Thoughts?

notenuftime

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So im in the middle of sorting out a fuel issue and noticed this. Rear bearing seal?
You can see grease like stuff splattered on the tire.
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Oledirtypearl86

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Check rear diff fluid it's not that bad of a leak. And run ot till ya get the time to change it its not to hard to change
 

TNBrett

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When you get the drum off, your nose will let you know if it’s gear lube. Also a lot of time if it’s the wheel cylinder the boots will be swollen and if you peel them back, they will be wet with brake fluid inside. I highly recommend these seals.
SKF 34384 Rear Wheel Seal https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IX2BCO?

There are cheaper ones, but these are nearly fool proof to install.

Some people say you should always replace brake shoes after they’ve been wet with gear oil, but I’ve had decent luck cleaning them. If they have plenty of life left, I would just make sure you have plenty of brake cleaner on hand. If they’re getting thin, it’s probably just as easy to replace them.


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Cubey

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This is what it looked like when a wheel seal went bad on my RV's Dana 70:

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The inside of that inner dually rim, before/after being cleaned. The black is from the leaking seal for many miles. The whole inside of the rim was like that.

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Cubey

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It's easy to find out what's leaking without taking anything off. Run your finger through the wet liquid. If it washes off with plain water, then it's brake fluid. If not it's diff fluid.

Diff oil has a very distinct smell too, very strong.
 

Greenie

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The brake master cylinder fluid level will indicate whether the leak is fluid or oil. Gear oil smells awful My bet is on gear oil. The brake shoes can be salvaged with a propane torch and patience. The seals aren't too difficult to swap out - It's been a long time now but the last seals I installed were Chicago Rawhide.
 

Cubey

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The brake master cylinder fluid level will indicate whether the leak is fluid or oil. Gear oil smells awful My bet is on gear oil. The brake shoes can be salvaged with a propane torch and patience. The seals aren't too difficult to swap out - It's been a long time now but the last seals I installed were Chicago Rawhide.

I had both a leaking rear wheel seal and a leaking front caliper (seized piston) at the same time, but my master cylinder is the old two compartment metal kind and the front side was lower, so it was easy to know it was a front leak.
 
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