I guess you could try soaking everything and flushing it out with brake parts cleaner.

 

Jeep sells axle guides. They are plastic rings that go on the axle to keep it aligned when installing. I think they were about $6 for the pair.

 

Here's a trick to cleaning out axles tubes. It's not an original thought, I think I got it from Stu's site.

Get a fender washer and secure it to the end of a threaded rod (long enough to reach the inner seal) using a pair of nuts. Be sure the fender washer is smaller than the ID of the axle tube by a good margin. Slip the rod with the washer into the axle tube. Be sure not to dislodge any dirt as you are inseerting the rod & washer. Now withdraw the rod & washer but now scrape the inner walls of the tube. Only scrape when you pull the rod & washer towards the outside of the axle tube. Pull the dirt and accumulated schmutz out of the tube. Follow up with a shop vac. You can also put a small piece of rag on the end of a rod and get the last bits out. Be sure the rag does not force dirt back in.

In your situation I'd try to the method above and then try cleaning the seal with a rag soaked in oil on the end of a rod. I'd also drain the diff, pull the cover, and give everything a good soaking with brake cleaner with the axle shaft out. This should get any dirt out of the diff housing.

Right now you have nothing to lose by doing this except a couple of quarts of diff oil. If it works, you're good. If you're unsuccessful, you'll have to pull the carrier and change the inner seal.

 

Thanks everyone.

Jerry, I made the tube cleaning tool out of the threaded rod you described.

Here's the first of what I got out. It was like a dirt clod, shaped like a "U" where the axle shaft spun, right up next to the seal.

Should I not install the new tube seal on this side for a while till I am convinced the inner seal isn't damaged? If the inner seal does end up leaking, I think the aftermarket tube seal would prevent me from seeing it.

OTOH, I hate to let more dirt get inside the tube after all the cleaning I've done. I've gotta have the cleanest tube around.

I'm gonna wait till tomorrow to put it all back together.

Thanks
Keivn

 

Good job.

Here's what I'd do, but you decide what's best for you. I'd clean out the diff as suggested before, install the new axle and outer seal and give it a go. Do not use any sealer around the o-rings on the Alloy seal. Some folks do. Drive it for a week. Pull the axle and see if you have any diff fluid in the tube.

You could run it without the outer seal for a short time, but why let stuff get in there after you spent all that time cleaning it out? And you'd really be pissed if you forgot the outer seal wasn't in there and then went wheeling with it.

 

Thats what I used as pictured above.
Also, when putting shafts back in, coat the end of the axle with grease, filling in the splines, that way, if you do pick up some dirt going in, the dirt will be pushed off by the seal because of the grease without causing any contamination inside.

 

i just bought from http://www.alloyusa.com tube seals . Great idea!

 

At http://www.4x4xplor.com/mods-TJ.html they show how to put them in

 

Do not use any sealer around the o-rings on the Alloy seal. Some folks do.

The newer style tube seals aren't O-ringed like the old ones were. They use a rubberized OD, which must be coated with something. If you lube it, they'll spin. So most RTV them and let them dry overnight.

 

Why not replace the inner seals at this time? With the seals removed, it would be super easy to clean the tubes. If you have my luck, the old seal would start leaking with the new axle anyway. A pair of outer axle seals could make things real sweet afterwards. :black:

 

i just tried to put the alloy seals in and because of the taper part of the shaft near the yoke they would not work!!!! Wasted the morning. Sent them back.

 

Get a fender washer and secure it to the end of a threaded rod (long enough to reach the inner seal) using a pair of nuts. Be sure the fender washer is smaller than the ID of the axle tube by a good margin. Slip the rod with the washer into the axle tube. Be sure not to dislodge any dirt as you are inseerting the rod & washer. Now withdraw the rod & washer but now scrape the inner walls of the tube. Only scrape when you pull the rod & washer towards the outside of the axle tube. Pull the dirt and accumulated schmutz out of the tube. Follow up with a shop vac. You can also put a small piece of rag on the end of a rod and get the last bits out. Be sure the rag does not force dirt back in.

I used the same method...Only I used my trail flag :roll: That is till I found out that my vacuum cleaner for the house has wands that fit inside the axle tube pretty good....Some duct tape and my shop vac and now my tubes are clean as a whistle.

 

i just tried to put the alloy seals in and because of the taper part of the shaft near the yoke they would not work!!!! Wasted the morning. Sent them back.

You have to grease the crap out of them and push really hard. I actually greased the whole length of the axle shaft before sliding the shafts in. I have installed about 6 pairs. They all worked.

 

Here's an update for posterity...

After cleaning the axle tube with the threaded rod like Jerry described, I drained diff oil, removed the cover and sprayed about two cans of brake cleaner.

I installed the axle, filled diff oil and drove it for about 2 or 3 weeks - 250 miles give or take. I did not install the tube seal during this time.

Next chance I got, I removed the axle and looked inside. The inside of the tube and all around the inner seal was bone dry. Good.

I re-drained the diff fluid, for good measure and to see if it contained dirt, and it did not. I installed the outer tube seal with RTV. Next day I installed the axle, diff oil and test drove. Everything works fine.

I will probably pull the axles when I do diff oil changes just to see if the tube stays dry.

Thanks to Jerry and to everyone who helped.

Kevin

 

You're welcome.

Aren't you glad you didn't have to pull the carrier?

 

Not an expert here by any means, but unless there's some kind of indication of the inner seals leaking, I wouldn't make a habit of pulling the axle shafts. I'd think you'd increase the possibility of a leak by nicking the seals every time you shoved them back in. Plus, that's just a lot of work.

Also, thanks a lot for starting the thread and the info in here. I finally got around to doing mine a few days ago, and I referenced this thread when doing that. I had a lot of dried up sandy dirt in there.