Diff pinion seal (GEXXXXX)

[ahebron]

Whilst setting the handbrake on my Vitesse 6 I noticed a new spot/pool of new oil on the garage floor, it had me puzzled for a few seconds as I had moved the car sideways to work on it and there was nothing that would have had oil above the spot. Back tracking the cars recent movements, 3 feet to the left, and it is the pinion seal leaking.
As the car has done zero miles on its own wheels but plenty of feet on wheel jacks I can only surmise that the seal has gone hard over the 20 years since the diff was rebuilt.
Breather pin will have nothing to do with this leak as the car hasn't moved and it is free.
I plan on doing the seal while the diff is still in the car so will make a removal bar to lock the pinion whilst undoing the nut.
Any tips to make this an easy task?

Pinion seal 109054 has been ordered locally so will hopefully arrive before next weekend so I can do the job saturday.

 

Thanks
Adrian
 

[Pete Lewis]

just put two old bolts thro the holes in the coupling and add a bar or lever between them 

the nut is not a gorrilla tight job  it will be a castle nut so solid spacer  just retorque to the book .

Pete

[Colin Lindsay]

9 hours ago, ahebron said:

As the car has done zero miles on its own wheels but plenty of feet on wheel jacks I can only surmise that the seal has gone hard over the 20 years since the diff was rebuilt.
Breather pin will have nothing to do with this leak as the car hasn't moved and it is free.
 

My estate did that too, never moved but dumped a lot of oil on the floor; I realised that a) I had overfilled it when it was replaced after the rebuild and b) I had jacked the rear of the car up a lot, so the front of the diff was tilted down and the oil was free to run out - which it will!

It's now reached a more sensible level and is leak-free. The seal isn't a totally-leak free seal, just keeps the oil in during normal road use.

[RichardS]

I've just changed the diff oil seal in my GT6. The level of oil as determined by the level plug is well above the lower edge of the seal so a leaky seal will always let out a lot of oil until the level drops to the same level as the seal. I can't recall another diff which is so extreme in this regard.

Richard

[ahebron]

Thanks for the replies
Nice tip Pete, I hadnt thought of that and it makes it easier.
Colin the car is on my scissor lift hoist so goes up pretty level.
I will change is as I have the new seal on its way and who knows what the existing one is like

Thanks
Adrian

[ahebron]

Replaced the seal today.
I managed to undo the nut with just the handbrake on so that wasn't torqued up.
The old seal wasnt sitting correctly and the seal surface wasnt round.
Pinion had no vertical or horizontal movement.
It was easy to drill a piece of angle and put two bolts in when I torqued it up.
Refilled with the old oil as the car has not moved.
Fingers crossed.

Adrian