drscope

The pinion seal on the rear diff in my 95 is leaking. How bad a job is this and what should I look for?

tomcarey88

4 bolts on the pinnion yoke,drop the driveshaft, then take the nut off...cant remember wht size,i rented a axle nut soket from autozone.5 min job after getting the nut off ....just have a drip pan ready,also a good time to change the diff fluid to,pry the old seal off an clean up the area an hammer in the new one

ol"blue

Before you remove the driveshaft/yoke, see if you have any up/down or side/side play with the shaft. If the seal has been leaking long enough the pinion bearings usually wear too. That happened to my '97 before I bought it, but I didn't notice it 'till a little later with the noise.

drscope

Thanks guys! And if the bearing is shot, whats involved with replacing that at the same time?

ol"blue

The carrier and ring gear will have to come out, along with the yoke and axle shafts (to get the carrier out), and the gear back-lash needs to be checked after the install.
Mine was so bad the shop had to remove the carrier, replace the ring & pinion gears and the pinion bearing, plus the wheel bearings. I wanted to kick the PO but I love the ZJ so I would have bought it even if I had known about the damage.

trucker

To be honest, you need to start looking for a driveline shop. It will cost between $800 - 1000. Even replacing the seal only it is not that simple. If you have a crush sleeve in it then you have to have proper tools to do this.
Other option is to find rear end at junk yard. They run from $350 to 600 and you do not know what you are getting.

rweaver138

dont let this scare you away, this would be worst case scenario and is fairly dramatic. hopefully you dont have a crush sleeve, and if you need to pay a shop that much to fix it then you'd be better off buying another axle for somewhere around 100 bucks, 350-600 are dana 44 prices

trucker

I am looking for rear end too(bad rear pinion bearing), but can not find for less that $350. Does any one know of place where I can find cheaper one. I am at Jacksonville,fl. It is D35 with 3.73 Junk yards want min $350 plus core.