How to change the front axle seals on a Rubicon Dana 44

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My 2005 LJ Rubi. I noticed some oil on the left knuckle, I had already replaced the unit bearings, ball joints, and axle u-joints about a year ago. I knew I should have done the inner axle seals then but I did not have another vehicle to drive at the time......
 
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First, jack up the jeep and place it on jack stands, I chose to support the jeep at the frame so the axle would be at full droop. My thought was to allow more room to work and not have the differential cover so high up. once supported, remove the tires, then remove the two bolts (1/2" some will say 13mm) holding the brake caliper on, do not let the brake caliper hang by the brake line, tie it up (I did mine to the lower control arm)
 
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Next I broke loose the axle nut, this is torqued to 175 lb/ft so it is on there pretty good. I used my 1/2 inch air impact, but I have the pry-bar positioned if you need to do it by hand. An alternative is to break it loose prior to jacking up the jeep, you could also put the transfer case in 4wd low and lock the differential. The impact broke it loose pretty easily, I would not recommend the impact when re-assembling (just my opinion.....)
 
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Next, take out the three 13mm 12point bolts, they are torqued to 75 lb/ft, remove all three the put outward pressure on the unit bearing and tap the wheel mounting surface with a little sledge hammer, don't beat the crap out of it, just a few good wraps to create some vibration and mine slid out, if your's are seized in there it may take a little more persuasion.......
 
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Once I got one side apart I took off all the 1/2" bolts holding on the differential cover except the top one, I loosened it but kept it in.
 
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I do a fair bit of wood working and have a bazillion chisels, I use one of my old ones for stuff like this, it works better than a screwdriver because it is flat on one side and comes to a sharper edge. The idea is to gently drive it between the housing and the cover, once oil starts to leak out into the already in place oil drain pan just let it drain. I then moved to the other side to dis-assemble the unit bearing etc.
 
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tapping here and pulling on the unit bearing persuaded it to slide out nice and easy, don't beat the poop out of it, this is the surface your wheel mates to and you don't want any deformities.......
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Once the unit bearing comes out of the knuckle the whole axle will slide right out
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You can clean up the knuckle opening a bit, but it should be a nice tight fit for the unit bearing so don't go crazy on it....
 
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Once you get both sides taken apart and the axles out the differential should be done draining. Rubicons have a drain plug, but you will have to take the cover off anyway so i just did it this way.
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I strongly suggest taking a picture of your differential once the cover is off, this will allow you a reference in case you forget which way the bearing caps go on. It is imperative that they go back on in the same position, also that the spacers on each side go back in on the same that they came out of.

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Now it is time to remove the bearing caps, they are 3/4" and should be torqued to 75 lb/ft (non Rubicons are 45). Be careful when removing them, the two bolts with washers go on the drivers side and hold the locking differential engagement mechanism, the passenger side does not have any washers. There is no lock-tite on here from the factory, I did not use any either but some have said that you should...... Once the bearing caps are removed the differential came out without any prying or issues.....well except one.....
 
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I had to remove the tie rod in order for the differential carrier to be able to come out of the axle housing. I removed the cotter pin, loosened the 3/4" crown nut, gave a few good wraps to the side of the knuckle where the tie rod end was mounted and it popped right out. The allowed the tie rod to be moved out of the way and the carrier to be taken out of the axle housing. It is not terribly heavy, and it literally all but fell out, no prying required. This is a precision piece of equipment, treat it accordingly, do not allow it to fall on to a hard surface when removing it. Also, there will be shims on each side, they look like thick washers but are of a very precise thickness. These MUST be returned to the same side when you are re-assembling. Also, there is a nylon washer that is not in any of the exploded schematics I have seen. Crown Automotive lists it as an "Axle Shaft Guide", it kind of just fell out when I removed my carrier, I am pretty certain it goes in the center of the shim and the axle passes through it.
 
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At this point I have removed the races (those are what the bearings ride in, they look like a spacer but the interior wall is tapered to match the angle of the roller bearings, notice that the shim from the passenger's side is with the passenger side race and the shim for the driver's side is with the driver's side race, it is imperative that they stay on their own sides, they are more than likely NOT the same thickness......
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Clean, then clean some more, then clean it again...... clean out the axle tubes first, the padding on my floor jack handle was a pretty good fit for running through the axle tubes, you want to get as much of the mud and munge out as you can, the concern is it ending up in the oil space of the differential. Clean it now and there is less of a chance of getting the dirt in the bearings....Once the axle tubes are clean, clean the crap out of the differential. I used four cans of brake clean getting things defunked.
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That little mushroom looking thing in the bottom right is the part responsible for engaging your locker, when re-assembling use a golf tee to hold it all the way out (THANK YOU GERRY BRANSFORD!!!!!!) Tie a string to the piece of golf tee and once the carrier is re-installed pulled the string and the piece of golf tee out.
 
