420A New Axle Seals leaking... help?!?

[TheShniz]

Just installed a new clutch and new axle seals in my existing/good manual tranny with my existing/good axles, and refilled the fluid using the side hole as normal... and as I'm reconnecting everything, I notice that my axle seals on both sides are seeping transmission fluid.

1.) the axles both 'popped' into the transmission, and do not come out (both sides)
2.) both inner joints of axles do wiggle aka 'pop in and out' of the transmission about 1/8" ~ 1/4"
3.) both axles are locked in, and don't actually pop out unless I use a pry bar
4.) the axle seals are seated all the way in the transmission using a block of wood while the transmission was out
5.) I put a tiny bit of grease on the inside of the seals where the axle goes through

What am I doing wrong? Are the axles not in all the way? Is there or is there not supposed to be in-and-out play? Should I take the cross member / control arms / tie rods off again to completely remove axles from transmission and try at a different rotation?

It's been nearly 10x years since I've had to replace a transmission (this would be my 3rd or 4th time though), and these leaking @%$^@!%$#& axle seals are pissing me off... help?????

- J

 

[luv2rallye]

Did you install the flat sides out? Didn't overfill the tranny? Used oem seals?

 

[1gdsmkev27]

I dont know if this helps but when chopping excess things off my 90 TSi I tried to remove the entire A/C system not realizing there's a hanger mount around one of the axle shafts that once I removed the axle on the drivers side was off balance and caused a leak at the axle seal.