Ford 7.3L Power Stroke (1999-2003) :: Front Left Outer Axle Shaft
Jul 16, 2016
Can I re-use this shaft or is that ring around it no good. The ring is around where the bearing sits. It is a circumferential hump all the way around.
View 14 RepliesCan I re-use this shaft or is that ring around it no good. The ring is around where the bearing sits. It is a circumferential hump all the way around.
View 14 RepliesSo my outer axle seal went out on the passenger side again after only 4,000 miles. What gives!? I can't figure out why its burning up. My hubs seem to be working correctly. I've only used the 4wd a hand full of times since I replaced it. Any thoughts?
View 10 RepliesI took the front axle shafts out a couple months back and remember NOT seeing any differential fluid in the axle shaft housing. But then when I took the tire off tonight.. I noticed diff fluid leaking from from the axle shaft dust seal ?
1. I didn't think diff fluid flowed up near those front dust seals ?
2. That's a brand new dust seal so I'm guessing some debri must be in the connection causing the leak ?
I am a new 6.7 owner and had/ have a 7.3 As I have been getting to know the truck I have been under it and noticed that the front drive shaft and axle are locked in. My hubs are switched to auto but I know on my 2000 7.3 when my hubs are on auto my front axle and driveshaft are disengaged... I'm wondering if the new 4x4 system is different. I know that can save on MPG
View 6 RepliesI have developed an oil leak from the bottom of the front crank shaft (front of the motor). How hard of a repair is this? any links to any tutorials? Should I even try this myself? Any special tools required?
View 14 RepliesI am on the fence with getting rid of my 7.3. Here's why. Whenever I crawl underneath the truck or look under the hood I see all these different oil/fluid leaks. She has less than 200k miles and I use her to tow my boat to go fishing.
Right now I am trying to weigh if the truck is worth keeping or selling and then getting a new/newer truck.
Here are some leaks. One is obviously oil and coming from what I guess is the front main seal. I really don't know. The other leaks going onto the U-joint look like oil leaking down the axle from the front differential.
I'm growing a business and not sure if I have time to play mechanic. However, everyone I talk to always exclaims, "You got a 7.3?! You luck SOB!" and I am kinda getting the feeling letting her go would be a mistake. FWIW, she is paid off.
Other than a slight wobble in the steering wheel at speed, she runs like a hoss.
I am getting ready to put new axle shaft u-joints in my 2008 F350 (they are shot, they actually rattle on my rough roads). While I am at it I figure I will grease the front wheel brg cartridge, replace the needle brg that is inside the cartridge. I am also afraid I will the axle shaft vacuum seal. I don't want to go to ford an get raped, diesel O-rings doesn't have parts for the newer pickups and I don't want to get junk from the parts houses. Where I can get these parts for a reasonable price? What the best brands are? Are they the same parts as the earlier super duties? I know the lock out is different.
View 2 RepliesDo I need a special tool to put the outer axle seal on a 2003 excursion? I could make one if I new how far down it needs to be. I'm replacing the needle bearings in the back of the hubs and it looks like the last seals were not on far enough and the hub tore them up....
View 13 RepliesI have 1999 F350 7.3 Crew Cab 4WD. I took it on a 4 hours trip towing a trailer to haul a small tractor on it. after 3 hours of driving, I started hearing grinding and metal chewing sound coming from the front axle or close the wheel hubs. It was awful, terrible, ... you name it!!! I had to continue or I will lose the tractor I paid for already. The sound was coming for 1-2 seconds each 500 feet or so. It never stopped or changed. I pulled over to see what's going on and found the following:
1. Left shock is leaking badly
2. Right locking hub is gone (not sure if the truck had one before). I bought this truck last year, but I never had to use 4x4 and I know the 4x4 motor by the transfer case is missing and the nipple on the transfer case is set to the 2wd position so the front drive-shaft does not turn.
I took the front shock off and continued to drive without it, the noise did not go away.
I pulled over again and this time I noticed that the dust cover on each end of the front axle is missing too. I have never worked on these axles before, but I jacked one side, and sure enough, gear oil was leaking from the other side. I took the plug off the front differential and stuck my finger in it. I felt a creamy brown-greenish stuff in the differential. The consistency is like mayonnaise or thin peanut butter. I put the plug back on and went to pick up the tractor because I did not want to miss it fooling around with the truck on the highway.
The truck made it there and back (almost 5 hours total after the break down). The sound never stopped every 500 to 1000 ft.
After getting home safely, I took the other locking hub off, and took it for a test drive. I did not hear the noise, but now my right brakes are locking.
I took of the wheels and saw that the retaining snap ring (C clip) for the front axle on the right side came off by hand. I took the washers behind it off. Took the calipers and brackets off. I have never done front axle rebuild. I am not sure what has been damaged and what's still good.
