Swingaxle seal kit fun!

After 5 seal kits I now have both rear swing axles sealed enough where they do not leak. Now you may ask, why did it take 5 kits? A combination of bone head mistakes is the answer!

First two kits were from amazon and they didn’t come with the oil slinger washer, paper gaskets were pretty cheap and the cover gasket seal was pretty soft and easy to malformed, pinched. Below is the order of operation for all the parts. I, the smart man I am, forgot to add part #10 when re-assembling. Due to this all the trans fluid I added to the trans leaked out very fast through the end of the axles. At first we didn’t know why it was failing and ordered a different set from Wolfsburg West which is known for better quality to redo them.

As mentioned above, we ordered a different axle seal kit through Wolfsburg West that was much higher quality. The gaskets didn’t want to tear as easily, it came with the oil slinger washer and the gasket seal was harder durometer and easier to get pressed into the cover without malforming it. The first side we did was fantastic and didn’t leak at all while the other leaked but not nearly as fast as when we missed part #10 before. Taking it back apart we noticed we crushed the gasket seal part #12 against part number #10, causing it to malform. So yes another kit needed to be ordered for this.

I actually ordered two more kits just in case and only needed one of them. They really are cheap so wasn’t too much of an issue and now I have a backup. One tip I will give you is before you bolt the cover on put part #10 inside part #12. This solves the crushing issue we had and helps seat everything more safely. I would also suggest not putting in the cotter pin before you verify the axle isn’t leaking. Putting it on and taking it off malforms it horrible making the job so much harder.