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D44 inner seals or not

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:36 pm
by Bretto
My understanding is there are no inner axle seals at at carrier bearings. Is this correct? Mine didnt have any. I happened to see an ad for some inner axle seals in be-gay for some and thought at 1st they meant inner as in inner of the backing plates but they have some quick instructions of taking out the axles and then the carrier to get to the seals. My axle only has seals in the housing behind the outer bearings. My experience with a D44 is there arent any inner seals. Had a 44 (non-tapered) on my XJ and it only had only outer seals past the bearings and the gear lube was what lubed them. I understand the seals are there for the wheel grease and axle lube seperation. So yeah or neah on inner seals?

Nay

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 10:15 am
by rdsar2k
Nay. False advertizing.

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 10:20 am
by 53a1
Outer seal only on the 44. The front is a 25 has inner seals which is a pain.

The 44 is easy to replace the seals in. Just keep the shims in order when you remove the backing plate. As I recall I used a blind bearing puller with the finger attachment I rented from autozone to pull the bearings out.

I also noticed when I did mine the after market seals are pretty weak so make sure you knock the seals in with something that rides on the outter most edge of the seal or better yet covers the whole seal.

I built a tool that looks like a heavy duty gun cleaning rod with rounded cups on each end. I used this to scrape the old gunk from inside the front and rear axle when the axles and seals were removed. May want to skip this step if yours is clean as it may introduce particles into your diff. I also used it to pop out the rear seals.

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:18 pm
by Bretto
Thanks thought so.

My housing is bare and the tubes are sparkling. I ended up ram-rodding rags thru the tubes.

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 11:16 pm
by dago_red
I'll be getting into cleaning the axle tube in the front axle here shortly; haven't gotten the manuals, they are on order.

My front axle tubes have grease in them- definitely looks like it was put there purposely. Does the manual call for grease to be in the tube? I have the Bendix axle shafts, bushings in place, etc.

I was planning on cleaning out all grease everywhere I found it on the jeep- mostly because it's old , but also to prevent incompatibility issues. But putting new grease in the axle tube I wasn't sure about.

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:37 am
by skyjeep50
The lubrication charts don't call for grease in the axle tubes. Most likely grease there is due to over-zealous greasing of the axle bearings or possibly accumulation of a oil/dirt slime that looks like grease. I suppose someone could have greased the tube on purpose but to what end? I've cleaned out the accumulated gunk from the axles of my two rebuilds (CJ2A and M38) using a broom handle mounted nylon bottle brush and a long nozzle garden sprayer loaded with mineral spirits. Spray, scrub, spray, scrub, etc. until no more gunk. Did the same for the dfferentials - cleaned out a lot of really dirty sticky slime. Followed up with a swab of clean motor oil down the tubes for a little corrosion protection. A really messy job but I couldn't see putting clean lube oil in dirty axles!

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:21 pm
by dago_red
I was unable to understand why anyone would have put axle grease in there either but I fail to see how that much grease could have gotten in there on its own. And the grease is not contaminated with 90wt or much dirt and grit. It's in better shape than any of the grease I found in the wheel and pivot bearings.

I'll clean it all out. Like others here, I quickly saw the tube as a big rifle barrel and began to picture a big swab to clean it out. I think I have a broom handle around here somewhere.....

Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 9:04 pm
by wesk
haven't gotten the manuals, they are on order.
Just a reminder guys every manual you need is free to download in PDF form on this web site's "downloads" page. So there is really no good reason to be forced to work on the jeep without them.