65 Barracuda daily driver
Have I mentioned how much I dislike gear oil?
Anyways, my little 7 1/4" sure grip started making hideous noises, so it was time to finally address all the issues related to it. It has had a pretty bad leak since I swapped this rear in. Until recently I thought it was coming out of the the cover and I made multiple attempts at replacing the gasket, using different sealers etc. Sooo stupid. What I hadn't realized was that it was leaking out of the pinion seal and running down the case to the bottom of the cover... Also, there was a leak at the passenger side axle tube and at least one of the bearings was making noise, so I grabbed a pair of axles that I still had and wanted to have the bearings replaced. Which was a nightmare, haha. The bearings that I hab bought from Rockauto a while ago weren't the right ones (they were for a 8 1/4"). Then I got the right bearings from O'Reilly's and took them over to a machine shop only to realize that one of them was missing the race. They were able to order a new one and half a day later I was able to pick them up. By the way, the correct part number is RWF34R (old bearings below).
I started with the pinion seal and like you can see in the first photo, everything was covered in gear oil gunk (so gross). I had read that you're supposed to mark the nut and the pinion yoke with a punch and count the turns to put it back exactly how it was. As I was attempting that I realized that the nut was loose, so that step was pointless. It also was potentially quite dangerous to drive around like that. The old seal didn't want to come out at first and the new one was fighting me quite a bit, but I got it on and then attempted to torque it with my torque wrench, but the torque wrench only goes up to 180 ft⋅lb and the manual said minimum 240. So I took my electric impact (rated at 360 ft⋅lb) and figured that that was my best bet - especially because it said minimum 240, so I figured more is probably ok. By the way, the nut requires a 1-1/8" socket, which I didn't have, so one more trip to the parts store... I had cleaned everything (including the pinion snubber) and bolted the driveshaft back on and greased the u-joint. Part one was done.
Next up was the axles and I started with the one that was leaking and needed the seal replaced. That went relatively well, but cleaning the gear oil gunk off the brakes, wheel and tire was a pain in the ***. The other side was much cleaner and I got the new axle in in no time. I had replaced that seal early last year and it was still good. I also installed brand new RH studs on both axles, painted the rusty drums black, put the wheels back on and topped of the rear end. The first test drive went well and it is so nice and quiet now.
Next weekend I will tackle the front end (again), installing new pivot shafts and bushings for the LCAs and fixing one of the adjustable strut rods.
Have I mentioned how much I dislike gear oil?
Anyways, my little 7 1/4" sure grip started making hideous noises, so it was time to finally address all the issues related to it. It has had a pretty bad leak since I swapped this rear in. Until recently I thought it was coming out of the the cover and I made multiple attempts at replacing the gasket, using different sealers etc. Sooo stupid. What I hadn't realized was that it was leaking out of the pinion seal and running down the case to the bottom of the cover... Also, there was a leak at the passenger side axle tube and at least one of the bearings was making noise, so I grabbed a pair of axles that I still had and wanted to have the bearings replaced. Which was a nightmare, haha. The bearings that I hab bought from Rockauto a while ago weren't the right ones (they were for a 8 1/4"). Then I got the right bearings from O'Reilly's and took them over to a machine shop only to realize that one of them was missing the race. They were able to order a new one and half a day later I was able to pick them up. By the way, the correct part number is RWF34R (old bearings below).
I started with the pinion seal and like you can see in the first photo, everything was covered in gear oil gunk (so gross). I had read that you're supposed to mark the nut and the pinion yoke with a punch and count the turns to put it back exactly how it was. As I was attempting that I realized that the nut was loose, so that step was pointless. It also was potentially quite dangerous to drive around like that. The old seal didn't want to come out at first and the new one was fighting me quite a bit, but I got it on and then attempted to torque it with my torque wrench, but the torque wrench only goes up to 180 ft⋅lb and the manual said minimum 240. So I took my electric impact (rated at 360 ft⋅lb) and figured that that was my best bet - especially because it said minimum 240, so I figured more is probably ok. By the way, the nut requires a 1-1/8" socket, which I didn't have, so one more trip to the parts store... I had cleaned everything (including the pinion snubber) and bolted the driveshaft back on and greased the u-joint. Part one was done.
Next up was the axles and I started with the one that was leaking and needed the seal replaced. That went relatively well, but cleaning the gear oil gunk off the brakes, wheel and tire was a pain in the ***. The other side was much cleaner and I got the new axle in in no time. I had replaced that seal early last year and it was still good. I also installed brand new RH studs on both axles, painted the rusty drums black, put the wheels back on and topped of the rear end. The first test drive went well and it is so nice and quiet now.
Next weekend I will tackle the front end (again), installing new pivot shafts and bushings for the LCAs and fixing one of the adjustable strut rods.
