I've got a '92 F250 4X4 diesel with E4OD and tow package. It's showing a little over 218,000 miles on the clock. I never have had really good braking with it, especially after an emergency stop from 90+ about a year after I got it. (Long story, but it was legal and the truck was not used for racing.)

Anyhow, I had a very complete brake job done a while back. They replaced the master cylinder, front rotors and calipers, rear slaves and shoes and hardware and most of the bleeders. When they pulled the rear wheels, the inside of the drums and all the brake hardware on both sides were completely encased in gear lube that had leaked from the rear end. They cleaned everything up and replaced the seals in the axle along with the above mentioned brake stuff. The brakes worked the best they had in years. Several weeks later, I needed to return a rental truck and had an associate drive my truck to pick me up. After about 10 miles at freeway speeds, we pulled into the rental place and my truck drew a crowd. Apparently, my associate had neglected to release the parking brake and arrived amidst a large blue cloud of smoke and most nasty smell from the rear wheels. He said he saw no light on the dash warning about the brakes and never noticed the copious amounts of blue smoke following him down the freeway. I checked the parking brake pedal and it was down only two or three clicks. Another driver pulled in and advised he followed my truck down the freeway and thought it may have been on fire! Of course after this, there was not a whole lot of braking power left.

On returning home, I jacked up the truck and pulled the drum expecting to see nothing left of the brake shoes. The shoes showed very little wear (there was less than 1000 miles on the new brakes), but everything was coated with grease again and pieces of the seal were stuck in the goo. As I felt this was more than I wanted to tackle, I took it to another shop and said "fix brakes". Embarassed, I did not tell them of the parking brake incident. Two days and mucho dinero later, I roll out with brakes that once again stop the truck.

However, the joy was short lived. Within a few weeks and under 500 miles, I was brakeless once again. Back to the shop and the discovery of yet another seal leak and grease packed brake assemblies on both rear wheels. They very graciously apologized and did it over, new seals, adjusting hardware, shoes, etc. This scenario repeated itself two more times, with the shop becoming less gracious each time.

Now this is not the first time the rear brakes were found to be full of gear lube and dirt from leaking axle seals. It has happened a couple other times over the years, but there was never a big deal made about it. Although the mess was never as severe as this recent string of events. The shop I used has a good reputation and they have stood behind their work so far. But I don't want to keep taking it back and dragging this whole thing out.

The truck has many miles of pulling a heavy 5th wheel RV and likely has been "a bit" overloaded. So, what suggestions have you on the cause/cure of this situation? The axle seals seem to self destruct in a short time, resulting in a lube leak into the brakes, destroying them as well.

Is this something that could be an easy fix, or has time and abuse taken its toll and warped something out of place to prevent proper sealing? After reading various things through the several thousand posts on these forums, I'm wondering if maybe I should peruse the local salvage yards for another rear end, maybe a '97-98 with lower mileage and similar ratings? It should be easy to go through it in the garage and clean and repair the brakes as necessary and swap the rear ends out.

Comments and suggestions appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Michael

 

Your problem isn't the axle seals its the bearings. Your bearings are worn and are allowing the axle to move off center slightly. This means the seal is not out of position and leaks. This is a common problem. The bearings will need to be replaced and the axles carefully inspected. They typically wear on the area that the bearings ride. If the axles are worn the, and I am sure they will be, you can install "repair" bearings instead of the standard bearings. The repair bearings are offset slightly and move the contact point on the axle so they don't ride on the worn area. The new bearings riding on the good part of the axle will return the axles back to center so the seals will work. Leak solved.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

This is a full-floating rear axle. The bearings were replaced during the original brake job in June. The seals are being broken into two or three pieces and are flying around inside the drum, falling out or stuck in goo when the drum is pulled. When parked, oil leaks out down the inside of the wheel and tire. I have not had an opportunity to examine the bearing area since the work was done at a shop, but if the play was significant enough to start leaking within a couple hundred miles, shouldn't the play be obvious to the tech by the third change?

 

I failed to note it was an F250 with the full floater. Sorry about that.

The seals are obviously being cooked. That's usually the brakes dragging and overheating the seals. Also a common problem if adjusted too tight.

The other thing that can cause the problem is the bearing being adjusted too tight. Also, if they are too loose the hub will kill the seal just as the worn bearings on the standard axle.

Steve
'95 Clubwagon XLT

 

This is a bit of a longshot, and Steve is almost certainly on the right track, but I would also check the axle vent tube and make sure it's not blocked. If the axle can't breathe, it will blow axle seals left and right.

At least you don't have a dodge 3/4 ton - they are famous for blowing rear axle seals, and there's nothing you can do about it except replace the seals every time you do the brakes.