Marlin Inner Axle Seals - Real World Reports

[foeix]

My inner axle seal is leaking on the driver side. The advice I have received from wheeling oriented mechanics is to go with the Marlin seal. FWIW I have minimal - but still evident grooving on the axle.

Now that the seals have been out for a few years how are they holding up in the real world? Search has yielded conjecture and mixed results. A lot of folks say that they are not holding up due to our full time 4WD.

I would love to hear from those that have put 20K+ miles or a few years on a set. I really don't want to have to replace these seals anytime soon.

My rig is used as an expo base for camping. No hard wheeling - just fire roads and two track in the mountains of Virginia.

Thoughts?

 

[cody c]

Id rather buy stuff from marlin then trail gear, but in the case of this seal have a read through (search), I believe there was some reports about issues with the marlin seal after short term mileage.

If it was me Id get the TG seal or OEM.

 

[cool breeze]

FWIW just pulled both of mine to do gears and there was no leakage.
OEM with 40k miles with lots of off road and wheeling on 35's.
210k on truck

 

[foeix]

FWIW just pulled both of mine to do gears and there was no leakage.
OEM with 40k miles with lots of off road and wheeling on 35's.
210k on truck

Are you saying you were using Marlin Crawler seals or OEM?

 

[mot]

FWIW just pulled both of mine to do gears and there was no leakage.
OEM with 40k miles with lots of off road and wheeling on 35's.
210k on truck

Are you saying you were using Marlin Crawler seals or OEM?

I'm guessing the former...

 

[Offroads4x4]

IIRC the Marlin seals were designed just for this issue. The seals are designed to ride in a different location on the shaft so it would miss the grooved area and still seal the shaft from oil leaks.

If your groves are deep I would clean the surface and then use a light coat of JB Weld to fill it. Next use Emory cloth to smooth it down then replace with a Marlin seal.
JM2C

 

[lilrick]

I run two 80 front ends. One in my fj and the other in my 4 runner. They both have the marlin seals and they both ***kin leak! Im on my 4 th set ofmarlin seals. The 4 runner has brand new longfield axles and the cruiser has OG axles.
When i install my seal, i first pack the inner area with grease to keep the spring from popping off when installed. I also just recently purchased the seal/ race install kit from MATCO and have been using that to install my seals. I also grease the axle where it rides on the seal to prevent any dry start up. Im baffled.


Edit: ive also checked the breather hose to make sure it wasnt plugged.

 

[Kernal]

lilrick: are you getting grease into the gear oil or gear oil into the knuckles??

 

[nordost]

I have had marlin seals for about 1 year on stock axles and I do get grease in the diff but as far as I can tell no gear oil in the knuckles. I just get the cheapest gear oil I can and replace often. I would probably just get oem if doing it again.

 

[NLXTACY]

Id rather buy stuff from marlin then trail gear, but in the case of this seal have a read through (search), I believe there was some reports about issues with the marlin seal after short term mileage.

If it was me Id get the TG seal or OEM.

I was one of them. It leaked pretty soon after the complete front axle rebuild. Went OEM and no issues since.

 

[iptman]

23k miles on the Marlins and no obvious leakage. All this negativity makes me want to go in and check though.

Side note..where in VA was that pic taken?

-Patrick

 

[grain2glass]

I just put Marlin inner axle seals in at the request of local cruiserheads when doing my front axle rebuild. I hope I made the right decision...

 

[Tapage]

I have Marlins in my 60 and 80 and both are working awesome ..

 

[MANUCHAO]

Im running MC seals Have about 25K since axle rebuild.
Repacked the front bearings 2 weeks ago, no leaks of any kind... all looks good..
I do run a part time 4wd TC
Also,

I took out the MC metal ring and used the spring metal ring from the OE seal............
We'll see how it looks when the maintenance schedule comes about...

 

[86tuning]

I run Marlin's seals on my 84 mini and have not had any leaks. Previous owner had Toyota seals in there, and changed them over and over again every year, and the knuckle balls were all wet when I got it. I put Marlin's seals in five years ago, no seepage. However, this is a part-time 4wd where the front end is effectively stationary until 4wd is engaged.

If you're concerned with the spring clip vs garter spring, you can install the garter spring from the old seal onto Marlin's seals.

 

[TheBigBoy]

Marlins work awesome. There's not much you can do with a bent housing or bad shimming though.

 

[cody c]

Marlins work awesome. There's not much you can do with a bent housing or bad shimming though.

I would assume if its original from factory shimming shouldn't need to be checked though.

 

[coax]

I have run the marlin's for about 10k now, no leaks as of yet. 50/50 off road/on road usage in terms of time, many more miles on road getting to adventure.

 

[simps80]

marlin seals lasted about 3 months after a full front axle rebuild before they started leaking,
grease in the diff lots of it
Went back to OEM no problems since.

 

[bhmmapping]

For everyone with grease in the diff, have you serviced/extended the axle breathers?