03Mustang281ci

I noticed when I had the car on a lift that there's a lot of gear oil leaking on to my drivers side rear rim on the inside. And my brakes are wet there. Also at the pinion seal it's wet too. Do you think It's just a straight forward job and that I'll only have to replace my axle seals and pinion seal? What a bummer it only has 84,000 miles on it. It's a 2003 Mustang GT

WhiteFoxGT

Its not as straight forward as you would think. While you have the axle out, you might as well do bearings while its there. And you should go ahead and do the other side for piece of mind. Im sure you are aware the brakes, ABS sensors (these are ALWAYS stuck in there), diff cover, and pin have to come out to get the axles out.

The pinion bearing is pretty easy, but re-tightening the pinion nut is a little tricky. You cant just slam that nut tight, and the odds of you getting it tight enough without an air gun is slim and none.

Capt Hair

its fairly straight forward, I did it last weekend, took me about 3 hours, people can do it in less time, I've just have never done the replacement before.

03Mustang281ci

Being that there's gear fluid on my brakes, do I have to replace the brakes?

Jskeezy84

i have a pinion seal leak as well.... I just took mine to the dealer, seals can be a tough job. If you damage the area the seal goes into your screwed, if you damage the seal while installing it, your screwed.

ChrisZio04GT

I replaced my pinion seal at 24k miles and also have done axle seals twice, its a really easy job doing both, took me and my buddy 2 hours. dont go cheap with seals go with fords, I went cheap first time and had to replace my axle seals agian, now with the motorcraft ones in it has been good for 10k miles. I would highly rec replacing axle bearings while you have it all apart, there like 40 dollars a piece.

parts cost me like 200 dollars for seals bearings royal purp and pinion seal, took ford two days to get parts in, wasnt bad install at all.

HateWhatOwnsYou

how do you retighten the the pinion once you replace the seal?

97GTCovert

Does anyone have an answer to this question b/c I have a rear end sitting in my garage with a leaking pinion seal that I need to replece and I am curious how to retighten after I replace it?

WhiteFoxGT

I use an impact and go by feel... But I've done so many rears its like second nature to me. The right way to do it is slowly tighten it (with a big *** breaker bar) and check the drag on the pinion.. Its supposed to be about 25 inlbs.

Like I said, its tricky.

HateWhatOwnsYou

check the drag with a turning torque wrench?