blown seal?

[moe d]

have a tie die of lube spray all over the inside of my passenger rear tire.. Blown rear axle seal? My brake fluid isnt down in my master cylinder so i assume gear lube?

 

[Heus33]

If it were a wheel cylinder it would just leak out, not spray out, so its probably not the wheel.

 

[moe d]

i found a small puddle on the garage floor, spray due to driving with it blown?

 

[70_Steve]

Blown seal?

"No, No.. It's just milkshake!!!";D

 

[moe d]

ha ha ha

 

[Heus33]

Take off the drum and have a look. Spotting a bad wheel cylinder is easy.

 

[DirtDonk]

And wipe your finger through the puddle. There's a bigger difference between gear oil and brake fluid than just about any other combo on the truck. Should be easy to tell.
And if you look behind the backing plate, you should see a line of lube trailing down from the center.
Like Heus said however, easy enough to pull a drum and lookee there. Either type of leak and you'll be pulling the drum off to fix it anyway.
Have you done anything to the diff or brakes recently? Could the fluid be overfilled?

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Oh, and just how old are the seals and bearings anyway? If they're over 75k or you just don't know how many years/miles on them, You just found your next project. Change out the wheel/axle bearings and seals on both sides of the truck.
This also serves to change the oil in the diff, which gets ignored way too long by most of us sometimes.
Then you should be good to go for many more years.

Paul

 

[Chief Master Sergeant]

When my rear axle seal went, the whole brake hub was filled with grease. I had the same splatter all over the inside of the wheel.

 

[bax]

"No, No.. It's just milkshake!!!";D

I thought the same thing when I saw the post.
Too Funny

Who cares where the oil's coming from. As you tear into it you will find it's either the brake wheel cylinder or the axle seal.
Or both, Oh crap

 

[moe d]

i have no clue if/when the seals were replaced.. looks like i'm re-doing the bearings/seals on the rear axle..

Any words of advise or wisdom before i proceed?

 

[70_Steve]

Any words of advise or wisdom before i proceed?

Kinda what Bax said. Take the wheels and brake drums off, and see what's what. May not necessarily need bearings, but if you pull the axles, it might be a good idea. Also, if you need to replace the wheel cylinders (and, most likely the brake shoes) only take one side apart at a time, so you have one side to reference when you're trying to put it back together.

 

[moe d]

will do thanks!

 

[DirtDonk]

...if you need to replace the wheel cylinders (and, most likely the brake shoes) only take one side apart at a time, so you have one side to reference when you're trying to put it back together.

Best sage advice ever, when it comes to drum brakes.
Never could understand why they charged more for a disc job than a drum job!

If you do take the axles out, there are a couple of things.
Make sure you clean and smooth out any irregularities in the axle surface where the seal rides. If there's a little groove, it might leak later even with a new seal.

Unless the parts stores are very handy and have your parts most of the time, verify whether you have a big-bearing or small-bearing first, then have the new bearings waiting and ready. Check out the identifiers on the Wild Horses site for that info if you don't already know what bearings you have.

Although you can install them in a garage, unless you're well outfitted and familiar with pressing things on, just plan to take them to a local shop to press on the new bearings.
Don't forget to take the backing plates with you! They have to put it on before the bearings go on and might not remember if they're not sitting there with the rest of the parts.

The process is actually quite easy once you've done it, but since some axles come right out with no effort and yet others seem to take an army of helpers, a diesel truck to hook the yank-strap to, and 42 special tools, just be prepared for some wheelwell time and remain calm grasshoppa.
Just kidding (mostly), but some do fight you a bit if they've been in there for 30 plus years. In those cases you can sometimes make it easier by reversing the drum, setting it over the wheel studs and holding it on with a couple of lug nuts. This gives you some more leverage to pull with.
Sometimes you might need to borrow/rent a slide-hammer type puller to put extra force on it, but a stuck one can usually be persuaded with the reverse-drum method. Chances are the leaky one will just pop out by hand.

And above all, have fun! It's one more thing you'll now be intimately familiar with on your Bronco.

Paul

 

[moe d]

I know the term " remain calm " as i've learned that yelling and spitting on it doesnt help all that much.. Then the wife comes out and says " i dont know why you have that thing.. Why dont you just take it to a shop to do it.. "

heh, women..

 

[DirtDonk]

They just don't understand sometimes...

Anonymous (and still single, for some reason)

 

[DuctTape]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OpuuAa7gdE

 

[moe d]

Lmao!! ;d