Rear axle pinion oil leak.

[Richard the old one]

Over the years I have replaced a number of 1500 dolomite rear axle pinion seals. The original seals were made with a leather seal but all the replacements have been the now normal lip seal type. On a couple of my cars I thought that the replacement seals had started to leak so today I decided to replace one of them.

I removed the four nuts and bolts from the pinion / prop shaft flange and when it came apart I noticed that there was oil present on the flange surfaces. Next I removed the pinion flange retaining nut shield expecting to find a lot of oil within it but there was not very much. Previously I had noted that the sprayed oil on the underside of the car was further forward than I had expected and it did line up with the pinion / prop shaft flange. I now believe that the oil has been seeping down the splines of the pinion flange and pass the nut shield which I did not hammer home that hard when I changed the original seal as the nut shield was very difficult to remove.

The outcome was I decide not to change the seal as there was not any oil actual on the bottom of this rear axle but to hammer home the nut shield a bit harder when I refitted it and to fit some silicon jointing between pinion / prop shaft flanges hopeful to prevent any oil leaking out it it got that far again.

Has anyone else come across this problem?

[Carledo]

The Sprint rear axle in the Carledo is leaking in exactly the same fashion. Though it looks bad under the car, I have yet to put ANY oil in the diff (and yes, I do check it frequently) despite nearly 4 years of hard running. So I haven't tried to fix it!

Steve