D18 Leaking at rear yoke

Rebuilt D18 and still had leak at rear yoke. Did a search and read many of the suggestions of using a double seal and using RTV on the spline. Did just that. Also read that some have cut the felt seal in half when using two seals and some had not. I did not and when I re-tourqued the yoke to 100 ft lbs I could not turn by hand as I could before with the transfer case in the neautral positions. I can turn with a breaker bar and in neautral. Should I expect it to be that tight without cutting the felt in half and go with it? Should I cut the felt in half to free it up some?

 

You should be able to turn it by hand with only perceptable resistance, The felt serves to keep dust and grit away from the seal and there is no reason for it to be that tight. In fact this condition could contribute to excessive friction & heat between the felt and seal resulting in premature seal failure and possibly prevent proper seating of the yoke against the speedometer gear and inner bearing race.

Trim the felt so you can just bottom the yoke out on the shaft by hand with mild compression on the felt.

The felt goes between the yoke dust shield and the seal, On the yokes that I have worked with there is a groove ( small circular trough ) to push the felt into on the dust shield. Install felt in the groove on the dust shield then install yoke.

 

I cut the felt in half when I did both of my rebuilds and I was able to turn the yoke by hand. Did you put the felt inside the xfer case or outside between the yoke and the seal? I put mine inside.

 

did you press the seal in all the way? I had the same problem mine this weekend. I didnt hammer in the seal all the way to the bearing and the taper on the yoke mangled the seal. I redid it hammered the seal all the way to the bearing and reinstalled the felt at full thickness. I didnt drive the jeep yet so i dont know ifs ok or not

 

I did the same thing on the front output, but with one double lip seal ... I think he said he put 2 seals in, which leaves very little room for the felt.

 

Best I can remember (that's always a problem anymore) I put 1/2 the felt on the shaft and then put the seal in flush. I figured that way, the majority of oil gets slowed down by the felt and the rest is taken care of by the seal. The felt weaps enough through to moisten the seal so it doesn't quit sealing due to lack of lubrication. The bearing on the other side of the felt gets plenty of lube. I used the felt like a towel at the bottom of the door in winter to keep some of the drafty cold air out.

 

When I did mine Herm suggested I make sure the vent on the top of the TC was venting. Cleaning it seemed to help my high volume leak.

 

Thanks for the replies and comments. Went back to just one seal as I did not like how hard it was to turn the yoke with the two seals. Tried cutting the felt in half and thought that it was still too tight. So I have gone with the one seal and used RTV on the spline (which I did not do before), put it back together, (yoke spins much easier) filled with oil and am hoping for the best.

 

Mine doesn't have felt at all, I installed a modern type seal though. I need to do another as I screwed this one up and it is completely coated with RTV to hold it in this second.