Hey all, 2004 d2 with 3" lift, ashcroft heavy duty half shafts and cv joints, and lockers. After the lockers ere a few years old I brought them in for a regear and adjustment to the local shop. Axles appeared to be sealed fine before service. They did the diff work and sent it back to me and within a week most of the diff fluid has leaked out of both front axles seals. I returned it, they did it again with genuine seals, and now same result. Leaking out of the axle ends. Now they say they have done everything they know how to do, and good luck. They refunded the repair hours and seal cost, to their credit. But now, I have an unrepairable, undrivable rover. This is considered the place to go for repairs near me.
I know there are a few threads about axle seals not working, but I haven't found a solution. They measured the seals and the flange placement and everything was in spec. Alignment was all correct.
Where do I go from here?
The other Rover repair place said they will do it for $250 an hour. but with no guarantee on the work, so that's out.
There are random tidbits over the net about similar problems but no real obvious solution. They say use this seal, not that one, then another post contradicts that. One post has some custom engineered dust boot that apparently fix the problem, but you can't buy them.
Ashcroft was contacted and acts like he's never heard of the problem.
What am I to do?

 

****in hate jake leg mechanics like that, give good guys a bad name. From an engineering stand point sealing is not that difficult. The surfaces need to be clean, smooth, and the correct size. There is nothing special about the axle seal, it is a standard lip seal. All standard seals have the dimensions embossed on the seal. So there are three possibilities with respect to where the seal is leaking. It can be leaking past the seal on the OD, the id, or through the face. Unlikely through the face unless the mechanic punched a hole in it with a screwdriver. Could be leaking past the od if the seal is in crooked, or if the surface is dirty or damaged. I like to put a thin coat of silicone on the od to seal it to the housing (the seal does not rotate in the housing, the axle rotates in the seal). It could be leaking from the id if the sealing surface is damaged or too small. Given you have put in aftermarket axles and they did fine until you had it serviced my bet is they were a little small to start with and maybe a little soft and have now worn enough to leak. That seal is a 24 x 14 x 7mm. If the axle od is small you could use the next size smaller seal, or use a speedi sleeve on the surface.

Unfortunately you will either need to do it yourself or have a mechanic who will be willing to measure and photo all the sealing surfaces. On a close inspection you should be able to tell if it is leaking on the od or the id. Leaking on the id the oil will be all over the axle od. Leaking on the od you should be able to see the spot it is leaking from.

 

Like I said, it's a known issue. If you do some digging, it turns out there are different dimensions to different brand name seals that are all supposed to be the same. What you'll find after reading through a bunch of threads about this is that the seals like to tear themselves apart for some reason. Like they are gripping the axle too hard or something. Everything is clean and straight, but something, somehow, isn't the right dimension.