Cost of replacing an oil seal

[macafee2]

cost of replacing offside drive shaft seal, DIY

oil seal Genuine? £8.44 plus postage
or
oil seal after market £6.30 + postage

£10'ish for an oil seal, I can go with that but I don't have all the tools needed


Torque wrench
Draper Expert 3/4 in 120 - 400NM (350nm needed) £230, preferred choice as this will patch my other Torque wrench
or
Draper 3/4" Square Drive 65-450Nm or 51.6 - 291Lb-ft Ratchet Torque Wrench £125

Draper Ball joint splitter £13.20

Drive shaft nut
genuine £5.40
or after market £2.35

Ball joint nut £2'ish
Haynes manual recommends replacing both nuts they are only one shot

Gearbox oil £15



Total about £275, would it be cheaper to pay someone, but where's the fun in that and I'd not have the torque wrench or ball joint splitter.


macafee2

[HarryM1BYT]

Allways better to accumulate tools than pay someone to do the job, then next time around you get the job done for free, excepting the time and effort involved. Then you get the nice warm self satisfied feeling inside, knowing the job is done and done right.

[Jakg]

You forgot 3/4" adaptor or any 3/4" sockets... they aren't cheap.

You don't really want a pickle fork separator, either - easy to damage ball joint gaiters with them. Not sure what access you have for the press style ones though.

£230 for a torque wrench is madness - for an amateur mechanic. I picked up a used Sealey one for less than £30 off eBay (3/4", can do 400nm).

[DMGRS]

Not a bad price on those, it's the nearside that's the cheaper one of the two.
Offside is a fraction of an inch different in size, and for some reason almost double the cost for Genuine.

[tantallon]

I can loan you a torque wrench and socket if you pay carriage or Pony Express

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by macafee2

cost of replacing offside drive shaft seal, DIY

oil seal Genuine? £8.44 plus postage
or
oil seal after market £6.30 + postage

£10'ish for an oil seal, I can go with that but I don't have all the tools needed


Torque wrench
Draper Expert 3/4 in 120 - 400NM (350nm needed) £230, preferred choice as this will patch my other Torque wrench
or
Draper 3/4" Square Drive 65-450Nm or 51.6 - 291Lb-ft Ratchet Torque Wrench £125

Draper Ball joint splitter £13.20

Drive shaft nut
genuine £5.40
or after market £2.35

Ball joint nut £2'ish
Haynes manual recommends replacing both nuts they are only one shot

Gearbox oil £15



Total about £275, would it be cheaper to pay someone, but where's the fun in that and I'd not have the torque wrench or ball joint splitter.


macafee2

Buy a 30/32mm King Dick offset ring spanner LINK, a 60mm exhaust U clamp and proceed as follows

Jack up car, remove front wheel, carefully unstake hub nut, then fit space saver wheel and lower the car back onto the ground.

Turn steering to full left lock then take out ignition key and engage steering lock, fit spanner to hub nut and have an assistant press the ball of their foot against the ring of the spanner to prevent it slipping and stand on the end of the spanner and bounce.......I've never had this method fail to slacken the hub nut

Once the hub nut is part removed, press the centre of the CV joint inwards with your thumb, if you're lucky it will be a sliding fit in the hub drive splines, if not using a baulk of timber and a club hammer, drift the cv joint inwards.

Jack up the car, remove the wheel and place securely on axle stands.

Now undo the pinch bolt at the bottom of the swivel hub and remove it completely, and tap an old flat bladed screwdriver into the slot to expand the part which sleeves around the bottom ball joint.

Next job is to fix the exhaust clamp over the lower track control control arm adjacent to the lower ball joint, leaving enough space to slot a prybar between the underside of the arm and the U clamp, next stage is the fun part, stand on the end of your prybar and watch in amazement as the joint is separated without damage to the rubber boot, or indeed the lower arm itself.

With assistance manoeuvre the hub into a position where the outer CV can be separated from the swivelhub, and keeping the driveshaft in straight alignment with the differential housing using your stout flat screwdriver or small prybar pop the shaft out the gearbox after placing a clean container to catch the resultant oil loss from the gearbox.

The old oil seal can now be removed from the differential casing and the new seal installed using your preferred method.

Reassembly

Pack the circlip groove of the inner cv joint with grease and carefully centralise the circlip after cleaning the seal running face of the shaft with 800 grade wet and dry lubricated with a little spray of wd40 until it is smooth and clean, then dip a clean finger into your gear oil container and wipe the shaft with oil in the seal area.

Now with an assistant carefully enter the shaft into the planetary gears of the differential avoiding the lip of the new seal being damaged.

Once the shaft is almost fully home, a tap with a suitable piece of wood used as a drift on the inner CV and your hammer will result in the shaft fitting fully home, the integrity of the circlip can now be checked by gently pulling on the inner CV, not the driveshaft to make sure it is securely fastened to the differential gears.

A quick wipe of moly grease into the splines of the outer CV joint and the shaft can be refitted to the swivel hub and the nut fastened finger tight.

Wire brush the rust from the lower arm ball joint pin, and a quick spray of WD40 will assist refitting the pin to the swivel hub,

Note

Once the ball joint pin is entered into the swivel hub, it is a matter of great importance the angle of entry is correct and it will fit easily without force, a jack with some timber can be placed directly underneath and the joint placed under slight tension whereupon adjusting the angle by pushing or pulling dependent upon the angle of the ball pin will result in the pin simply slotting back into the swivel hub.

Now come the important bits, ensure the pin is fully home in the swivel hub with the groove in the pin aligned with the bolt hole in the swivel hub, and refit the bolt after smearing the plain shank with coppaslip, and tighten the bolt to 65Nm, not 45 as stated in Haynes

Remove the exhaust clamp U bolt, then jack up the car, and fit the spacesaver wheel once more.

Now this is where it gets clever, turn the wheels to full right lock, nip up the original nut with the 32mm spanner until it is just tight, again with your assistant placing their foot on the ring of the spanner to ensure it does not slip off the nut, tighten the hub nut until the previously staked part of the nut aligns exactly with the cutout on the end of the CV joint, at this point it can be assumed that the driveshaft nut is tightened to the correct torque as before it was disturbed, and using a suitable parallel punch restake the nut to the CV joint.

The gearbox filler plug can now be removed and using a suitable length of pipe and funnel can be used to refill the oil drained out previously.

Finally jack up the car and refit the correct wheel, take the car for a spin and make sure there are no leaks.

If you are satisfied the gearbox is now oil tight, all that remains to do is drain the gearbox fully and replace the oil with the correct amount

Hope this helps

Brian

[trikey]

More Viz top tips Bri

[marinabrian]

Originally Posted by trikey

More Viz top tips Bri

I'm not a professor of Bangernomics for nothing you know ;

Brian

[Jakg]

Originally Posted by marinabrian

Next job is to fix the exhaust clamp over the lower track control control arm adjacent to the lower ball joint, leaving enough space to slot a prybar between the underside of the arm and the U clamp, next stage is the fun part, stand on the end of your prybar and watch in amazement as the joint is separated without damage to the rubber boot, or indeed the lower arm itself.

Struggling to visualise this and don't remember how it looks down there.

Does anyone have any pictures that might help?

Popping ball joints is the bane of my life.

[bl52krz]

Plenty of room for the screw clamp type. No damage to gators.