I found a lot of grease inside the passenger side rear rim and traces flowering on the inner sidewall of the tire. I got some on my finger and i was able to rule out brake fluid. I saw all of the work required to replace the seal and bearing and decided that it would just be easier to go tho the junkyard and find a rear end from another XJ (good idea or bad). Any advice on what to look for in the way of quality of diff and the brake drums etc.? I have never done this before so advice is helpful. I will be looking for the same rear end (c8.25) for a replacement. Thank you.

 

I did a swap from a dead D35 to a much newer 8.25, I went through a shop that parts out jeeps and does upgrades on jeeps, so got one that they had recently did a rebuild on, but then ended up doing a swap to a d60 for a customer, so it was just sitting there with new seals and bearings in it. Picked it up for $150.

do you have any shops that do swaps/upgrades on jeeps? maybe call them, see if they have a spare sitting around, or an upcoming project, and see if they will sell it to you cheap.

If you pick something up from a junk yard you'll probably have the same amount of work to do as you do on your current one (at least seal replacement) so you might as well find an axle to upgrade to, and rebuild that.

 

Let me get this right. You want to swap out a known good diff that just needs an axle seal for a diff that will most likely need everything. Think about this...

 

X1000000

 

If you guys think its a bad idea to just swap it then I will try to replace the seal and bearing myself. I found that how-to on here.

 

Rent a slide hammer with bearing attachment and a proper bearing install kit and its pretty easy to do just go slowly and make sure things are tight.

 

Did this today thanks to Youtube. Thank you for advising me not to swap axels. The only problem I had was at the end a bolt at the 1:00 position sheared off. I wasn't over tightening them at all. We drilled into it and are going to use an easy-out in the morning and grab a bolt from the hardware store. It still sealed fine. I drove it for a while around the block and saw no leaks. I did not think I could save this one. I just bought the jeep last weekend. It needs a lot of work but I think I can bring it all together.

 

The first repair always gives the most confidence. Have fun with the rest of your repairs.