So, I was checking my truck before a 600 round trip over the mountains and found that at my front axle where I replaced the seal for the output shaft on the drivers side I have oil leaking out. Grrr. The axle is a bit loose as evidenced by my ability to push it up and down by hand at the inner CV joint itself. I suspect the output bearing I installed a couple months ago got damaged when I did not initially get the CV axle shaft in all the way before going for a short test-drive. (Still kicking my butt for that.)

So my question is, how much play in the output shaft is allowable? I'm thinking there really should be none, at least that would be noticeable by simply grabbing it by hand.

Tomorrow I'll be pulling it into the garage to make a more thorough check. I'm hoping it is not as bad as I think but I'm not too confident of that.

I guess there is a bit of a silver lining to all this; I already know how to replace the driver's side front axle seal and output bearing. LOL



Output shaft bearing.



Arrow points to where the oil is leaking.

 

Not part of the question, but I'm assuming its jaked up with the angles of everything?

back to topic. I dont have any play in mine. But I have yet to check it since the lift. I did add a bit of fluid before the road trip, but have yet to notice any leaks...

 

Don,

Yep, it has the typical torsion bar lift at the front.

I'll be checking mine after dinner. I moved it into my one car garage late this afternoon. Being a detached garage it is a bit cold out there and with the rain/snow too I wanted it to dry off and warm up out there before crawling underneath it.

I'll try to take some video or at least quantify the amount of play.

 

Attached are videos showing the play at the output of the left side front drive axle. The view is looking from just inside the front tire looking back over the lower control arm with the tie-rod in the foreground. I am moving it up and down with a small piece of wood. It did not take much effort at all to move it. I could move it forward and backward too but because of the tight confines, it was hard to see just how much forward/backward movement there was. It was no more than the up/down amount.

To me it looks as if the output shaft bearing must be damaged to allow for that much play and becuase the apparent pivot point is not at the output seal but rather deeper in the carrier.

I don't have any videos for the right side but I did grab the one on that side for comparison. It did have some up/down motion but not nearly as much as on the left side.

Forgive the poor quality of the video, it was taken with my old camera, the only one I could mount to a tripod.

The still pic will give you a good reference for the attached videos.

The oil is definitely coming from the output shaft seal. Looking over the official service manual instructions, it says explicitly regarding the re-installation of the drive axle: "Do not lubricate or damage the differential carrier axle seals during installation." Why would lubricating the seal be bad?

 

The movement is excessive, I see in your picture that is the axle that you have added the hose clamp too.
As I stated in another post the screw shank on the clamp add a few ounces of weight to one side of the axle, hence it throws the axle out of balance causing a unseen wobble and vibration, it's not much but it will accelerate bearing and seal wear along with wearing on the inner splines.
Think of a out of balance tire all they add is a ounce or two of lead weight in the right spot to balance it so it don't beat you too death running down the road.
Back in the day we balanced slightly tweeked drive shafts with a hose clamp, slowly rotating the clamp around the shaft a little at a time until it's vibration quit. { old school broke days}
My 2 cents is you will keep putting bearings and seals in until the shaft has the proper or lighter clamp.

 

Thanks for your feed back. It is definitely leaking from the seal. The trick now will be to get the parts I need in a timely manner.

As it turns out the axle in the picture is not the one on which I installed the hose clamp. But I am taking your advice to heart and will be getting some proper CV boot clamps and will replace the hose clamp with a proper clamp in the very near future.

 

No such thing as parts being gotten in a timely manner Xmas thu new years.