Hello all, I was asked to look at my brother's 98 xj for a leaking rear output seal, he tried 2 unsucesfully. Long story short I found the rear brg internal (smaller) snap ring broken allowing the output shaft to "walk" in approx 1". Weird....I have never seen this happen, I replaced the snap ring and installed a new seal, ran it on stands for 1/2 hour, all seemed ok. Now he calls me 48hrs later and says it is leaking again.....wtf.

My only thought (not sure if possible) was he managed to "bottom" out the d/s yoke either by wheeling or overloading with a trailer, I thought this might have happened as his rear leafs are trashed. Any thoughts????
Thanks
Brent

 

slip yoke smooth

 

If bottomed out it could damage the seal, I would check to see if it had to much lateral movement on the output shaft bearing, which is just a bronze sleeve.