Noticed the other day I had gear oil slung all over the inside of the wheel well. When I climbed under the truck, I found that the oil is leaking from in between the rotating and stationary parts of the brake drum assembly. Any ideas?

Leaking axle seal.

Is it inside the rim? Or all over the brake assembly and dripping off the bottom?

Does your truck have a full floating rear axle like mine does(04 Chev 2500hd)?.

If it does, should be able to take off your wheel, take off the whole rear brake assembly, undo those 8 bolts on the end of the hub, pull the axle right out and then you'll have access to the seal. There might be some sort of fancy keyed nut there... kinda remember where it is situated on its threads because when you take that off, pull out the seal, put the new seal in as straight as you can without beating it up you'll want to put that nut back kinda around where it was originally. This is basically whats going to determine how much force/friction is on your wheel bearing/axle bearing whatever you want to call it. If the wheel bearing fails soon after, you either put it too tight or too loose haha.

I had my right rear seal go on me a while ago. Probably from me fishtaling the truck and it catching traction while going sideways. The seal was completely broke into two pieces. I could change one out in about 30 minutes.

Its pretty straight forward if you got any mechanical know how. Might want to drain the diff oil first and dont forget to top it back up when your done.

Thanks for the guidance. Ill see what I find.

Here's directions how to replace the seal from the DIY.
http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=84927

He's got a 6.5 with a 10.5" corporate 14 bolt... the procedure is the same as above, but the drum does not lift off of the hub like the rotors do on the 01-up HD's. You have to remove the drum/hub assy in one piece once you take the spindle nut off and that mf'er is heeeeeaaaaaaavy!

super,! im having the same issues with my truck i smell a weekend project!

Changed out the seal today and honestly, the job is pretty easy. A word of advice, when you take out the inner seal use a long pry bar (like 2 feet long) and punch the seal out instead of trying to pry it out. I screwed with it for a while till common sense kicked in and pop, out it came.

I love the smell of gear oil!.

wow!.......... i got seals at the dealer yesterday, 97.45 for 2 of the paper gaskets and 2 of the oil seals!........ holy smokes.

once i had it apart i decided to check out the bearings and i discovered that my inner bearing had been able to spin on teh spindle and chewed off its part #'s and such. so at 6pm i go looking for all new rear wheel bearings. 11pm i finally get back home with them. its amazing how hard these were to find. not one retail store in the whole city of Denver had them in stock, i had to drive out to a napa distribution center across town. but, at lesat they had them. why am i posting this, cuz if ur axle leaks so bad u can watch it drip when parked for days on end with out being drove,...... u probably need more than just seals. and id suggest you need to find bearings before u even start the project.

any how thanks for all the good info guys! i hope to get this finished up today.

97 bucks!!!!

Dude, what were the paper gaskets for? I only bought one seal for the right rear, it was 28 bucks. And thats in northern alberta where prices are inflated 700% and if you got an oilfield job the prices fly up as you walk through the store.

paper gaskets go between the hub and the axle shaft. i totally lost a grip fo ra second when i saw the bill but, guess u have to pay if u want to play or at least have good quality parts. ug....... so un fun

Napa has Fel-Pro metal gaskets for $2.50 a piece. Part number 55350

I never knew the were gaskets involved in changing an axle seal? Or are you talking about for the diff cover...? I just used RTV.

I never knew the were gaskets involved in changing an axle seal? Or are you talking about for the diff cover...? I just used RTV.


its kind of like the diff cover gasket, only between the axle shaft it self and the hub it self.

im sure there are cheaper ones just as good as OEM i just blerted it out while standing at the counter. and well,..... they at least had em in stock.

relay joy of my weekend was installing the new rear wheel bearings!.......... took 19hrs to get the right bearings!........ got the wrong parts 3x's!.... the last time i even went back and matched everything up but, somehow when i left i got 1 set of the wrong race's..... ug..... what a unfun. good thing. this post helped me find info to fix the masive leak i had and teh new bearings fixed it so i dont have any more vibratoins at highway speeds. so a win win,....... only the project went from ebing 100 buks to about 415buks by the time i was able to drive down the road.

aww....... fun fun. thing that realy made it worth while for me when i was out on a test drive had a ford guy pull some shady stuff on the highway. dude, came up next to me, gives me the finger then cuts me off. i saw he had a monster bully dog sticker on his door, and also set of dual stacks were in the bed..... so,..... out comes the black smooke of doomb...... so i changed lanes and guned it just to get away from this tard as im out tryign to make sure my wheels arent going to fly off haa...... guy just didnt get it and kept jacking with me, so i stood on it..... and next thing i knew he was no were to be seen, i got off at the next exit and whlie sitting at the light here comes ford boy,,..... he askes me at the stop light what iv got in my truck, i told im a bout to die tranny and 1/2 a tank of 2month old diesle adn thats it..... ford guys passinger starts laughing super hard as the ford guy tells me he has some non OEM turbo and injectors, and all the bully dog parts he could aford....... aww it was clasic as the light turned green and i thaugh... wow my stock truck dosnt do so bad..... ahha. any hoot long story short! no more shake at high speeds and no leaking seals!..... thanks for all the info guys!