Trick to refit drive shaft with out damaging seal?

Gday rb30e you could check that the brass bushes aren't worn out in the diff behind the seal never had a problem fitting the drive shaft. If the 75 diff is the same as a 79 series if got the brass sleeves you can have hope this helps.
Dicko

Not familiar with the axle in question..BUT..if the axle has a thread in the end where a fixing bolt goes in...carry a long bolt that fits there ..it may give a handle..don't snap it off now.

If it is an axle with a flange on ityou may be able to make a jig that hooks in the holes or grasps the flange.

cheers

It's the inner lip seal that is housed in diff. It has a rubber lip which is relatively delicate. This keeps the gear oil from traveling into the swivel hubs.

It seals before the cv joint if that makes sense.

You have to feed the length of the axle through the seal before locating the end of the axle in the diff centre.

The brass bush on the other side of the cv joint acts more as a support than a seal.

Hi, I have rebuilt the front end on my HZJ75 a number of times due to oil leaking from the knuckle joint. I found that the inner seal is quite hardy when sliding the long axle in. What I found causes them to keep leaking is wear on the axle where the inner seal seals against it. On checking mine I found a lot of wear. It did take me three goes at rebuilding the hubs to work this out! Each time it started leaking I thought it was because I had damaged the seal when sliding in the axle.

I think it can be repaired with something called a "speedy seal" or something like that. I didn't look into that option as I just replaced the whole axle and cv.

Good Luck,
Ross.

Agree with others about speedi-sleeves, also ask a bearing supplier about double lipped seals or silicone seals, either option may provide a more durable and better seal. Good luck. Resting the shaft on the seal shouldn't harm it, but take the full weight when manipulating it into the diff.

Thanks guys,

I dunno if it's the axle it just stated leaking pretty bad one day and dribbles down all onto the tire. I'm guessing that it would be more slowly and gradual if it's the axle.

I'll just have to replace the seal, I'll be lucky if I can even find that being in Uzbekistan at the moment with out even a single toyota dealership in the country.

Hi rb30e,
I had the same worry on my 80 series so I removed the air pressure (I think) fitting from the top of the diff housing (assuming you are working on LHS) and poked a wire with a hook in the end into in the inside of the housing to support the axle while I lined it up at the splines. It was quite a few years ago but I think I pushed the wire in from the top with the hook already set in the end. I may have used coat hanger wire, don't remember. You can use the wire to lift the axle and wriggle it around till it fits.
After I got the splines engaged and the hub refitted I just pulled hard to retract the wire from the housing. Bingo, no oil leak either.
Hope that helps you or someone else.
Ian

Rb30e
Common causes of seal failures in the Toyota front axle swivels housings include blocked breather hose causing pressurisation of the front diff housing, and this pressure will find the path of leas resistance to escape and that being one of the axle seals.

Another common cause is lose, worn or incorrectly fitted king pin bearings. This is especially true if the adjusting shims have been incorrectly refitted during a rebuild, as this then alters the alignment of the axle shaft in relation to the seal in question, causing the seal to be abnormally loaded, or even resulting in the seal not being in contact with some part of the axle shaft.

Hope this helps.
Regards
Athol

rb30e,
The trick is to install it carefully, keeping the axle in line as much as possible,
originally there is a light pressed metal washer inboard of the seal, this helps keep the pressure off the seal, and also acts as an oil baffle,
problem comes when somebody previously has been too rough and the baffle gets damaged/dislodged.
A bent diff housing as well as crook swivel bearings can also cause axle-seal misalignment, (normally there is a special jig to set up the positioning and pre-load) but,
note the seals orientation when removing and see if the wear is more to the top or bottom,
if top (and all else seems ok) move a medium thickness shim from the bottom to the top bearing retainer, or visa versa,
if you can get "Marlin crawler" heavy duty seals it should help.
Cheers