Step 6: Replace Differential Seal (Continued) | Return to Steps
I couldn't explain everything about the seal within the 20 picture limit!

A Brief Exploration in Dentistry, aka Crusty Scraping
Since I had already torn 2 seals at this point, I picked up some little HF pics to scrap away the junk. Any protruding crusties that could tear the seal should be scrapped down and sanded. If you've already destroyed a seal, there will be some rubber debris indicating where the most interference occurred. Here is a look at what I'm talking about:


To try and keep the sealing surface safe, make sure to scrap with the point pulling debris out of the diff. A vertical point is likely to damage the surface, so getting close to horizontal will help to prevent this. I also put an oil soaked paper towel in front of the bearing to try and catch any small particles that may have gone in the reverse direction.


I began scraping away at the crusties until they were almost flush with the sealing surface. After they were knocked down, I used 400 grit sandpaper to smooth the surface. Take care not to get the pics or the sandpaper into the sealing surface. As seen in the last picture, pressure is only applied to the sandpaper along the crusty edge.



The angle and lighting make it hard to see things, but here is what the edge looked like after scraping and sanding.


From here, the greasy rag and contaminants can be removed. Whatever was left, I cleaned with some brake parts cleaner on a paper towel. To prep the seal for install, I used some of the old gear oil to lube the seal and the differential sealing surface.


Seal Installation
I started with using the oil filter wrench to get it set in place. On the initial installation, I got the seal a tad sideways. Since the oil filter wrench doesn't do well applying a point force, we can use socket extensions to correct this.


From my 3rd mistake, we know that hitting the socket extension directly on the seal can damage it. Stack the old seal, or one of your failed installation seals, over the new seal to hammer on. You may need to do some slight reshaping of the old seal to get it to sit properly. From there, a long combination of socket extensions can be hammered on the protruding location. I used the socket extension/old seal method to set the rest of the seal to the 6mm depth just beyond the crusty buildup.