I have a nice little puddle under my front differential. It is coming from where the passenger side axle meets the into the differential. What I'm not sure of is how difficult it is to replace the seal. I see a lot of descriptions about replacing front drive shaft seal but not sure how that compares to this job. Any help would be appreciated. I just don't feel like taking it into the shop for this. Thanks!

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1997 Ranger 4.0 XLT 4x4

Anyone interested in giving me an opinion? Maybe I should be scared that nobody's responded yet!!!

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1997 Ranger 4.0 XLT 4x4

Bump

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1997 Ranger 4.0 XLT 4x4

No wonder nobody responded. My mechanic said it was going to be a pain in the ass. He would have to pull off a bunch of parts, some rusty screws and do a lot for this little seal. $300 to 400 easy. His recommendation: keep filling the differential. Any thoughts?

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1997 Ranger 4.0 XLT 4x4

To my knowledge it is a pita and requires special tools as youll need to reallign things when done.

Get it fixed. That's the best thing to do.

Let's say you have a oil leak due to the oil pan gasket.

Option a: spend $5 every 2 days for the next month

15 x 5 = $75 + $20-$30 oil pan gasket you where to lazy to fix in the first place

$95-$105 roughly spent


Option b: fix it asap

$20-$30 + $25oil + $10(roughly) oil filter + 1 hour of time = $65 at the most and a oil leak free car

--1993 ford ranger ext cab 3.0 v6--

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1993 ford ranger 3.0 v6

Since I'm assuming you have a TTB front end, this might help you


I've dropped one of these once in my life and it took several hours to do. The SLA IFS is much easier to work on, but possibly less resilient than the TTB, in my opinion. HTH.

I took my ranger in to fix the seal on the diff.they droped the front axel cleaned out the diff.filled with 75w140 put all new seals in cost over 5 bills!.

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03 ranger 4x4 4.0 LTX v6 sohc super cab xlt

Misunderstood originally, doable just time consuming. Is it leaking from the pinion seal the ?

Wow, thanks for all the info. My understanding is the pinion seal is the seal that goes to the main driveshaft. Mine is leaking from the side, the axle that goes to the front passenger wheel.

$500 sounds close to what I'd be paying as they'd have to probably drop everything to work on it. I'm thinking filling it up once a month for awhile is going to be ok til I need other work done....

Thanks for the video also.

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1997 Ranger 4.0 XLT 4x4

Ugh looked over the diagram for a fromt diff.. Doesnt lOok too hard. Just time consumig.
Id double check to make sure the breather hose is connected but...

If it were me Id honestly rather than just fixing that one bearing seal, and as long as the gear teeth are in good cond.. Buy a bearring/seal kit and replace the whole lot.. You would be doing 85% of the work anyway an its be insurance so that the other ones dont shortly fail like their mate did as they may also be In poor cond...

Also for the meanwhile i reccomend checking fluid often and avoiding deep puddles or youll end up with a repair 3-4x more .

And is the filler plug the same type of metal as the diff housing? If so id be careful and maybe use a torque wrench so you dont damage any threads from frequent filling.