scottyF150

My 2003 w/ 75K mi has a broken axle oil seal. I noticed it yesterday when I parked on a hill with that side down and the oil was just running out of it.

I'm doing it myself with the help of some guides here on the forum. (THANKS!) But my question is about the emergency brake shoes. They are saturated and I'm wondering if I need to replace them or just clean them up?

The disk brake pads are gunked up too so I am replacing them.. (dang it, they're only 1 year old). But the e-brake shoes on one side only... well... is it necessary?

(see pics)

thanks

rbrais

If they are the stock rotors, I'd replace them too. But get good ones, like EBC. Don't get the $40 ones from the parts store, or you will be replacing those at your next pad change. You should get 2 pad changes out of good rotors, so say 60K to 80K miles if you get good pads.

scottyF150

Rotors are new, replaced them with the pads in the last year or so. I've decided to clean up the e-brake shoes and keep them, but the disc brake, brake pads are pretty saturated so I'm not going to chance it and I just bought new rear brakes for both sides.

Problem now is, i can't get the blasted seals out! Only 75K on the truck these bad boys shouldn't be this tough. I attacked them w/ a prybar but they won't budge.

I figured I'd just pull one out w/ the bearing puller but I banged on the bearing puller slide hammer until my arm went numb and my hand hurt. I think I pulled the bearing up to the seal, but it's stuck there now and the seal is still not moving.

AAAaaaaargh!

13Harleyfan

You can use a small propane torch and boil the oil out of those shoes, if the seals aren't to beat up you can drill a small hole on two opposite sides of the seal and run screws threw them, tighten the screws at the same time and it might help you pull the seal out.

13Harleyfan

Oh, and stop doing burn-outs, your seals will last longer.

scottyF150

I wish! I quit doing that too many years ago. Not that this beauty wouldn't... but I don't need to.

However, on a serious note my truck spent 5 years in MN, then we moved south and it's spent 5 years in NV. Talk about going from the deep freezer to the fryer! We saw -20 in MN and +120 in NV. The poor seals on all my cars just crumbled when I moved down here. The truck has been holding up better than the rest though, this is the first time it's had any trouble.


So I got the seals out by the traditional method... a pry bar and more effort than I used the first time around. The bearings were easy after the seals. Came out just like they should... slide hammer and puller from Autozone. I used the size that was a little too small looking, it pulled against the bearings instead of the race, however the cage held up to the pounding and the bearings came right out.

That was it! How easy. I put the axles and brakes back on today before dinner but I decided to do the axle housing cover tomorrow because I want to paint it before I put it back on. Going to use black rustoleum, heard it works well.

:-)