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Date:         Wed, 5 Jun 1996 15:44:07 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jbrill@unlinfo.unl.edu (James Brill)
Subject:      Differential Seal Replacement Procedure

This is for the 'late-type' transmission. You will have to look at the pictures in the Bentley to determine which one you have. I am unsure of the years. My '71 is 'late-type'.

There is a seal inside of the differential assembly of you transmission that might start to leak. I have been told that they rarely do on VW buses. Mine did. I had mis-diagnosed it as a much bigger problem and had let it drip while I kept my eye on the gear oil level. The drip began to get worse about the time I was going to have the engine and cv's out. I took the opportunity to do something about it. I suppose it could be done with the engine still installed but you would lose some hammer swinging room.

You will lose some gear oil when this seal is out. This might be a good time to just replace it all. It you don't need a change you could drain some beforehand and top it up when you are done.

Things you will need for this repair. The inboard seals, the outer sealing caps, and anything else that might need it while the thing is apart. The blowup of the differential in the Bentley shows that you will also want to replace the spacer and lockplate seal. Both of these parts were still functional on my bus. The inboard seal is most likely what is leaking and you will destroy the outer sealing cap to get the thing apart.

After the cv is off, stick a small screwdriver through the center of the sealing cap and pry it out. It should some out easily. Behind that you will find a circlip. Remove the clip and the joint flange will now come off. The Bentley shows them levering it off with a couple of screwdrivers or pry bars. Next you will find two phillips head screws holding on the lockplate. I found an impact screwdriver to be of use here. I didn't want to strip this screw. The Bentley mentions that the new pockplates are made of plastic. I found mine to be a plastic over metal. Both are these were in usable shape, so I did.

Behind this lockplate there is a rubber washer called a 'spacer' in the book. Again, I was able to reuse mine. It was round on the OD but had a flat spot on the ID. This was down, I assume so that it could catch a very small leak. The last thing to remove is the seal itself. Mine was in there very tight. This is a tight fitting seal. You might consider the purchase of a seal puller to help with this. $7 at Sears, a little more at most FLAPS. It makes the removal of seals easier, safer and less damaging to the surrounding area.

One thing to watch for. There is a thrust ring that slides over the differential. It is able to come off anytime after the joint flange has been removed. I was able to keep it pushed back into the transmission housing. I didn't want to remove it and forget to put it back. If you do happen to take it out keep the left and right on their respective sides.

For me the hardest part of this job was getting the new seal in there. As I said before, this is a very tight fitting seal. I ruined two on the first attempts. After poking around the list and local garage I got this great advice. First of all, make sure that the edge of the lip is chamfered. Mine had a nice angle on it from the factory. Then I applied this advice. I put the new seal in a locking baggie with enough new gear oil to get it submerged. Seal the bag and get out as much air as you can. Then, put the baggie in a bowl and run it under hot tap water. I let it set about ten minutes, changed the water and let it set five more. What this does is soften the rubber on the outside surface of the seal.

You don't need to run back out to the garage but you also don't want the seal getting cool again. I put the seal in place and put a big washer over the outside of it. This washer should have a big enough ID to fit over the short differential gearshaft but small enough OD to fit inside of the housing. Sorry, I don't have the dimensions handy. I found mine at the hardware store amongst the 'machine washers'. I find that one of these big washers against the seal does a better job for me than the big socket alone. In this case, a 50mm socket went on top of the washer and the tapping commenced. After the heating trick it went in as planned. It is still a very tight fit.

Reassembly is the reverse of removal. :) The rubber 'spacer' that went between the seal and the lockplate was a bit of a challenge until I coated it with a little gear oil. That was enough to hold it in place until I got the lockplate in. Again, flat spot down. After the joint flange had been circliped in, the sealing cap will probably press in with your thumbs. I used a socket of that diameter and it tapped in with very little resistance.

Top up the transmission, install the cv's and go for a drive. Easy as that. One note, the seal you get as a replacement might not look just like the one you take out. My replacement was 'deeper' than the one I took out. I assume this is to be expected. There was still room for it to go in there. After checking with a dealer and a VW FLAPS I was sure I had the correct seal. The fiche had chassis numbers at least.

That is it. I only have a few hundred miles on it but it remains dry. Thanks go to Bob Hoover for the gear oil in the baggie trick. I was one very frustrated guy until I got that advice. Corrections and comments welcomed.

Jim -- James A. Brill Jr. \\ // jbrill@unlinfo.unl.edu \\ \\// // University of Nebraska \\//\\// free-lance homo sapien \/ \/


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