Got caught up in some mud today. Started to notice some noise from the rear axle. Turns out a lot of mud somehow got into my axle.

Pretty sure axle seals are fine. Have not noticed any gear oil coming out of them and unless they decided to break while in the puddle Id say they probably arent the culprit.

That leaves 2 possibilities that I just want some input.

The first is my pinion seal. I know my rear pinion bearing is going out and if that seal is messed up, do you think it could let in a bunch of mud?

My next culprit is my breather hose. Not sure that the mud got to the top of the breather hose but I noticed that where it screws into the axle I can see a few threads, do you think that mud could enter the axle through that?

Of course maybe my rtv sucked but it never leaked oil out.

I hate mud... Im done with it...

 

Is the mud actually in the differential or just the axle tubes? If you got mud in the tubes, that's probably where it's coming from....

 

Probably shoved it down via the pinion. If the bearing is bad I'd bet the seal is too.

 

Muds all in the diff. I pulled my plug and it started pouring. Ughhh

 

Sure it's mud that got in and not water that made the gear oil turn muddy?

Anyway it sounds like it's time to do all your seals.

 

Stock rear breather hose terminates at the frame unirail. Not all the difficult to submerse it, for reference. Other than that, just your pinion/axle seals and diff seal (gasket or rtv).

 

thats probably the case. It still smells like gear oil but its not brown and has a muddy texture. But yea guess its time to


Ahh gotcha

 

I have gotten water in mine also it came in through the breather tube the gear oil looked the same as yours.

I fixed mine by putting a one way check valve's on the hose on all my Jeeps.

 

Best thing to do would be to extend your breathers to someplace high with tubing. Some people extend them to someplace high in the engine compartment. I would not suggest putting a one way check valve as water will still cool the axles and the air pressure inside will lower and want to pull in from somewhere else.