how hard is it to change them out

 

If your refering to the inners their a PITA. It will require the removal of the diff gears to access the seals. the pass side one if you have the axle disconnect can be done from the inspection cover to the unit. the drivers side is accessed by the inside of the diff. If you have any kind of mileage on her you otta do the axle U joints and check the ball joints as well. Typically if you pull the axles again later you might destroy the seals again. Get Dana/spicer U joints only to save more work later.

 

Quad 4x4 advertises a kit that is supposed to make it easier, but I haven't tried it yet to know how. That's my next project since I changed all the bearing and rotors up front. Left me with a leak on both sides.

 

It took me a weekend to do the balljoints and axle seals last year. If I had to do it again, I could probably do it in a day. I about crapped when I was told I had to remove the diff but it was not that bad, I did not need a case spreader either.

Two or three floor jacks, air with an impact and ratchet wrench would be great, at least four jackstands, PB Blaster, lotsa disposable rags, normal ratchets, sockets and wrenches, a blue tip wrench would be nice but a propane torch will work too; and last, make sure you have access to a good ball joint removal tool. If you have any mileage on the truck you may as well do the ball joints at the same time.

The biggest mistake is that I spent several hours trying to pull the seals out of the axle tube with a slide hammer. After pulling the diff and getting the seals out, I find out that O'Reilly's gave me the wrong seals....sent my wife on a 130 mile roundtrip to a dealer that had the correct seals late on Saturday.

You can do the seal in a day easy....good luck

 

Instructions here
http://dieselpowerman.tripod.com/Fro...xle%20Tech.htm

This is the only repair I've ever come across that the dealer does cheap enough that I'd recommend that they hassle with it. The standard rate used to be $125 per side but no doubt has gone up some.

First thing to do though is to make sure your differential isn't overfilled, it should be 3/4" below the bottom of the plug on level ground. I can't begin to count how many leaking axle ends I've seen stop leaking once the fluid is at the correct level and the residual oil trapped past the seal is allowed time to leak all out. This goes for the rear also.

 

My 02 has the same problem. Pass side seal leaking. Took it to the dealer since I'm under my 70,000 powertrain. I will pay a $100 deductible for the seal installation. Problem with this dealer is that they had it all taken apart and decided to call me and say that it would be virtually impossible to get the seal out without ruining the bearing. And this dealer told me that if they ruined the bearing THAT I would have to pay for the bearing and total for bearing and seal would be just under $500. I told them to put everything back together and took to another dealer. This one said the bearing and seal would both be covered in the powertrain warr. The good dealer told me that the bearing is rarely reusable once they get everything apart. Just be careful, I don't know if you want to pay for a $300 each bearing/hub assembly, just to replace a seal.

 

If you are careful and use the socket trick the front bearings come out with no trouble!!

 

Thanks guys for all the replys sounds like a hella job my outer driverside is the only one leaking the dealer I went to wanted like $500 to do both sides I will check the fluid for proper level maybe thats the only problem The truck only has 120,000 on it is that considerd alot