Use self tapping screws, put 2-3 of them around the seal in the middle of the metal part. Just put them in far enough to grab the seal well, then you can use them to pry the seal out.

 

make sure you cut the rear driveshaft in half if you havnt broke a u-joint my then.


I installed inferior seals on my truck, and its starting to leak.
just got the skf's on order

 

Just so you know, bearing steel is pretty darn hard. It's hard to damage it if you are being the least bit careful.

As far as seal removal, I watched a shop remove mine when they replaced it, and they just put a thin lever in there behind the seal and just worked around it. It came out pretty easily, but destroyed the seal in the process. Bearing was not harmed.


Uh... what?

I'm just thinking about a F-150 I got, where the PO hadn't maintained the U-joints. Front U-joint disintegrated, jammed up. He floored it, which tore up the spider gears in the rear differential, and basically destroyed the entire rear end. The drive shaft wasn't harmed, surprisingly enough.

That being said, I definitely could see needing to remove the drive shaft as well, if you were turning a truck into a front wheel drive to get home.

 

Larger pry bar under the lip of the seal, make sure your prying against the hub on the opposite and not the bearing,and pop it out. You also want to be mindful the end of the pry bar doesn't score the machined surface inside the hub. Your not saving the seal so it doesn't need to come out straight, that's how I do most of them.

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I did get it out of there using a screwdriver and some patience.