How can I tell if my Dana 30 has sleeves already installed?

zack.colo

zack.colo

New member
So I bought the JK used with some work on it, but the previous owner didn't mention any work to the front end. I was planning on installing some C GUSSETS but realized before I ordered the parts that they were already installed.
So next I plan to sleeve it, but figure it's probably a good idea to make sure there aren't any sleeves already installed. Pulled the axle shaft out to find there is some kind of RED boot-ish thing with a grease port at the end of axle port.
I can't figure out how to remove it.
I can't tell by looking inside if the diameter is significantly smaller.
If he had the sleeves welded in place they did a good job cleaning up because I can't see any spot welds on the outside of the axle tube.

My axle shaft is sitting on my bumper.

(I'll post pictures as soon as I figure out how to..)

Any ideas?
 
ridg3runner

ridg3runner

-
You can probably remove the red tube seal with a screwdriver, just pry it out. It's held in with silicon, but if I'm not mistaken, if the axle has sleeves the tube seal wouldn't be there as it will no longer fit.

We Are Jeep..Resistance Is Futile..
 
zack.colo

zack.colo

New member
ridg3runner said:
You can probably remove the red tube seal with a screwdriver, just pry it out. It's held in with silicon, but if I'm not mistaken, if the axle has sleeves the tube seal wouldn't be there as it will no longer fit.

We Are Jeep..Resistance Is Futile..
Click to expand...

DING DING DING!
Thank you sir.
 
JK12

JK12

New member
By the looks of it you have gear oil on your axle seals. After taking the seals out is there any oil sitting in the tubes?
 
ridg3runner

ridg3runner

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Thats a good question.. Previous owner may have opted to "try" to take the easy way out of changing your axle seals by installing tube seals rather than ponying up the time and money to do it right.

We Are Jeep..Resistance Is Futile..
 
TheDuff

TheDuff

New member
Well, good news is if that's the case it shouldn't be too big of a deal to change the tube seals when he does the sleeves, and even easier if he does a regear at the same time:D

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JK12

JK12

New member
TheDuff said:
Well, good news is if that's the case it shouldn't be too big of a deal to change the tube seals when he does the sleeves, and even easier if he does a regear at the same time:D

Sent from my LG-D800 using WAYALIFE mobile app
Click to expand...

It's really easy to change out the inner seals. I did mine about a month ago and it's good. $10 worth of seals along with the other stuff needed. Although it took some thought of what to use to hammer in the seals other than that it's fairly simple just remember what goes where
 
zack.colo

zack.colo

New member
Yeah there was a decent amount of gear oil on the seal and in the axle tube. I only needed to pull one axle to verify the lack of sleeves and the passenger side looked like it might have been leaking oil out of the seal a little bit, so I pulled that one... So it sounds like the inner seal on that side isn't doing it's job and should be replaced when I do the sleeves?

If you put sleeves in and aftermarket seals don't fit, do you just free-ball it?

And do you not need outer seals if your inner seals are doing their job? What keeps dust and debris from going into the axle tubes?

Thanks again guys
 
JK12

JK12

New member
zack.colo said:
And do you not need outer seals if your inner seals are doing their job? What keeps dust and debris from going into the axle tubes?
Click to expand...

You do not really need outer seals and really nothing going in there but dust. The outer seal can be bad because of what has happened to you. The inner seal has failed and you didn't notice the leak because of the outer seal
 
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