nut. I marked the nut and also made sure it took the same amount of tourqe to turn the yoke with a tourqe wrench.

I also did lube the seal before installing it so it wouldn't burn up.

Although I did not put sealant on the pinion nut. So I will check that out.