Is there a seal that fits on the flange end of the diff where the prop bolts onto?

english back axle.

Theres a seal where the flange goes into the diff housing.

They can and do leak from between the pinion shaft and the flange, past the splines and out around the central nut. You can take off the nut and clean, then apply some sort of sealer around the shaft before replacing the nut. The nut must return to the same place, so it preloads the pinion to the same load, or else the crownwheel will wear out in no time. There is also a seal that fits, as Danozeman says, between the flange and the diff housing.

The bit about putting the nut back in exactly the same position is important.

Before condeming the seal check the axle isn't over filled and the breather is clear.

If you do decide to change the seal read and follow this procedure which I have posted a few times. Follow it exactly or you could end up with either a full rebuild or a scrap final drive.


Replacing the oil seal is a very easy job I used to do them in 15 minutes back in the hay days of the Mk1/MK2 Escort vans but it isn't simply a case of undoing the nut pulling the flange changing the seal and tightening up the nut.
The nut that holds the flange is used to load the crush washer which adjusts the pinnion. Also the procedure for setting up with a new crush washer can't be used with a used crush washer.


The full procedure varies between axle types but following "in service" procedure will work on any final drive.
The main thing you have to watch is that you don't squeeze the crush washer when retightening the nut,
Clearly mark the nut, pinion shaft and flange before you start and count the EXACT number of turns required to undo the nut. It is best not to use a socket for this job but a large offset ring spanner so you can see the marks clearly. Remove flange and lever out seal with a screw driver. Then carefully old seal press the new one home using a very large socket as a tup, replace flange and refit the nut using Locktite retighten using exactly the same number of turns until the marks align exactly.

I've done this. I reused the crush tube since I did not want to fork out £ 15 or so quid.

what I did to lengthen it was to put it over a stell tube then hammer on the end to elongatethe end as well as slightly thinning it out - takes a bit of time but you should be able to regain 0.2 mm - that is all you should need,.

I can't see why this is not going to work - tighjtening up the nut for the right preload requires a huge bar!!!


There is a central bowed section that is undecut - presumably this is where he tube partially collapses - you can try to straighten that out so make it longer - I dikd but it made no difference to the overall length.

An alternative is to make a shim out of a thin steel - since all the parts rotate in unison, I can't see why that shouldn't work.

ok guys. Where can i buy the seal and crush washer from?? Ford dont do them.

Burton Power

website here

Old Ford, Bracknell
Speedshack, West Drayton
Retroford
Rally Design