Front differential axle shaft seal replacement -- no need to remove the differential from the vehicle!

[k4vbb]

I couln't find this information ANYWHERE, and no one ever replied to any of my posts on various forums. Seems that people who own Expeditions don't do much wrenching on their own, or prefer to farm out this kind of work to a mechanic.

Just to be clear, the axle seals I'm talking about in this post are the ones in the differential housing, between the CV axle mounting flange and the housing. This is NOT applicable to the CV axle itself. Anything I came across on the web indicated that the driver's side stub axle was held in place by a Circlip. To access that circlip (necessary to remove the stub axle, and its seal), the front differential cover would need to be removed. Since there is not enough clearance to remove the cover with the differential in place, the differential would need to be removed from the vehicle. This pretty much summarizes everything I found on the internet relating to this procedure, and the procedure is not covered in any manual I have access to. Unfortunately, every post I came across was pretty vague as far as the years of vehicles that this was applicable to.

So, in order to replace these axle seals, I went ahead and removed the differential. Heavy, but a pretty easy job otherwise. After opening the cover I discovered that there is no clip at all installed, and I 'could' have replaced these seals with the differential in place.

Just to be clear: ONE DOES NOT HAVE TO REMOVE THE DIFFERENTIAL FROM THE VEHICLE TO REPLACE THE AXLE SEALS ON A 2001 FORD EXPEDITION. If it matters, I do not have the front differential with the vacuum actuator that engages 4x4. I have the AWD version, but I imagine that the procedure is the same.

On the driver's side, the stub axle is short enough that one could probably remove it without taking apart any of the suspension parts. Removing the CV axle from the 6-bolt flange should be sufficient. To gain more clearance, one could disconnect the front sway bar from the lower control arm, and move the CV axle out of the way.

On the passenger side, however, the axle is much longer, and I think that the spindle would need to be disconnected from the upper control arm to provide enough clearance to remove the axle from the axle housing. Also, it appears that the sway bar might be in the way, so disconnecting it on both sides and rolling it out of the way might be the way to go.

Both axle shafts will slide right out of the differential housing assembly. In my case there were no clips holding anything in.

I found that the fluid level was pretty low in mine, indicating that most of it leaked out over time via these axle seal leaks. Check your front diff fluid level. If it's low, you may be in for this repair yourself.

I don't know if any of you guys do this sort of thing yourselves, but I hope that this helps at least one person.

 

[jr1under]

I don't know if any of you guys do this sort of thing yourselves, but I hope that this helps at least one person.

I've got a better chance of building my own fusion reactor but that's still some awesome info.

 

[k4vbb]

IMPORTANT UPDATE--READ IT ALL!:

I'm re-gearing my Expedition to 3.73 gears from 3.55. To that end I spent the day at the local pick-and-pull in order to obtain the gear sets necessary for the job. For the front, it is much less work to simply swap the entire carrier assembly than it is to re-gear the existing carrier. To that end I obtained a new front differential assembly--identical to the one currently in the truck, with the exception of the gear ratio.

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! The axle shafts in the "new to me" differential assembly are captive, unlike the ones in my current truck. This, coupled with the fact that the axle shaft seals I just replaced are weeping fluid, leads me to believe that my current differential is SUPPOSED to have circlips holding the axles in place. This directly contradicts what I wrote in the original posts.

In other words, the front differential axle shafts DO have circlips, and are captive in the axle assembly. This means that the axle assembly HAS to come out of the vehicle, and be disassembled, in order to replace the axle seals.

It appears that one of the previous owners of my truck did some work in the front differential, but didn't finish the job correctly.

This may be important information for anyone who is planning on doing this job.