I have a 2000 Excursion with 320,000+ with V8. Bought it from my company with 250,000 on it and it has served me well and i plan to keep it. I know that it will start to cost some money but the body is in goo shape and some things i can fix myself.

To the point of this post. The left real axle seal is leaking dif. lube on the rotor and pads. Replacing the pads and cleaning the rotor are no problem, have done that kind of thing in th epast on other cars/trucks.

How difficult is it to replace the axle seal?

How long should it take? A few hours or a weekend?

Any special tool required?

What should it cost at a repair shop.

 

Not too difficult.. You should have the axle hub nut socket to take the hub bearing retainer off, you can improvise, but don't want to damage the retainers.. Raise the axle/tire off the ground, remove the tire/wheel.. Remove the brake caliper, then the caliper anchor plate.. The anchor plate bolts can be tight to very tight, and may require some sturdy sockets with a breaker bar or ratchet of lenght and beef.. Next remove the brake rotor.. Take the axle flange bolts off and then slide the axle out of the tube.. Insert the hub nut socket and back off and remove the retainer.. The bearing hub should then come off,, if not,, you may need to get behind the hub with some push to get it to move but generally a good yank will get them to come off.. The old seal can be pushed/driven out of the hub from the opposite side, but you should have or improvise a seal driver of the same or close diameter so not to damage the new seal going back in.. Check the depth of the old seal, and drive the new one in as removed..

Should be able to replace the seal, and clean up the spill in around an hour or so for a first time repair, maybe a tad longer for head scratch'n and if you have the tools ready to go and the new seal waiting.. Here's a pic of a generic hub nut socket.. You can buy them at most aftermarket parts vendors and might be worth the price if you end up having to do both sides at some point..

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Hayapower,

[:@]
Thanks for the info. I was able top get all the parts together and while I was inside I decided to replace the wheel bearings at the same time. The seal was badly worn and was no question the source of the oil leak.

Getting the hub off required a puller to get it off, getting the bearings and races out was no problem, similar to front wheel bearings i have don in the past. Installing the new bearings and the seal went well.

The problem i have is i cannot get the hub all the way back on. When i reinstalled the caliper mount it rube the outer surface of the rotor. Looks like the rotor and the hub need to go an additional 1/8 to 3/16 inch farther on the axle. The inner bearing looks right and i think it is going on as far as it can.

There is what appears to be a ware ring for the seal on the axle. I do not remember clearly when i removed the wheel hub but there is clearly a gap of 1/8 to 3/16 inch visible. The ware ring is solidly on the axle and the pattern on the axle and ware ring looks like it is matching up with the new seal. The new seal was slightly different from the one I removed but the new one went in fine.

All parts from my local Advance Auto Parts, good service from them in the past but a mistake could have been made.

Open to suggestions.[&:]

JAQ

 

Well after talking to my parts supplier and reading the instructions on the new seal, hated to stoop that low but sometimes you gotta do it, i removed the ware ring from the old axle seal and things went together much better.

After getting the axle assembled and torqued i installed the rotor and caliper and new pads, caliper all centered up now, put the wheel on and went for a test drive.

Took longer than estimated due to my years of letting others do this kind of thing for me but everything stayed on and worked as it should.

When the time comes for the right side it will be no problem for an afternoon from setup to cleanup and test drive.

Thanks for the input and letting me ramble through the problem.

With 320K+ miles on the x and planning to keep it i am sure i will be back.


JAQ