Front RH Axle Seal HELP

[02YukDenXL]

Good morning folks,

So my front right hand axle seal has been leaking. It's been oozing from the 6 bolt flange (Photo #1, cv axle removed, flange only) between the axle and cv axle shaft. It's an '02 Yukon XL Denali AWD. The boots are worn on the cv axle so that's completely out as I'm replacing it anyway. I have the housing unbolted from the differential (5 bolts) and also the two 21mm nuts that hold the housing to the support bracket/frame (Photo #2). From all the videos I've seen, the housing and axle literally fall off the differential but mine is doing anything but that. Is my axle stuck in the differential? Am I missing something? I've done axle seals before on other vehicles but not on an AWD truck. My Haynes manual said something about using a punch and a hammer to free the axle from the differential side gear. My best friend used to work at Chevy and he's coming over to help me tomorrow if I can't figure it out tonight. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Searay45db]

This is a piece of cake job. First you can buy the axel complete with new CV Joints and boots ready to go. Pretty cheap, think I paid like $50 bucks. 15mm socket and they are off. You will have to remove the socket at the end of the drive shaft, but its easy. You tube it. Now the seals. You can replace them and be prepared for them to leak. It's like a watch battery. The original factory one seems to work better, no one knows why. So I ended up using Lucas Oil Seal, put it in the diff, and ran it an nor more leak. You might get lucky and they won't leak for a while, but they always do.

Good luck

 

[pnwdan]

I just did the seals and outer bearings in my Denali a week ago. Did both in under 2 hours. its fairly easy. You need to remove the axle before unbolting the diff. I didnt even unbolt the tube or the diff because on the Denali there is no actuator inside. If someone has a standard diff then it requires a bit more work. Just hook a slide hammer up to it and yank it out or because this is the passenger side you have room to place a block of wood behind the stub shaft flange and hit the wood with a hammer. it should pop out. I have a blind hole bearing kit to pull the bearings but the $15 Autozone pilot bearing puller worked almost too good. I didnt even have to bust out the kit.