ive been looking for a cause for my soft/soggy brake pedal. I finally got under there today and saw some fluid on the rear driver side drum. I open it up expecting to find a blown wheel cylinder and I find oil...gear oil from rear differential maybe? Never pulled much apart on a rear before

1988 F350 dually, steriling 10.25

 

Axle shaft seal I'm guessing? Aside from the brake shoes which are soaked thru, what needs to be replaced during this operation? I'm seeing several options on rockauto and some guidance in picking parts would be appreciated.

thanks as always

 

Axle shaft seal is right.

When you replace it, you need to get a special 'seal-in-seal' type, where the two mating surfaces are inside the seal itself. It's a Scotseal 34384.
If you use the stock type... it will still leak.

You also want to make sure to remove any and all rust from both seating surfaces, clean everything up real good. You don't want any rust providing a place for oil to leak out.

Here's a nice set of pictures I found:
TheDieselStop.Com - www.thedieselstop.com

 

x2 on what Macrobb said. I had the same problem on my '88.

 

Pretty common issue use the updated seals.

 

Make sure the bearings are good. Bad bearings will chew up the spindle, and play in the bearings will cause a leak.

 

Makes sense. Thank you for the replies. I'll start pulling it apart in a bit. Just waiting for the sun to start hitting driveway lol

I borrowed two hub lock nut sockets from a buddy. Dunno if they'll fit but that's what he had in his tool box. He said one fits Dana 44, the other Dana 60. If no luck I have another buddy with a full set of them that he can grab from work on Monday for me

lol anyone need measurements or any reference pics while I got it apart?

 

Do I need to pull the hub nut? I just got the axle out. Is it this ring that's likely causing my leak?

 

Also, the sockets I borrowed did not fit well so I haven't pulled that yet. Felt like I could tap the larger of the two on there, but I'd rather test fit with the full set

 

Never mind. Being stupid. Just re-read the procedure.

Waiting on proper socket

 

If you have the axle out you should be staring at the bearing/oil seal already. I don't think there is any nut left, the bearing should be right there at the end of the tube.

And those sockets are for a front axle.

 

Nope, the axle end comes out with 8 bolts. Inside that is the nut to hold on the actual bearing assembly.

I suppose the good part about this is that if your rear differential ever locks up, you can just remove the axle shafts, put a plate(or a piece of plastic) over the open cap, and drive home using front wheel drive...

 

Whoops, sorry about that. Been a long time since I did my axle seals! I don't remember needing a special socket either but I must have rented one then. Dang, 5 years and zero memory retention...lame.

 

Ok, finally got time to work on this. Hub assembly is off. My instructions say to "carefully pry out the old seal." Anyone have a trick to doing this without messing up the bearing? It looks newish in there so I'm thinking the previous owner may have done this already but with normal factory seals. It's a Timken bearing under there and it looks pretty still

thoughts on seal removal with out harming bearing?

thanks