Yesterday I did shocks, hubs, ball joints, axle dust seal, and outer axle seal (the huge $65 one). Also went through and greased/checked the steering linkage and greased the caliper slide pins. Long story short, I look under the truck after driving ~10 miles this morning and the knuckle is wet and sticky. Appears to be diff fluid leaking past the new dust seal. I'm assuming this means the inner seal is bad? So now I need to remove both hubs, both axle shafts, and the carrier to replace them (i say them because if i'm gonna do one, might as well do em both)?


I was really looking forward to not having to tear apart the front end again for a long while!

 

That sucks iam sorry
I haven't had to do anything in my front end yet but iam sure its a pain in the butt.

 

I would drive it for a while and see if it still leaks, It could be residual from when you had the axles out. If not the bad news is sometimes when you remove the axle shafts that inner seal gets nicked and begins to leak.

 

X2 with bigpipes I've had this happen several times when working on Jeep front ends, DANA 30s. Id jack up the opposite side and shoot brake cleaner in the tube then let it sit and hopefully dry out. If about an hour later I had juice running out onto the floor then it was a sure sign the seals gone. Most of the time it was just residual. Good luck!

 

I bet its just what leaked out when you had the shafts out. Could possibly be a bad seal too though. More times its just residual because fluid level is higher than the seal. Check the fluid and see if its low. Drive it awhile and it should go away.

I made a scraper type tool out of some wooden dowel and a rounded piece of metal screwed to it for scraping out the dirt, rust and it helps get that little bit of fluid out before you put it all back together. Just a tip for next time. Also if I'm really on the ball, which rarely happens, I take a vacuum bleeder or suction gun and lower the fluid level before pulling axle shafts to avoid fluid getting in the axle tube.

 

Same thing happend to me. I did my passanger side front axle u joint. After replacing the ujoint, dust seal, knuckle seal, orings, and greasing the main wheel bearing I woke up to a wet knuckle. Like most say it may be residual. That's what I was hoping with mine but its 4 months later and every few days after wiping the knuckle and dust seal area the gear oil reappears. Haven't had the heart to tear or apart again.

 

I had my upper and lower ball joints done in the past couple thousand miles. I typically park on a flat surface and there was no leakage, but when I parked in the driveway I had some leak.

My shop advised to keep an eye on it and it was probably residual and it turned out to be.

In regards to the dust seal, that thing is pointless. You can put a brand new one in there and it'll just pop out. Most trucks I've seen have the dust seals just sitting there loose.

 

actually the newer version dust seal Ford made are great. I installed my dads four or five years ago and they are still holding strong. Mine are three years old and they look brand new still

 

I noticed this the other day on my Ex when I was putting the front shocks on... The dust seal just sitting there spinning free, with only 61k on the clock.

 

Ford's new seal is 100 times better than the stock ones......

 

Truth.
I replaced my old "axle bracelets" with the updated ones last month when I did an overhaul. The news ones are everything the old ones weren't with a steel insert/flange for the tube and what I would describe as a crankshaft type seal for the axle, very solid. Mine did go on/in tight so you might want to be careful if you're installing with a home-made PVC driver.

To the OP, that sucks. I've done the same thing on other axles but not a 60. I feel for you.
One thought I had with the updated dust shield was if you would even be able to tell if an inner seal gave out because I don't think much, if any, gear oil would make it past it and out of the tube. OP, did you update the dust shield to the new version that drives into the axle tube? If so, would you mind telling where the oil is seeping out at, the axle shaft center of the seal or the outer housing side (would be my guess)? It would be nice to know where to look for a leak at when doing a quick visual like at the wash.
Thanks, and again, sorry for the suck,

MOJoWales

 

when i did mine i jacked the drivers side up about 12" and did the work then lowered it and did the passenger side the same way. And i still got a small amount of gear oil that dripped out over the next few days. Some Purple power and the garden hose and it was clean, normal drips only. If your seal was cut it would drain the entire front pumpkin in a day or less......

 

Well, so much for thinking the new dust shield would make it hard to know if the seal failed. Good to know.
In any case, the new dust shields are incredibly improved over the old.

 

anyone have a part number for the new dust shields and an about price what to expect

 

This happend last year, Had my ball joints, front brakes, the hubs gone through with all the seals so I thought. I told Ford to replace all while they are in there for what I paid was like $1300 for everything. Six months later my inner seals started leaking. So I took it back to Ford thinking it was under warrenty. No such luck, they didn't replace the inner seals. When asked why not when I told them to do it all. They said they don't normally do them unless they were leaking. Needless to say I was pissed when quoted $900 to do them. I ended up having someone else do them for $500. I now won't go back to ford unless I have to, and everything will be written down first.

I hate having to have something done twice, on my dime. Good luck on your project.