Replace the Bearing or Just the Seals?

[oflynnp999]

Have a diff oil leak in the rear brake drum, it's definately diff oil and not brake fluid. I can see the oil leaking very slowly from the outer half shaft seal.

Been doing a bit of reading on other threads in the forum, it seems that most people replace the entire bearing to solve the problem, but does anyone have experience in just renewing the 2 oil seals only (without doing the bearing)?

There is nothing to suggest that my bearing is gone. There is no noise or movement in the wheel.

I'd rather renew just the seals than mess around trying to bang out the old bearing. I dont have a press.

Is it easy to renew the outer half shaft seal? Is it even possible without removing the bearing?

The rear inner axle seal looks like it will be relatively easy to do.

BTW, I checked the diff breather and it's not blocked. I took it off and could blow through it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

P

[Slugsie]

Replacing the inner seal is a quick and relatively painless job, and if your bearing is fine, then that is all you should need to do. If you really do need to replace the outer one too then you might as well replace the bearings as you need to dismantle the whole lot to get to them, and that's a slightly more complex job to do involving hitting things *hard*.

[oflynnp999]

Thanks for your reply. Pretty much what I thought. I reckoned the outer seal would be difficult to get at.

Is the ABS sensor gear difficult to get off? I noticed that somebody posted a detail of how to do it using a special tool they made up - See "latest uploaded files" on the main webpage. Is there an alternative way to do it?