Anyone know how to replace rear end seal?

TRUEBLUEOVAL said:

My '01 GT suddenly started leaking from the rear end-near the pinion seal where the driveshaft goes into the rear. It's stock and was never apart so I don't know why it started leaking, but anyway, has anyone ever personally replaced this seal? I would like to do it myself but I don't know what's involved.

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I took mine to Ford...they replaced it for $200. I ain't gonna tough my f'n rearend.

you paid $200 for a $14 seal that takes 15-30 minutes????? You got jipped......Most places will replace gears for $200-$250......Hope they gave you a lifetime supply of KY......

WhiteStang said:

you paid $200 for a $14 seal that takes 15-30 minutes????? You got jipped......Most places will replace gears for $200-$250......Hope they gave you a lifetime supply of KY......

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really? 15 minutes.. HMm 15 minutes too do it the right way? thats the hack way your talking about and i don't suggest it even on a 4 cyl ranger let alone a GT

do it the right way ( ford dealer probally won't anyways unless i am the tech) the right way is remove the pinion from the housing so you can replace the crush sleve. any other way is just hack and the pre load will never be even close too right.

and 200 -250 is depending on where you live too install gears.. my shop charges a lot more.

in S.C where you live labor is probally a lot cheaper per hour. we get 94 per hour. and we charge 7-8 hours too do a ring and pinion..

when i do them on the side i wont touch it for less than 350, but i do it the right way. correct torque specs. measured using ford special tools, double checked with the paint after the backlash and pinion depth have been checked many times.

a lot of places hack them in. the reuse the old shims and don't even measure anything.

Nah, at the dealer $200 sounds right to me...

Well, hopefully I can get that money back x3 (damages times 3 by federal law) since the guy who sold me the car rolled the odometer back.

TRUEBLUEOVAL said:

*UPDATE* I checked the Ford service manual and in order to do it the right way 3 special tools are required. So I brought it to my local shop and they charged me $125 (1 hour labor+seal+gear oil+tax).

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That's not bad at all. Good job!

It is good to know one's limits and know when it is time to "take it to the dealer"... BTW, how did you get your hands on a service manual???

A rear seal itself is not that hard to replace. The tricky bit is ensuring that the pinion preload is measured before the thing is taken apart and that, when reassembled, the preload is set to where it was, perhaps just slightly more to get a bit more crush on the collar. For that you'd need a good quality dial-type inch-pound torque wrench.

Other than that getting the pinion nut off and re-tightened would be the hardest parts. Prying the old seal out and tapping a new one in would be simple.

MikeZ28 said:

really? 15 minutes.. HMm 15 minutes too do it the right way? thats the hack way your talking about and i don't suggest it even on a 4 cyl ranger let alone a GT

do it the right way ( ford dealer probally won't anyways unless i am the tech) the right way is remove the pinion from the housing so you can replace the crush sleve. any other way is just hack and the pre load will never be even close too right.

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Well there is the technically correct way, but there are others that work that are not wrong. I am speaking from experience here as well (I have installed gears and changed a pinion seal with out taking out the gears), and you can change the pinion seal with out having to go though all of the trouble of removing the pinion.

You can simply remove the pinion nut, and then the change the seal. The crush collar on the pinion is not a magical device. It is simply there to set a preload on the pinion bearings and thus the drag on the pinion. Crushing it simply shortens the collar’s length and allows the bearings to be drawn into the differential housing more. Thus, increasing the drag or friction on the bearings and the pinion. Removing the pinion nut does not ruin the crush collar, only over tightening it does. When you go to reinstall the pinion nut you need to reset the drag on the pinion. When you tighten the nut the collar is still the proper length that it was before, and thus the preload on the bearing will be close. The final step of checking the drag on the pinion should still be done. Now, as long as you are careful, you can tighten the pinion nut down a tad tighter keeping the pinion drag in spec and making sure that the nut has been sufficient torqued down. The spec for the pinion drag is large enough that this technique works just fine. There is no single torque number that has to be met for the drag, it is a range. As long as you can get the nut tightened down properly and keep the pinion drag in the proper range with out going over then you are perfectly fine. It is simple mechanics, not rocket science.