Bad Seal...Now What?

[2GAWD4U2NV]

I was going on a distant trip and got halfway where I was going when I began to hear a whining noise. I got off on the nearest exit which was around 5 miles. By that time the noise had gotten bad.

I looked underneathe the car and it appeared tranny was leaking oil. Turned out right front axle seal went out and was leaking oil, terribly. I piddled around for awhile tryin to see if I could fix it there and couldn't, so I got it towed home.

I got the axle out and this is what I saw...


I don't have a clue what this was. I've seen pics of input shaft bearings, and I don't think that is what this is. I believe it was some type of support bearing for the axle shaft. Car still went into gear just fine.


I need all the help I can get, please list some options!

 

[DougR]

last time I saw damage like that, resulted in a trashed tranny! Hope that's not the case for you buddie.

 

[SRiz]

uhhhhhhh... you might get away with a new differential but might be time for a rebuild or worst case new tranny

 

[2GAWD4U2NV]

Thats the thing though. The metal bearing-like thing (Pic 2 metal sleeve)was right behind the seal and just fell out when I removed bad seal. On that metal sleeve, it had a place where the bearings had been rolling round and round. I do believe that my tranny is perfectly fine.

The metal sleeve was grooved from where I'm guessing it lacked oil and the ball bearings rubbed each other and on that metal sleeve, reducing its size. As a matter of fact, look in Pic 2. That little ball bearing came out of the same spot. The oil that came out of tranny had tiny pieces of metal in it. So that makes me think that the metal shavings were from the ball bearings wearing down the sleeve and themselves diminishing.

What I'm going to do is run some parts washer fuild through tranny with a pump, undo the drain plug, and wash it until i get the shavings and stuff out, and any other unwanted trash.

Tranny still worked fine and all gears still went into place. I just need some help naming that part that, obviously, imploded.

I'm going to say that it acts as a support bearing for the axle shaft going into the differential. It will proably help keep the spline alignment and not let the axle drop to put the differential and axle in a bind. I could be wrong, I'm just throwing some ideas out there.

 

[redyute1]

Buddy to be honest with you as a mechanic ,i hate to say it but its bad.That is the differencial bearing that got chewed,the only way to fully assss the damage is to get the tranny opened up,and i dont mean by you,might probably end up having it rebuilt or replaced

 

[2GAWD4U2NV]

That's another thing that's confusing. The input shaft bearings are tapered bearings. Those bearings are angled like this: // in the bearing, but these are all ball bearings: O in the bearing.

I just got the car running from a 9 month build... This sucks.

 

[redyute1]

Well actually these pieces you're seeing is from the carrier bearings.Thats where the axle enters the transmission.

 

[2GAWD4U2NV]

How do you go about replacing that? It appears that it just slides over the spline acceptor. I'm going to look at it better today and see if I can tell.

I was doing some research and Carrier Bearings only showed for the driveshaft.

Drive Shaft Rebuild

I'm still looking though...

 

[turbo90gsx]

The axle shafts are supported in/by the differential. Whatever the case is the transmission lost a bearing and needs to be dissassembled to find out which bearing let go and see if there is other damage.

 

[JackM]

Buddy to be honest with you as a mechanic ,i hate to say it but its bad.That is the differencial bearing that got chewed,the only way to fully assss the damage is to get the tranny opened up,and i dont mean by you,might probably end up having it rebuilt or replaced

Agreed. The bearing for the front diff in an AWD are ball bearing not tapered. The bearing failed and chewed up the seal and possibly case.

Jack