I replaced the inner shaft bearing and seal this past weekend. I had never done this before so it was a bit of a learning curve. I removed the steering knuckle and the axle shaft without any issuers. Removing the axle tube proved to be quite difficult at first. The differential bolts for the axle tube were not a problem except for one bolt behind the axle tube. The two bolts that hold the axle tube to the body was my main problem. There was very limited room to get a socket or wrench on the bolt head in order to remove the nuts. After many different approaches, what finally worked was a long handled box end wrench. I was able to get the box end on each bolt head. The box end wrench had to be inserted from the centerline toward the tire side. The next issues was the tube did not want to slide off the axle and the clutch drive. While i was trying to get the axle tube off of the axle everything just fell out of the axle tube.. Including two thrust washers that I had to figure out where they went. (the thrust washer on the differential side fell into the pan that the gear oil drained into and I did not find it until I was cleaning up) I put the axle tube in vice used my seal puller to remove the old seal. Used my axle puller set (Harbor Freight) and with the hooks attached: I was able to pull the bearing out of the axle tube. Installation of the bearing and seal was easy. Reassembly went well and not to difficult until I found the second thrust washer in the oil pan. The next morning I took everything apart again: installed the thrush washer and put all back together a second time. Made sure to add oil to the differential and all is well.

 

Sort of been there; I replaced both axle seals in the front diff when I had the front diff out so I could take care of the oil leak from the oil pan and front cover. I looked at the bearings and decided they were fine.

And yes, be sure to put fluid in the diff.....it will not go very far without it.

Good job!

 

sounds like you get to have twice the fun. I'm going to have to do the drivers side bearing/seal on my jimmy soon... Haven't been looking forward to it