I just pulled my front shaft, and when I got the rear flange loose about a tablespoon of transfer case oil came out of where the shaft flange mounts to the transfer case. It doesn't look to be leaking around the transfer case flange, but apparently it's leaking inside it.

Any ideas why it's leaking inside the transfer case flange? If a seal is failing, it seems like it would leak around it, not inside.

 

Nobody?

 

I'm a little confused as to what you mean. Did it leak when you pulled the flange off, or when you removed the shaft?
When you pull the flange, you will get some fluid out, it is sealed between the case and the flange, and there is a cotton seal behind the nut for flange to 'seal' against the output shaft.

 

When I pulled the shaft, there was fluid trapped between the shaft and the transfer case flange. I didn't remove the transfer case flange (yet).

Does that make more sense?

 

I've seen fluid creep on the splines between the output shaft and the companion flange. When I rebuild things with companion flanges I put some sealer (ultra black or something similar) to prevent fluid from doing this. Not much gets out this way but the customer doesn't see it this way after paying for a reseal or rebuild.

 

Wow, I'm surprised any fluid could squeeze out past the splines and nut/washer holding the flange to the transfer case.

Thanks for the help.

 

There should be a cotton ring that goes in there to keep fluid from coming out, but cotton is obviously porous, so it will eventually seep out, nothing to worry about, but i would suggest a new seal, along with nut, which should be part of the flange kit.