walrusx4

tl;dr new driver's side axle spewing fluid, are they not in all the way?

So I replaced my axles on my 93 nx2000 with o'reilly autoparts new axles, LSD and ABS version. They look pretty good, we'll see how quickly they fail, lifetime guarantee, should have gone raxles, yadayada.

Everything seemed good, but I had a funny feeling after I did the driver's side that it wasn't all the way in, then I thought it was, but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, fastforward to driving it for a day, parked it after about 30 miles, came back to what looked like most of my MT-90 on the garage floor.

I didn't get new seals because the existing looked good, but showing the photo below, I don't think it's in all the way - why didn't it seat? do I just need to get on it with some pressure? whats the best way to get it to seat? I can I just BFH it from the outside (with the 32mm nut attached of course)?

it DID have a circlip on it when I started to insert it.

See pic, looks not in all the way, how do I get it in? (top is new axle, bottom is tranny):



what did I do - it's a holy mess.

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dfddfd2

Might be dirt between shaft and seal.

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walrusx4

Thanks for the input - it's a bit dirty. I'll make sure to clean it on saturday with some brake parts cleaner when I take it apart. Do you think it would be out that far with just dirt?

I was thinking I needed to whale on it bit to get it in.

eric96ser

I would compare the new axle against the old one. The inner joint might be a little too long and that's why it's not sealing. Once you get the axle that far, you don't need a hammer to seat it.

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walrusx4

I checked them side by side, they looked identical. I will check them again on Saturday.

That has been my experience as well. I won't hammer on it then.

walrusx4

You can see it in my original photo, this thing is NOT on the original axle. I took it off, it came off pretty easily, and reinstalled the axle. It's better but it's still clunking back and forth - there appears to be about 1cm of play. I think the tolerances on these "new" axles is bad. I'm going to reboot the stock axle and see if things are any better. I'm not sure if it's damaged, I think it's OK, but at this point I don't know what else to do. if it doesn't perform well I'll call up Raxles or check the junkyard for stock looking axles in good shape.

Hardedge

You get what you pay for. When I replaced both of my SE-R's axles I went with "new" (not reman) Cardone axles because they only cost slightly more than the OEM boot kits. The axles went all the way in when installed but later I found that the driver's side axle was starting to pop out and leak fluid. I'm sure the other side would have done the same had it not been for the bearing it's bolted to. I removed the boots from the new axle and installed them with new grease and clamps on the OE axle and threw that back in the car and it's been fine since. I think when it comes to aftermarket axles you're better off with remans from an OE axle than anything fully aftermarket. Before I even installed them several people at work told me it's a common problem for aftermarket axles to pop out. I even installed the new seal way too deep by accident but with the OE axle in there it still doesn't leak.

walrusx4

I pulled out the old axle, only the outer boot was bad and autozone had a great looking replacement boot for $10 bucks so I checked it for damage, repacked and booted it and it's back in. It seems to be better now fluid-wise, but there is still a clunk.

When I hit a bump on the left side of the car, there is a clunk I can feel, it feels almost like the axle is shifting. I triple checked my tightening, its' really unnerving.

You know what, this "clunk" is really a separate issue - nothing to do with the thread title. I'll open a new thread.

DrunkenMonkey

I had a similar experience. I tried the BFH method without any luck. I think the seal wasn't seated exactly right. It has to be flush with the outside of the transmission case. It is easy to knock the seal out of position while installing the axle into the transmission.

I got tired of messing with the leaks so once I got new seals positioned in the transmission, I put a layer of sealant around the outside of the seal and let it dry. This helped hold it in place when I put the new axles in and has prevented leaks so far.