Thread: 8" Ford diff leaking around pinion nut

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We bought two 9 inch rears from a builder in Pennsylvania, one for my 27 and one for my Son Dan's rpu. Both of them leaked like mad from day one. We sent Dan's back and he sent us a new one that didn't leak, but he accused us of "overfilling" the rears, which caused the leaks. How you overfill an 8 inch or 9 inch rear I would love to know, because as soon as the fluid hits the correct level it starts coming back out and you stop.

I was so mad at this guy, TJ Rebert, that I didn't even send my leaker back and will deal with it down the road sometime. It still leaks all over the garage floor, and I have put a lot of miles on it, so no, they don't seal up after driving them for a bit......if they leak they leak.

Since having my run in with this shyster I did some googling and found others who have had the same bad experience with him. BTW, he sells a lot of units on Ebay, so if you see a Pennsylvania 8 or 9 inch advertised, run, don't walk!

Don

OK - leaking 8 and 9 inch Ford 3rd members were, even new, not unusual. While I've never had a problem with one that I've put together, others will and do. Fact of life.

Now, as far as having the pinion lash reset after replacing a seal - not necessary. You already have the crush washer or stack of shims set and it has already become a solid one piece unit which will not change if you disassemble it to just replace a pinion seal. Also, if this guy does these on a regular basis, he probably uses a solid spacer and shims to set the preload.

Install a new seal, torque the nut to spec with a small amount of sealer on the threads. Obviously, check the yoke for burrs as well. If there is any failure it isn't from just replacing the seal - you don't really think dealerships or garages replaced anything but the seal if it leaked plus they did it on a lift with the differential in place (and probably seldom even used a torque wrench if a couple garages I worked PT at in the '60s and '70s was any indicator)