Re: Seal spring unaccounted for

[Johnson David-QA2282 <David.R.Johnson@domain.elided>]

Modelle in Somers Point writes: "Having coaxed out the rear axle seal, I was
to discover that the seal was deformed when installed, and had no circular
spring inside it, where such a spring should be. Now if my suspicions are
valid, the spring was dislodged when the seal was replaced and is now
who-knows-where.

"I removed the differential sump, but there were no traces of anything.

"Has anyone run into anything like this? Should I be freaked out by this?"

I once had this same sense of panic when the plastic cap of a gear oil
bottle detached itself while filling a diff and disappeared inside the case.
I soon realized that the gears would chew it up with no trouble at all, and
I suspect the same will apply to a small seal spring.  In all likelihood the
spring will sink to the bottom of the oil out of harms way, but even if it
found it's way into the gears I suspect that the spring is no match for 7-8
inch diameter hardened gears capable of dealing with the shock loads of
driving a vehicle on the highways.  The only risk I can see is that if the
spring is chewed into tiny pieces and then finds it's way into the bearings,
it may accelerate wear, but this seems improbable and would likely not
result in a serious failure.

The only catastrophic rear end failure story I recall involving debris in
the gears was a drag racer launching a certain US made muscle car off the
line on drag slicks.  The launch caused several teeth to strip off the crown
wheel, and they subsequently lodged between the remaining crown wheel teeth
and the pinion teeth, causing the rear end to lock solid.  Between the
engine (developing several hundred horsepower) and the tremendous grip of
the slicks, something had to give, and the part which did was the input
shaft of a rather expensive 6 speed manual transmission, shearing off a 1
1/4 inch diameter steel shaft.  I've seen the pictures and it's not pretty.
I think the chances of this happening in this case are extremely low.  If it
were me, I'd be inclined to drive the car for a few hundred miles and then
change and inspect the diff oil again.  Then again, if I heard no untoward
noises in that time, I'd probably be too lazy to follow through.

The above is all my opinion, so if anyone knows better from experience
please speak up.  Something similar is bound to have happened to someone on
the list, one of the beauties of being on it in the first place.

Dave J.
1987 Milano Verde
1964 2600 Sprint
1994 Chevy Camaro (supercharged, with stock rear still intact)

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