Possible bad pinion seal?

Unfortunately, that is what this is.

Based on this amount of oil we need to remove the front cover as well and service the unit. I would clean it out and then put the cover back on and fill it with new fluid after you replace the seal.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/differential-service

I am attaching the info below on how to replace the seal. Basically, you need to remove the drive shaft, remove the pinion nut and then the seal.

Then install the new seal as shown and then set the preload using the used bearing spec. The turning torque should be around 15-inch lbs.

Please let us know what questions you have.

Thanks

There should be a tag on the unit but if the tag is gone, the only way to know is to count the teeth on the ring gear and then on the pinion and do the math to find out what the ratio is.

As for the oil, you will want to use 80W-90 gear oil.

Okay. Do you have 14 bolts on the cover of the rear differential?

If you do, it should be just under 4 quarts. Basically, you fill it until it comes out the fill hole and then just put the plug in.

Great question. That is great that you marked the nut so that you can get it close. However, you are correct that it could be overtightened because you have a crush sleeve in there that if you tighten it more then you are crushing the sleeve even more and causing the pre-load to be too much.

I am attaching the spec below, but you need to set the nut so that you have 5� 15-inch pounds of turning torque.

This means you tighten it down and line up the mark that you made just like you did, then you use an inch pound torque wrench on the pinion nut to turn the rear end and it should read between 5 -15-inch pounds as the pinion nut turns. In other words, you are measuring the friction or drag that the rear end has when turning from the pinion nut.

If you are in this range, then you have set it back where it was, and you are good to go. If not, then you are going to have to replace the crush sleeve and set it again. However, you cannot use an impact wrench. You are going to have to use a breaker bar on the nut and hold the flange in place with the special tool or pry bar as shown below.

Depends on how much you over tightened it. You can drive it around the block but the more you drive it the more possible damage you are doing.

However, when you used the impact wrench to tighten it, did you run down the nut until the impact was "bouncing" on the nut and tightening it or did you stop as soon as it started bouncing on it?

If you ran it down until it was tight and then lined up your marks, then you most likely are just fine. Many people use an impact to do this, so we just need to check it before you drive it too far. However, if you want to test drive it then that would be fine.

There are a couple ways to do this, and you are correct that the torque spec is pretty high to crush the sleeve.

However, you can't solely rely on this large torque spec because we are concerned with turning torque as this is the drag that the rear end will have when it is turning.

So basically, you crush the sleeve to this large torque spec and then you have to check the turning torque. However, you are not using a new crush sleeve, so you only need to tighten the nut and then check the turning torque.

From what I am hearing you did it correctly. So, I would just check the turning torque as it sits, and I suspect you will be fine.

That is exactly correct.

Just try to watch the dial as you are turning. The initial break away torque may be higher just to get it turning but the turning torque needs to be between 5 and 15 inch pounds. Make sure you get a torque wrench that has a dial and not a digital readout.

Yeah. Sounds like you are just fine. I noticed that as well when doing these that you can turn very slowly and get a higher reading because you are basically measuring the break away torque. However, you want turning torque so that is moving it a little faster.

Thanks again for the update. Good work. This will surely help others in the future.