So the brat is starting to smoke a little. The culprit appears to be the oil seal on the driver's side, behind the DOJ leaking and running down to drip on on the exhaust. I ordered the left and right oil seals...figured I'd do them both while I'm at it. The service manual says there's a special wrench to remove the keeper. I'm just curious to see if anyone has had any success replacing these 'on-the-car' without the special tool.

 

BTW '84 EA-81 4speed D/R

Yeah, you can change them without the tool. Carefully unthread the seal retainer, you can loosen it by GENTLY tapping with a punch and hammer. It is very important to mark the position and put it back exactly where it was, this sets the preload on the diff side bearings and pinion.

Cool, that's what I was thinking. Probably wouldn't have marked it though...thanks for the tip!

Cool, that's what I was thinking. Probably wouldn't have marked it though...thanks for the tip!

good thing you asked, this would have toasted the front diff and you'd be looking at replacing the transmission, AH!

 

so yeah, mark carefully. actually someone has posted very detailed steps on doing this before too, it would come up with a good search. i call that part a "retainer", i think that might help find it if you want to search.

 

using a punch will get it to come off but it is aluminum so proceed slowly. definitley no problem doing this job on the car.

 

good luck!

You might want to do the O-Rings on the retainers at the same time. I think they are only a couple dollars each for Subaru ones.

Good Idea... I didn't know there were any there. If they're just regular o-rings, I think I have some on hand or make a run to Oreilley's around the corner to find some that'll fit.

 

Also picked up some new struts and mounts to put in while I'm down there. Gotta lotta busted knuckles to look forward to this weekend.