[FAlpha]

2011 Pro-4X with 41K miles

I had my front oil seal replaced in the transfer case back in November 2015, so less than 10K miles ago while still under warranty. The seal is leaking again and now I'm out of warranty and its been over a year since the repair, so, the dealer isn't willing to help out. Its slinging oil on the catalytic converter, ATP and 4LO switches, covered the transfer skid plate, yet isn't dripping on the driveway. For those of you who've tackled this job, how did you remove the companion (pinion) flange? The only way to get at the 30mm pinion nut is to remove the front propeller shaft as my impact wrench will not fit. Also, I will be torquing the nut back down to specification, 203-ft-lbs, and I tried to remove with hand tools to ensure I would also be able to put it back with hand tools. No dice, :frown: . So, for those who removed this nut by hand, any tips? I'm not going to spend $$$ on a flange holding tool, but I may fabricate something to get me by. I tried installing two of the bolts back in the flange while leveraging the wrench against the second bolt, but that little 14mm wrench doesn't provide enough resistance and nothing else will fit.

Last, the companion flange and seal have been redesigned with the following part numbers:

Flange - 33210-7S11D
Front Oil Seal - 33216-7S11C

 

[FAlpha]

I ended up removing the propeller shaft for access. When removing the old seal, the one installed under warranty by Nissan, I found the spring from the original seal was left in the seal bore. I'm fortunate this didn't make its way into the bearings and subsequently, the case, but also wish the Nissan tech would have noticed this so as not to cause me future problems.

Here is the old seal where you can see the spring is still intact upon me removing. I found the original seal spring in two pieces and the Nissan tech failed to clean out, thus, leading the 2nd front oil seal to fail out of warranty.

I could also see where the technician beat the old seal in, likely with a ball peen hammer, as opposed to using a proper tool to seat the seal. In the process, nicking various parts of the transfer case while removing the original seal.

Last, I built the following pinion flange holding tool to install the 30mm nut to 203 ft-lbs. She won't win any beauty contests, but it worked like a champ!