Definitely do them. I did both mine a couple years ago and packed them until they oozed grease out the seams. The only thing I noticed was a little grease on the wheels for a short while.......Do it!

 

Thanks! That is what I wanted to hear. I made up the grease fitting and small tube to fit inot the abs hole. Time to buy some grease and get filling.

 

Popped in and saw this question. If you don't have ESOF, I see no problem with doing it and would encourage it. However, because vacuum must flow through the bearing to the hub lock, I would NOT recommend it if you have ESOF. Also, as I stated, I'm quite sure the grease got sucked into the small plastic vacuum line running across the frame.

 

That's not true, the air goes around the bearing.

 

I just bought an 05 Excursion in Colorado, and I had it inspected at the dealer in town and it came back that it needed the inner seals. This isn't exactly the truck to be on a budget with, but I can't pay the dealer a grand to do it for me. I've haven't done anything on this level before, but consider myself fairly competent in pretty much everything, except drywall.

Other than needing the puller, and the tool to set the seals to the correct depth of the seals what else should I need? A lift I don't have, so it will be done on the floor in my garage.

 

I don't think you will need a puller, maybe someone will chime in on this

 

I do have ESOF but have seen numerous posts of guys packing grease into these types of hubs.

 

The grease in the air syndrome is not true.

 

Glad to hear this.

 

The grease pocket and air channels are not connected.

 

Im trying to replace this on my 99 F250SD and cant find the PN

 

I got tagged in a post related to this, since I don't get updates from this thread anymore. I disagree with the issue of the air and grease.

My question is, how does it got "around" the bearing. The vacuum port is furthest in, the bearing is in the middle, and the vacuum hublock is furthest out, and mounts into the hub bearing assembly. The vacuum port enters into the chamber behind the bearing, and must get to the hub lock. It may not be passing through the bearing rollers themselves, but it has to go beyond the assembly. The only way to do this is through the center hole where the axle stub passes, or "through" the bearing assembly.

The bore in the knuckle that the hub bearing assembly fits in is the same bore that the vacuum port enters into. The bearing has it's own grease seals, but it's very easy to overpower those with a grease gun and fill the cavity with grease, I've seen it happen. The truck in the original post had the vacuum cavities full of grease from greasing through the abs hole. It wasn't too long after doing so that the ESOF stopped working.

3 serviceable seals must be in good shape for the esof system to work. The axle shaft to knuckle seal, as well as the yellow o-ring and hublock o-ring. The hub bearing is between all of those seals, and is basically contained inside of the vacuum chamber. Realistically the outer hub bearing assembly seal must be proper too, but I've never seen any evidence of that seal failing and being attributed to an ESOF problem. It isn't separately serviceable anyway.

That is an incorrect statement. If you pump grease into the vacuum cavity by pushing it through the hub bearing seals you absolutely stand a chance of it getting into the vacuum tubing.

You can grease the bearings through the ABS port, but you must do so with care and the understanding that it is possible to over grease and push it into the vacuum side, which is why I do not recommend it if you want to reduce the chance of your ESOF failing for this reason. Many a truck owner has done the procedure without reported problems. Mine may have been the oddity. Grease can dry out over time, so supplementing it helps. But to really benefit is to push new clean grease in and old grease out. This is not practically possible with this setup with the bearing installed in the knuckle, without risking it getting into the ESOF system.

 

I know this is months later, but as far as I know that seal is for the newer 05 up D60 axles. It does not fit the older axles. I tried.

 

Hey guys. While redoing my axle seals, I discovered that my inner axle seal guides (like the one shown in pic#7) are cracked and unusable. Has anyone ever identified a part number for one of these?

Also, when reseating the inner axle seals (like shown in pic #6), I was told that a 36mm socket (and a few extensions to run the length of the opposing axle tube) can be used to tap them in.

 

I am having issues finding the correct seal for the axle tube at the end nearest the steering knuckle. The parts store has shown me multiple seals and none of them are the diameter of the axle housing. Can anyone point me in the correct direction.