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Help with leak in rear differential area

10K views 19 replies 10 participants last post by  saronwhiteman 
#1 ·
Hey guys I just recently noticed gear oil leak in my driveway. While taking a peak under the truck I noticed quite a bit of splashed oil on the underside of the truck bed, a closer look the differential housing is dry, it appears as if its somewhere in the driveshaft U joint (There's a 1/2" hole and its very wet inside on the yolk shaft section. I snapped some pictures unfortunately I was not able to get a close up of the U joint in the way. I don't suspect the front pinion seal is the cause being the pumpkin is bone dry. Is there a seal in the drive shaft? Looking for some help with possibly anyone that has had a simliar issue. Thanks




Here you can see some of the splash of oil it's casusing

 
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#3 ·
Hopefully someone chines in. That is a head scratcher. When my pinion bearing went, it never leaked strangely. Mechanic found the slop when he was repairing my junk e brake pads after they delmainated. It almost looks like it was flinging grease from the U joint. Was the puddle of fluid at the diff? Are you sure it was from your truck?
 
#6 ·
Jdmartin did your leak look like mine or did it have fluid leaking in the diff housing
 
#5 ·
yeah this one has me stumped. If I had a pinion seal leak wouldn't it show on the diff housing?
 
#7 ·
It looked like yours. You'd be surprised how far gear oil gets flung when the driveshaft is turning. I just put up with it because my lease was almost up. It started showing up at about 60k miles in the back and about 70k at the front.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the replies guys. I crawled under the truck again today and noticed there's theres some up and down play at the yolk. Is the yolk supposed to have any play?
 
#11 ·
Is the play at the u joint or at the diff? If the play is at the the part where the u joint enters the diff, the pinion bearing is bad. If the play is in the u joint you need a new u joint.
 
#12 ·
Smoke05 yeah the pinion section Has the movement. So at this point we are most likely talking about needing to replace the pinion, bearing and seal?
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the info guys. My axle seals are starting to show light leakage so it looks like it will be quite a repair
 
#16 ·
They gotta come out anyway. You basically need to rebuild the whole axle minus gears and carrier....as long as the gears aren't chunked.
It's actually not as hard as it seems.
 
#18 ·
I have the same issue as the OP - mine looks exactly like the photos. Everytime after hauling a heavy load, I have a puddle under my truck and can see it is leaking between the U-joint plate and the plate of the pinion. I have pulled the driveshaft off and the cavity around the pinion nut is full of gear oil. I don't have any sign of leaking around the pinion seal.

Any ideas what causes this and easiest fix?
 
#19 ·
I noticed a little seepage from my axle seal after towing my trailer. I pulled the plug to check fluid and there was a lot of pressure from my breather being clogged. I replaced the breather cleaned off the gear oil and 6 months later still no leaks. I’m guessing from towing and building up pressure it pushed the oil past the seal.
 
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