7 replies to this topic

[MEhinger]

I have a 1275 with a rod change gearbox. When I last pulled the engine I used the method of leaving the pot joint housing in the transmission and pulling the boot back to leave the spyder and balls on the axle shaft. When I pulled the boot back, what looked like engine oil came out. The pot joint is on the spline that comes out of the differential. My question concerns what is sealing the engine oil from getting into the boot. My problem is not that the normal seals on the outside are leaking it is what can let oil get to the inside of the boot. And is there a way to reseal this if it is leaking?

[mk3cortina]

sounds like the driveshaft oil seals are leaking, just a case of replacing them, pop the old one out, and put the new one in carefully.

[Ethel]

The grease gets pretty gloopy after a while it could just be that. Apparently it isn't impossible for oil to get in up the splines of the diff output shaft.

[mk3cortina]

i suppose you could test if the seals have gone by draining the oil from the inner cv boots, and checking them again in a while and see if they have filled with oil again.

[Dan]

If it was the driveshaft seal, the last place the oil would end up is inside the boot! If it is oil inside rather than grease, the easiest thing is to replace the joint. There is indeed a core plug in the joint base that can leak I'm told. The part on the shaft is part of the joint too and must be replaced with the outer, ideally they should never be split.

[GraemeC]

I have had the 'core' plugs leak - in fact one fell out

I clenaed everything up then put it back in place with some loctite. The smeared a small amount of Sikaflex (tiger seal etc) around the join between the plug and the pot joint body. Seems to have held up so far.

The 'core plug' also acts as a thrust surface for the centre of the ball bearing cage part of the pot joint.

[mk3cortina]

your right, it wouldnt go in the boot if the seals were leaking, need to get my head on right lol.

[mike.]

When I took my boots off recently, what looked like oil came out. Like ethel said, the grease inside gets worn down and goes gloopy after a while. It was the same in my outer CV joints, so may have just been that.