Rear Differential leaking......

toomanyfumes

toomanyfumes

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Been wondering what the little spots are in the driveway, crawled under the car and it appears the rear end is leaking. I'm going to try tightening the bolts, but... Has anyone taken the cover off and changed the gasket?

It looks like there is a suspension piece right behind the cover and it would block taking the cover off.
 
I've had good luck just using RTV sealant on the rear diff to cover on my 87. Don't see why you couldn't do the same.
 
toomanyfumes said:
Been wondering what the little spots are in the driveway, crawled under the car and it appears the rear end is leaking. I'm going to try tightening the bolts, but... Has anyone taken the cover off and changed the gasket?

It looks like there is a suspension piece right behind the cover and it would block taking the cover off.
Click to expand...

No gasket there, just black sealant.


The cover actually is what holds the back of the diff in the car. I think you will have to disconnect at the back bolts that go into the cover and front bolt, drop the diff down alittle to get the cover off.
 
So you're saying the two large bolts that go through the suspension piece and into the cover and the vertical bolt that goes up through the front part of the diff? I'm assuming all the small bolts that hold the cover have to come off also? It looks like some are very hard to get at. Thanks for the replies.
 
yep - the housing has a groove all the way around the lip - so you have to put a pretty thick bead of RTV to seal it up.

the fill bolt can be a real pain to loosen....
 
Yes the 2 throu the rear and 1 in the front hold the diff to the IRS frame (what you are callin suspension).

The little bolts hold the cover on.

You won't get the cover off without it coming down some.

You may have to pull an axle even to get it down enough to get the cover
off.

May be easier to just pull it completely. But from what I can remember I think with one axle out youy could drop it down to the point the cover could come off.

I took mine out for my swap. I never tried to pull the cover while it was still half in so I can't say for sure.

I guess I would take it a step at a time, at worse you'll have to disconnect the driveshaft, pull an axle and take it out.

To pull an axle I unbolted the upper control arm at the IRS frame and lower spindle bolt rather than messing with the ball joint and axle nut.
 
I thought the axle might keep the diff from dropping. I'll take another look tomorrow. Thanks for the help.
 
The more I think about it you'll probably will need to pull an axle to get it low enough. Probably the driveshaft too cause the heat shield and exhaust will keep it from swinging down to far.

We took my diff out by only removing the passenger side axle.

I also had my exhaust off so I can only spectulate how far you will have to go to get the cover off.
 
This is sounding uglier by the minute. Hopefully I'll get lucky and snugging the cover bolts I can get at might stop it. It's gone from leaking nothing to a silver dollar sized spot every time I drive it in a couple of days.
 
It was already starting to get dark while I was looking at it. You mean diff. fluid leaking out of the pumpkin through a seal?
 
I had to have my seals replaced earlier this year. The left axle seal and rear pinion seal were both leaking. The repair involved removing the exhaust from the cats back and the axle to get the pumpkin to drop, then replacing the seals. Cost me about $500 at the local Ford place.

Is there a good way to check the fluid level in the diff? I've beeen hearing a drone lately.
 
Took another look and it's the passenger axle seal. Fluid is leaking down and dripping off the bottom of the pumpkin. There is a fill plug on the rear cover, I would assume you check the fluid there. Someone said it's a b***h to get loose, and sure enough mine won't budge. I sprayed it with WD-40 and will try again later.
 
How many miles are on your LS? If you're under 50K miles, have Lincoln fix the problem, because you're probably still under warranty (4 years/50K miles).
 
My car was delivered in October of '04. Not sure of the day, I bought it used in July of this year. It has 48K.

Yeah, I'd already planned on going to the dealer tomorrow to see if the warranty is valid.

Got the drain plug loose, two soaks with WD-40, a pipe on the breaker bar and it popped loose. At least I can keep an eye on the fluid.
 
Woo Hoo warranty's valid until Oct. 31st. Car goes to the dealer tomorrow.
 
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