[jd8520]

Hello,
Have a 99 4wd dakota and am having problems with the passenger side front axle seal leaking. Was wondering if anyone has any directions,suggestions, pointers, they could pass along on replacing it? It appears you can remove the drive axle hub bolts and maybe move the cv joint etc out of the way? I can't get a good view of what it involves from thier? Not sure if the axle hub, whole axle or what needs to be removed to get to the seal?

thanks

 

[6shooter]

if you remove your wheel hub (3 bolts) you will have room to slide the shaft forward, but not all the way through the hole. if you dont want to go that route, just pop a balljoint and swing the whole assembly out far enough for the CV shaft to slide off the axle shaft. you should be able to get something in there and pry the old seal out, then just use a large socket/seal driver that will fit over the axle shaft to drive the new seal on. either way, you have to take the wheel hub out or pop a balljoint. there is not enough room to collapse the CV shaft enough to take it off without doing one of the two.

 

[jd8520]

thanks for the info.! I popped of the ball joint and was able to get enough room to move the cv joint out of the way and get the axle out. Went ahead and replaced the bearing while I was in there. Ended up buying a slide hammer kit after waste an hour or so trying to get old bearing out.

thanks

 

[6shooter]

yeah that bearing can be a bitch. luckily on my 02 it was from pennsylvania and there is literally no rust on it. i changed my front bearing (driver side) CV shaft on the same side, and both front rotors and pads in less than an hour and a half. now ive gotta do lower ball joints so as long as its that far apart im gonna do both axle seals, too. were you able to pry out the old seal ok? ive heard some people use a slide hammer with a screw attachment on it, they screw it through the body of the seal and hammer it out.

 

[jd8520]

I didn't have to much trouble getting the old seal out. I used a sharp chisel to peel up part of the seal lip just enough until I could get some vise grips clamped on the lip. I clamped the vise grips on the peeled back seal lip with the rounded top of the vise grips against the axle tube. From there I just pushed on them and kind of pryed the seal out working my way around....my expanations suck so if this doesn't make sense let me know and I can elaborate better. It worked pretty slick.....this was before I had bought the slide hammer kit.

 

[6shooter]

hahaha, no i understand what you were sayin. ill be gettin around to my balljoints and seals in the next week or two. gotta get the bike outta the basement first.