Rear drive axle seals

[Cameraman]

I have about 127,000 miles on my coach and it is 14 years old. I am the 3rd owner. We currently full time in it and while it isn’t terrible to drive, I have the sense that new shocks would be a big help. So I’ve ordered Koni EVO shocks to replace the front shocks, and Koni FSD for the rear and tag. While under the coach looking for shock numbers, I noticed the inner dual wheel on the passenger side was coated with oil. Figure I have a seal leak on that side. Never having had to replace a seal on something like this I was wondering if, when the first one goes bad, should I be looking at the others going bad soon? Generally I like to repair things before I have a problem. I also prefer to fix things when I am near someone I trust to do a good job. That’s where I’m at now. I have a friendly mechanic who is very reasonable with his charges and who has worked for me and my family for about a decade. I’m thinking I will have him pull all the wheels and replace the seals on both sides of the drive and tag axles. Since the brakes linings on the passenger side are probably coated with oil, I was thinking I also would need to have all the brakes replaced at the same time.

Basically I’m wondering if this is a good decision. Should I just replace the one seal and clean/replace the brake shoes on the passenger side? Or spend the money and have everything done now.

Thanks for your input.

Rick

[vito.a]

I replaced the axle seal on our passenger side rear drive axle. It is not a difficult job, but you will need a 3/4" impact wrench to remove every other lug nut. (The chrome center cover is held on by every other lug nut). Instead of paying someone to do the work, I spent the money on a 3/4" air impact wrench.

The wheels stay on the coach but I did jack it up on that side to reduce the amount of gear oil draining out. First you remove every other lug nut and the center cover.
You then remove the axle retaining bolts and pry the axle out. I spent some time removing the old gasket and cleaning everything. You have a choice, you can use a new paper gasket, or Ultra Gray gasket maker to reseal it. The paper gaskets can fail, the Ultra Gray probably will last a lifetime. The negative aspect of using Ultra Gray is it is difficult next time to pull the axle.
You need to torque the axle retention bolts and then of course the lug nuts.
That's it.
Your rear tag axle is constructed different. You may consider changing the oil in both the rear axle and the tag (but this is probably not necessary). The issue here is finding gear oil that meets the specification. I used Red Line synthetic 75W90 GL5 because I found a good price on it by the case.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I only changed the gasket on the side that failed.
Our coach has disc brakes on the drive axle. The rotors are inboard from the axle leak and the oil did not contaminate the brakes.
Hope this helps.

[vito.a]

Eaton says that oil level is critical, so after fixing the leak make sure you check the oil level.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by vito.a

I replaced the axle seal on our passenger side rear drive axle. It is not a difficult job, but you will need a 3/4" impact wrench to remove every other lug nut. (The chrome center cover is held on by every other lug nut). Instead of paying someone to do the work, I spent the money on a 3/4" air impact wrench.

The wheels stay on the coach but I did jack it up on that side to reduce the amount of gear oil draining out. First you remove every other lug nut and the center cover.
You then remove the axle retaining bolts and pry the axle out. I spent some time removing the old gasket and cleaning everything. You have a choice, you can use a new paper gasket, or Ultra Gray gasket maker to reseal it. The paper gaskets can fail, the Ultra Gray probably will last a lifetime. The negative aspect of using Ultra Gray is it is difficult next time to pull the axle.
You need to torque the axle retention bolts and then of course the lug nuts.
That's it.
Your rear tag axle is constructed different. You may consider changing the oil in both the rear axle and the tag (but this is probably not necessary). The issue here is finding gear oil that meets the specification. I used Red Line synthetic 75W90 GL5 because I found a good price on it by the case.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I only changed the gasket on the side that failed.
Our coach has disc brakes on the drive axle. The rotors are inboard from the axle leak and the oil did not contaminate the brakes.
Hope this helps.

You just described replacing a axle gasket.

The OP has oil on his brakes which means he needs an inner seal.

That requires removing the axle, wheel bearing nuts and bearings, the whole hub, with brake drum just to get to it.

[TR4]

This was just discussed yesterday,
https://www.irv2.com/forums/f112/rid...ks-493372.html

I agree with twinboat.

Bill

[birdhunter]

We all have different levels of skill, and I repair many things on my coach, but after watching professionals do the inner seal job, I would never attempt it myself! They had a special cart for the brake drum and the axle is damn big. They look like they had some special tools as well.

[Cameraman]

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I love this forum because there are so many people with skills I don't have who are willing to help. Just to clarify, I am not doing this repair myself. I have a mechanic working on the coach for me. I originally was asking whether or not folks thought it was a good idea to the replace seals in all my wheels when just one was leaking. But the work has started and I'm replacing all of the seals, brakes and drums (as well as shocks) on the drive and tag axles. Certainly the one bad wheel needs this, and from what I understand all the wheels on an axle should have the brakes done when one side is replaced... So rather than having this done sometime down the road, I'll take care of it all now since we're not going anywhere anytime soon. I've attached one pic of the drum on the leaking wheel. It needs replacing so they'll all get replaced.

[TR4]

Thanks for the update, you chose the best repair option.

Bill