Leaky Pinion Seal on Rear End

[jmgtp]

I had some time last night so I pulled the truck in the garage and lifted the rear end. The area of the diff housing near the pinion has a bit of caked on 'grease' like stuff but nothing out of the norm. I didn't see any tell tale signs of oil slung all over the place either. The seal on the back cover isn't leaking either. The fill plug is just a large rubber cap that pulls off. I stuck my pinky in and felt oil about 1/2" from the fill plug hole - since I only have the rear of the truck in the air it makes sense that it would appear a bit low since the fill hole wasnt level. So, I don't think it was low at all but I added a bit to it just to be sure. I feel better about it at least until the spring. Then I'll park on some cardboard and see if I am leaking or not.

I also found that the rear end links were LOOSE and that was one of my annoying rattles, so I snugged those down. On my last fillup I got a sad 11.4 mpg, this is a v6 mind you. I figured its been cold, I do mostly city driving and I use my remote start often. But, I decided to check a few other things of which one was to replace the spark plugs. Oh man did it need that. These are the worst shape plugs I have ever seen, no doubt the originals with 80k on them. They were worn down so bad that the gaps were more than 2x what they should have been. I put new, correctly gapped, Champions copper plugs in. It feels like it runs about the same, but I did notice on the highway it is downshifting less often. I'm hoping it turns out some better numbers on this tank!

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[bob442]

well that makes me feel better about you putting off the rear seal aswell