AMC-20 axle seal replacement

[Scout1067]

How much of a pain is it to do an axle seal replacement on the AMC20 rear axle? I noticed the other day that my D/S rear axle is leaking a little from the drum. It is too thick to be brake fluid so my guess is that axle seal let go. I had this same issue on my old truck (07 Nissan Frontier) and it was a bear to repair. The axle seal itself was like $10 but a hydraulic press was required to get the old one out and the new one in.

I tink mine has the two piece axles but am not sure how to tell the difference. I assume two piece since as far as I can tell the axle is OEM.

 

[jp360cj]

There's an inner seal just inside the end of the axle tube and an outer seal that's behind the bearing and requires the bearing to be removed. This is easiest done with a press, but can be done with grinder, long pipe, and hammer.

Personally, If I had 2 piece shafts and needed to replace bearings/seals, I would go ahead and upgrade to 1 piece shafts.

 

[Scout1067]

Personally, If I had 2 piece shafts and needed to replace bearings/seals, I would go ahead and upgrade to 1 piece shafts.

That may be what I end up doing. It goes on the list of things I have to get done to get this CJ back where it should be. I have inspection coming up in the spring and have to get the muffler replaced and a new gas tank put in before then. I will probably do the axles after inspection as the leak is what we called a class I leak in the military.