I hear the outer dust sleeve (at the end of the axle housing) comes loose all the time. Well, both mine are loose and dangling.
Can i sandwich these back in without removing the whole knuckle? Is there a trick to get em to stay in?

 

Just clean the axle tubes if you ever have to reinstall axles to prevent dragging the axle end through grit and possibly damaging the inner axle seals which will cause gear oil to leak. The outer axle seals will not contain oil that leaks past the inner seals even when they are new. They are just to keep some dust out of the tubes. The older model axle housings did not have these outer seals. You don't have to do all the work required to remove axles just to replace these outer seals. You can do them when you replace hub bearings or ball joints which will be soon enough.

 

fyi..if you get new ones they have updated the part now. likely you won't have to replace them once you buy the updated part.

 

thanks. When I do BJs (hopefully not for a little while) ill ge tthe new ones then.

 

Here is the updated part number for the axle seals.
AC3Z-1S175-A (BRS-170)