Thanks for the info.

My driver side seal blew out on my 8.8. so i oviously need to replace it. I have done the same thing on my 79 f-250 as well as a 86 f-150 without a problem so i went to work.

* I jaccked the truck up and poped off the cover.
* Romoved the tires and all that good stuff
* I got the retaining pin and Spiders out with no problem
* The Passanger side C clip came out without a problem (since i was in there i thougnt i would replace it as well)

Attachment 31240

* Now i was ready for the Drivers side... The axle wouldnt push in. It was not (and is not) pushing forward enough to let me pop out the C clip. I have tried prying it out, i have beat the tar out of the Axle shaft assembly to try to push it forward.

Im at witts end here... Can anyone give me some direction on how to get out my stuck axle shaft?

I have the same clip. I pried up one side up with two screwdrivers - the side that is solid and the I used a chisel that would be used to slit brick - a very wide head - to drive the clip through.

Thanks for the amazing write up, made the process cake. The axle seals took about an hour after I got the rotors off. It took about 2 hours to get them off, The adjusters were stuck on the e-brake and the e-brake wore a groove about a quarter inch in my rotors, so I beat it senseless with a bfh, broke a rotor, and ended up having to do all the rear brakes rotors, e-brakes, and hardware. This write up definetely helped alot though.

I had mine done at 38K. My right seal was leaking. Is this a common problem? Seems a little early at such a low millage?

Ive heard of some lasting 100k and others going at 20, I guess its just nature of the beast...by the looks of the design, 1 piece of dirt could make the seal fail...so I guess its when that piece of dirt gets in there that it will fail

Quintan!

Special thanks to you for this write up! I took off yesterday and got this process done fairly easy, the whole thing including replacing doing rearbrakes and doing it in my garage took about 4 hours! This was really helpful, thanks!!!

Bump, this is such a good article !

Thanks for all that detail info with pictures,seal in my 2005 blew out at 48k, doing both this weekend.I have never had seals fail on a ford before 200k this is a first for me,but when i got the replacement seals,now i know why.My 77 Benz still has original seals and over 300k.My local ford dealer has people lined up to replace seals on their newer fords with under 60k on them,What's going on ?

I found this to be very helpful. I did my bearings and seals on my 03 7700GVW (10.25 diff) about 4 months ago and all went smoothly thanks to this thread. The only problem I'm having is that I can't seem to get my diff. cover to seal properly. I removed it about a week after the job because it was leaking. I had used an open tube of the sugested sealent and I thought maybe the tube was old. I resealed it with new sealent and now it's weeping a bit again. It's a messy (and stinky lol) job and would like to finally get it sealed. Any thoughts?

markin it

????

6-lug F150 Axles
 

How come every search for an 8.8" 2004 F150 Axle returns a 5-lug variety? Mine is a 6X135. Where can I find one? I've tried Mosier, Superior, Dorman and have had no luck finding a 6 lug 8.8" shaft for a right rear. Yukon has one also but I haven't been able to determine if it is 5 or 6 lug based on the descriptions on the website.

I tried junk yards but not too many wrecked 2004s yet I suppose cuz no luck there either. I've found alot of full rear-end assemblies online but i just need one axle shaft.

Any ideas?

Excellent! Who knows some day I might have to use this....Though I hope not.

2004
 

I'm assuming they overlapped bodystyles in 2004. I have the new style with 355s/8.8/rear disc/6X135 if that helps.