joeslawn

Redoing the front end on an 91 Dodge Diesel. Finally got hubs apart & bearings, realized real fast auto parts guy sold me wrong bearing/race, for inner rather than outer. Decided to clean up parts, inner bearing was actually bent in one place so good thing I am now going to replace both bearings. Outer bearing and race was blue from axle nut loosening up enough to be able to move tire at top 1"!!!! Too late in the day to go get more parts, so decided to check out rest of drivers side of the front end.

Took the 6 bolts out for the front axle hub housing on the 4x4 and pulled the axle shaft out of the drivers side.

The axle tube was FULL of dirt packed solid about 8" in. Am going to replace axle needle bearing & grease seal next to that. Needle bearing looked like it hadn't seen new grease for 20 years!

I am wondering if there is supposed to be any kind of a seal in the axle tube so it can't get full of dirt?

Also, I looked at my axle shaft and there is some wear on the inside end, where it goes into the differential and rides on the bearings in there, is there any way to get the differential/ring gear out of the housing without the "spreader" tool I'm reading about?

There's a little bit of galling and I suppose it's 10 thousandths smaller in diameter than the rest of the axle, so does look like it's worn. Is a new axle shaft an option or should I not worry about it?

I think the truck was run half its life through a river twice a week with no lube in either differential. Nuts.

Thanks for any input.

jimbo486

I think, and have seen on most 4x4 axle shafts, there should an oil seal (which looks like a wheel seal) on the inside of the u-joint to seal up the axle tube to keep dirt and debris from getting in and gear oil from getting out.

MARF75

There is no type of seal on the axle for keeping the dirt out of the tube itself.Only seals are in the differrential to keep oil in and there is aseal on the backside of the spindle to keep dirt out of the wheel bearings and such.
However there is an aftermarket company that makes a seal for keeping dirt out of the axle tube but they only make it for certain applications. I know they make them for the D60 in Fords and Chevys so they are probably avaiable for Dodge also. Check some of those 4x4 off road sites

oilcan64

in case you dont get the correct bearings this is where i got mine from...https://www.4wdfactory.com/store/pro...g-and-Seal-kit

complete kit, all timken made in usa bearings. they also carry the needle bearing and seals too.

good luck man!

b68super

I have doe about 6 of the "inner" axle seals its reall not a bad job

Freeze the new saels in the freezer to make them smaller easer to put in

loosen the 4 bolts to the carrier bearings and use a big pry bar on the bolt heads or whatever u can and do this back and forth it will slide out

Rubber mallet when tapping it back in sometimes 4 hands better then 2 doing this part

Good luck