Pinion seal leaking, big deal?

[nosympathy]

So long terrible story short. My pinion seal once I started messing with my UCA started leaking. This would be the second time now. It leaked once before when I first lowered the car on H&R SS springs with the stock UCA. Once I got my pinion angle more inline with the BMR UCA, it stopped.

It has since started doing it again. Tomorrow I am going to fix the pinion angle a little more so the car stops vibrating at faster speeds, which should stop the wobble in the driveshaft. Net buy for the car is hands down a one piece driveshaft from DSS so I can get the pinion angle close and stop worrying about this.

Now my question comes in with, since the seal has leaked, twice before, but the first time I was able to get it to stop leaking by having the pinion angle corrected, can I not do the same thing again? It only leaks when the driveshaft spins I guess, it doesn't leak while the car sits still.

I am mainly asking for the purpose of, should I budget in having a shop place the pinion seal along with doing the DSS one piece? Or am I making a bigger deal out of this than need be. Also could I not replace the sleeve myself since everything was already set correctly? Or would that be harder than it sounds. $10 vs 200-300 sounds a hellova lot better, but is my DD so I can't accidently have it down for too long.

any thoughts appreciated. My dumb mistake for assuming the car would survive one day with a goofed up pinion angle again. I should have just fixed it 100% on the spot.

 

[Nuar]

Its not a HUGE deal, but I would get the seal fixed asap. Leaky seal means your diff will be leaking fluid. low fluid in the diff = bad... mmmkay? Depends on how severe the leak is.
If I was in your position, I would call around and get some quotes on the seal replacement, then go to the shop of your choice and get the driveshaft and the seal done in one trip.

 

[nosympathy]

Its not a HUGE deal, but I would get the seal fixed asap. Leaky seal means your diff will be leaking fluid. low fluid in the diff = bad... mmmkay? Depends on how severe the leak is.
If I was in your position, I would call around and get some quotes on the seal replacement, then go to the shop of your choice and get the driveshaft and the seal done in one trip.

well, I guess my point was, if I get the driveshaft to stop acting funny, and the seal stops leaking, should I be concerned? It really does only leak when being driven as I never have had fluid drip on the ground when parked.

I know it was kind of confusing, but this would be the second time I've had the pinion seal leak, and it stopped the first time without issue. Since it has happened again, should I trust the seal if it stops again? or should I just have it swapped.

 

[slagburn]

well, I guess my point was, if I get the driveshaft to stop acting funny, and the seal stops leaking, should I be concerned? It really does only leak when being driven as I never have had fluid drip on the ground when parked.

I know it was kind of confusing, but this would be the second time I've had the pinion seal leak, and it stopped the first time without issue. Since it has happened again, should I trust the seal if it stops again? or should I just have it swapped.

How exactly does a driveshaft act funny? Trying to put 2 and 2 together from afar here.. did you have the pinion flange off? If you somehow screwed up the pinion bearings the driveshaft could move around, you'd have vibrations, noise and repeat seal leaks.

So what's the whole story?

 

[nosympathy]

How exactly does a driveshaft act funny? Trying to put 2 and 2 together from afar here.. did you have the pinion flange off? If you somehow screwed up the pinion bearings the driveshaft could move around, you'd have vibrations, noise and repeat seal leaks.

So what's the whole story?

well, originally I lowered the car with H&R SS springs and was about 2 months before I was able to do the BMR UCA. During this time the seal leaked some. Not an insane amount but still leaked some from the messed up pinion angle.

Put BMR UCA on, had set to -2 and front end realigned and everything seemed great and smooth. No leaking seal, even swapped diff covers and still no leak with a whole different gear oil. Dropped RP 75W140 for Redline Lightweight 75W140.

Purchased a bottle of friction modifier from autozone that I put in. After a few days of driving got a real annoying squeal from the diff when making turns. So picked up a bottle of ford friction modifier and added that, rear end stopped making the squeal on turns and has been dead quiet.

then BMR recommends I put my UCA in the other hole, which I didn't align the UCA different after switching holes as I ran out of time. Drove it the next day with it aligned wrong, the axle tilted way far forward now. At 80MPH the whole front end wobbled back and forth like a MF. Adjusted UCA back a lot closer to 0. Still getting a slight wobble in the front, and still getting some leaking.

Going to adjust it even further back tomorrow just to see if I can get the wobble to stop. I didn't have wobble on the stock UCA when the axle was tilted towards the back of the car from the drop. I don't believe I bent the DS since this really started happening after swapping holes on the UCA.

EDIT: should add there was a slight wobble before I messed with the UCA for maybe a few weeks? I honestly sometimes with that tend to blame it on the wheels, since I have 285s on all four corners and sometimes the car handles aspects of the road irrationally. lol. So I guess if I messed the bearing up, I would have done it then before the UCA hole change. Currently it is wobbling like before very mildly and I am not sure it has really leaked since as i didn't clean the axle off after putting the UCA back towards 0. I never marked the UCA when it was set to -2, so maybe it shifted some even though both lock nuts were tight as can be and that is where the wobble started coming from?

EDIT 2: It also does not feel like it wobbles when I turn it by hand but feels very smooth, if I had a busted pinion bearing wouldn't I feel it when turning the DS by hand?