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My floor jack handle being used a a bore rod to clean the axle tube
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Almost a perfect fit, lots of brake cleaner and running this through a bunch of times netted a fairly clean axle tube, then I cleaned the differential house again really well......
 
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I removed the drain plug, mostly to ensure I got all the crud out I could but also to get all the munge that was stuck to the magnet on the drain plug cleaned off
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All cleaned up, four cans of brake clean and it is pretty pristine......... Also note, I previously cleaned the mating surface for the differential cover. I did this prior to cleaning the inside of the differential, I used an angle die grinder with a brown scrub pad, be careful if you use this method, it will remove metal if you bear down to hard or stay in one spot too long. But it does a pretty good job of removing all the old gasket material. I did the same thing to the differential cover.
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ooohhhh nice and clean.........
 
I forgot to take pictures of installing the new seals, but here is how I did it. I have a 3/4" drive mongo size socket set, I found a socket that would fit into the metal part of the seal with out touching the rubber portion. I set the seal in place by hand, put a short 3/4" extension on the socket, then took a piece of 1/2" black iron gas pipe through from the opposite side. I had my son drive the pipe with a little sledge which in turn drove the seal home. Sorry for being a bone head and not taking pictures of this...... The FSM says to use a spreader/seal installer, another person posted this process tried to make one and it did not work out, my way seemed to work and I did not see any damage at all to the seal after installation.
 
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I found it easier to put the races on the bearings, lift the carrier into the housing, put the bearing caps on and put the bolts in about half way. Once at this point I took the correct shim, placed the nylon axle shaft guide in the center of it and pushed them into the housing between the race and the differential housing. I used a dead blow hammer to gently tap them into place, once both were in I tightened down the bearing caps. At this point I remembered I had forgotten to put the golf tee spacer into the actuator mechanism, so out came the carrier again, in went the spacer with a string attached and I re-installed the carrier using the same technique. I then torqued the bearing caps to the required 75 lb/ft, I reinstalled the rubber air line and clamp onto the carrier, pulled the string out and hoped the actuator was in the right place.
 
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I have elected to put axle tube seals in, I know these are controversial with some but I elected to use them, I greased them up and pushed them in place as best I could
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I then used the same 3/4" drive socket idea as the seal installation, it worked well and seated them in short order.....
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I shot some grease in through the zerk fitting and mushed it around with my finger.
 
I removed the stock plastic dust shields from the axles, slid them into place being careful to try and not damage the newly installed inner axle seals, they slid in pretty easily, a little twist to get the splines lined up and they seated completely. I then installed the brake dust shields, (they go on either way but only one way is the right way) They should stick back towards the middle of the jeep, the large open side is for the brake caliper..... made that mistake before...... re-install the three 12 point 13mm unit bearing bolts, torque to 75 lb/ft (Rubicon only, I believe), reinstall the brake rotors and then the calipers, the 1/2" bolts get torqued to 11 lb/ft (my 3/8" torque wrench only goes down to 20 lb/ft so I converted to lb/in by multiplying by 12 and came up with 132 lb/in, I then used my 1/4" drive torque wrench to torque them to spec.), I reinstalled the axle nuts, put the jeep in low range and activated the differential lock, looked at the actuator and it worked so I guess my golf tee had stayed in place until I pulled it out. I torqued the axle nuts to 175 lb/ft, reinstalled the tires, refilled the differential with the recommended fluid and called it good.

Hope this helps, any questions let me know......
 
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I removed the stock plastic dust shields from the axles, slid them into place being careful to try and not damage the newly installed inner axle seals, they slid in pretty easily, a little twist to get the splines lined up and they seated completely. I then installed the brake dust shields, (they go on either way but only one way is the right way) They should stick back towards the middle of the jeep, the large open side is for the brake caliper..... made that mistake before...... re-install the three 12 point 13mm unit bearing bolts, torque to 75 lb/ft (Rubicon only, I believe), reinstall the brake rotors and then the calipers, the 1/2" bolts get torqued to 11 lb/ft (my 3/8" torque wrench only goes down to 20 lb/ft so I converted to lb/in by multiplying by 12 and came up with 132 lb/in, I then used my 1/4" drive torque wrench to torque them to spec.), I reinstalled the axle nuts, put the jeep in low range and activated the differential lock, looked at the actuator and it worked so I guess my golf tee had stayed in place until I pulled it out. I torqued the axle nuts to 175 lb/ft, reinstalled the tires, refilled the differential with the recommended fluid and called it good.

Hope this helps, any questions let me know......
good job. Thanks for the write up
 
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My 2005 LJ Rubi. I noticed some oil on the left knuckle, I had already replaced the unit bearings, ball joints, and axle u-joints about a year ago. I knew I should have done the inner axle seals then but I did not have another vehicle to drive at the time......
Did you use Spicer 54381 inner axle seals for the rubi? Or Spicer 46470 ? There a difference in size but I don't see anyone talking about this.