diff oil contaminated with moly grease...

chapel gate · 07-04-09, 02:14 PM

under 10,000 miles ago i serviced the steering knuckles, today i noticed a large amount of moly grease around the knuckles..

dropped the diff oil, its like liquid moly grease in there.

the axle oil seals are after market, the diff breather isnt blocked i can blow through it, there is a little resistance, is this normal? i dont think i over filled the knuckles. maybe i put the seal on the wrong way round?? or maybe there just shite.. pretty pissed off as the cruiser is a DD and its not a five minute job..

im resigned to changing the seals again with toyota but even the worlds worst seals should last longer than 10k, and ive not heard of any problems with these from uk forums.

any thoughts?

Michael Hanson · 07-04-09, 02:22 PM

Sels shot.Happy forth!!! MIke

ToothDr · 07-04-09, 02:28 PM

Bummer. You might want to read/follow this current link.

http://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-te...different.html

Pete

Tools R Us · 07-04-09, 02:48 PM

Did you check your nutz? As in, are the lower knuckle nuts tight?

Uncle Meat · 07-04-09, 02:59 PM

Not to hi-jack but I had the same problem.
What a drag!

I contacted Slee Offroad and they fixed me up with an improved design seal.
Looks much better than the stock unit.
The seal lip seems to contact the surface of the axle in a slightly different spot which is great considering there was a very slight groove from the orig. contact area (which may contribute to the moly sneaking into the diff).

Last Tuesday I started tearing everything down.
I thought maybe I damaged the seals or seal spring, etc. when I replaced them the first time around but they looked perfect!
Go figure.....
Yes, the diff vent has been modified to work.

We'll see if the new seal does the trick.
I sure feel alot better about it now.
I'll repost after several thousand miles and let you know how the new seals work.

Contact Slee!

bruff · 07-04-09, 05:26 PM

Get Marlin inner seals!

When I did my birf job 2,000kms ago that is what I went to and they look much sturdier than OEM (read: wider).

Slee is the place to order them. I think they were $13 each if I remember correctly.

padre · 07-04-09, 05:53 PM

I have some moly going from Birf to diff despite axle beeing done and re-done with Marlin seal.
As long as I do not have differentail oil dripping through wiper seals I am not concerned with "contamination"at all.
Oh , yah....Purist will disagree...I know.

chapel gate · 07-05-09, 03:03 AM

thanks for the replys.

a few sore heads around this morning?

looks like its marlin seals from slee. its a slow process getting them to the uk though...

when are you going to except paypal slee?!

tools'r'us, funny you should say that, i "thought" i saw clear diff oil around the nuts, but it didnt make sense. tell me more please.

chapel gate · 07-05-09, 03:38 AM

just been searching the forum regarding the marlin seals.

are they suitable for a DD? im talking high road miles. will they cause increased wear on the half shafts?

Tools R Us · 07-05-09, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by padre

I have some moly going from Birf to diff despite axle beeing done and re-done with Marlin seal.
As long as I do not have differentail oil dripping through wiper seals I am not concerned with "contamination"at all.
Oh , yah....Purist will disagree...I know.

I agree, have never drained a birf type diff that didn't have some moly in the fluid and if I did would look to see if the knuckles were empty. There should be some grease weeping past the knuckle, the balls should be oily and some build up on the wipers. IMHO as long as it's not birf soup, ie lots of gear oil mixed in the grease, it's good to go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chapel gate

...
tools'r'us, funny you should say that, i "thought" i saw clear diff oil around the nuts, but it didnt make sense. tell me more please.

Grease is mainly oil suspended in a carrier, some greases give up their oil easier than others, so some oil is normal in that area.

The nuts holding the steering arm to the knuckle are known to come loose. When they do axle becomes misaligned to the seal, causing gear oil leak into the knuckle. If caught quickly, only slightly loose, they can be tightened and sometimes recover without seal damage. Most times they are run too long, sometimes studs back completely out, etc, then the seal is ruined and needs a full pack and seal job.

I'm not sold on the Marlin seals for the '80, have them, but haven't run them, so time will tell. My thoughts on them are in this post;
IH8MUD Forums - View Single Post - Marlin Crawler inner oil seals and installation tool

chapel gate · 07-06-09, 01:23 PM

thanks mate. some interesting info.

will get the seals and get on with it.

hate doing things twice....