Right of the bat, I know, at least, I need 2 shocks, one brake caliper and pads.
My questions are:
1. Is it possible to take the front axles off on both sides and make it 2wd for now until I have the money to rebuild the axle?
2. Could I use the same hubs? or they are most likely damaged and how to tell?
3. How to tell if the differential is damaged/needs rebuilding?
4. How to tell if the axles/spindles are damaged?
5. Is there a step by step tutorial to rebuild the axle with all seals, bearings, ...etc? How hard is the job for a hobbyist? I do most of my repairs myself, and I was lucky at 36 years old, I never had to rebuild a differential.
6. What else I might have damaged in the process of driving it that long with the noise? How do I tell if I did?
Check out the pics. 99 f250 4x4. I have a leak in my front axle shaft. It looks like it is coming out of the dust cap on the end of the front shaft. I am pretty sure it is differential fluid from the smell. Is there a seal before the dust cap? Is the shaft hollow with fluid in it? I thought it was just in the differential and if it leaks it is at the seals where the axle goes into the differential not at the otter end.
View 2 RepliesSo the other day I took my locking hubs out and cleaned them really good. When they were out I noticed I could grabs axle shafts inside the hub and wiggle them quiet a bit. Is that normal?
View 2 RepliesI thought that my front wheel bearing was bad but I removed it and it seems fine. The issue that I'm having is a continous vibration (noise) in the left front that gets worse with speed.The half shaft makes a noise at the point where the half shaft meets the steering knuckle and when I turn the shaft at the outer splines, the grinding noise is present. My question is, is the entire half shaft supposed to turn, even the outer diameter of it that would enter the steering knuckle, or is the shaft supposed to turn inside of that outer diameter? I hope I was able to explain my problem clearly/
View 6 RepliesWell I just "did" the glow plugs on my recently acquired 99 7.3 and while 7 came out with no problem, one of them gave me more resistance when turning than expected and then "snap". Now here is the interesting part. What actually came out is the threaded top portion of the outer wall, while the rest of the outer wall and the electrode are still in the block. I have done a lot of searching and it seems that usually the electrode detaches from the outer casing and the entire outer casing comes out with only the electrode or part of the electrode stuck in the shaft (usually due to carbon buildup or swollen tip). In this case though, the outer wall of the plug sheared in two, which seems to imply that the outer wall itself is what is stuck in the shaft and not the electrode. The attached picture hopefully explains what I am trying to say.
I can easily latch on to the end of the electrode with some vice grips, but even if I managed to get that out, I would still have the outer wall of the plug in the hole. At the moment I just screwed the threaded part back in to keep the everything from blowing out so I could crank the truck. It cranked right up and seems to run fine. My inclination is to just leave it as is and hope that 7 good glow plugs will do the job, as I have some nightmares about making things worse in trying to make them better. Any chance of the electrode falling into the cylinder if this much of the outer case is still there? How to remove stuck electrodes, etc. but none on a stuck outer casing?
Check out the pics. 99 f250 4x4. I have a leak in my front axle shaft. It looks like it is coming out of the dust cap on the end of the front shaft. I am pretty sure it is differential fluid from the smell. Is there a seal before the dust cap? Is the shaft hollow with fluid in it? I thought it was just in the differential and if it leaks it is at the seals where the axle goes into the differential not at the otter end.
View 14 RepliesI've had a rattling/clunking sound from my front left wheel recently so I jacked up that corner. As soon as the tire elevated off the ground the bottom fell inward. I could easily push the top of the tire inward and pull the bottom of the tire outward. Does this lead to a bad hub or bad ball joint(s)?
View 10 RepliesI've got a loud, intermittent, swooshing, vibrating noise from the front left wheel area at highway speeds. I put a camera down there and saw that when there was noise, the front driveshaft and front left halfshaft were spinning. When they stopped spinning on their own, the noise stopped. Hubs are Warn Premium (gold) and unlocked. Unit bearing already replaced. What could it be?
View 10 Replies1999 F250 SD 4x4 7.3 PSD ... My truck has 198K miles on it. It pulls to the left as I drive it. So I took it to a shop to have the alignment checked. They told me that the front outer tie rod was bad and needed to be replaced. And of course they said they needed to put in a set of caster camber bushings to do the alignment. They quoted $400 to change the tie rod out. I said I would do that. They gave me the print out from the alignment but reading it the only thing that was out was the toe. Left tire was toe out and the right tire was toe in, which to me would cause it to pull to the left.
I got under the truck and the steering link, piece that goes from steering box to right side/tie rod, is not tight...I can move it up and down and it clunks when I roll it up. I have a clunking noise when I drive it and go over bumps also. Could this be the clunking noise? Also, if I replaced the ends of the steering link, that would tighten up but possibly push the steering back to the right some to straighten out the tires? I have read alot of threads talking about the clunking being tied to the sway bar bushings being bad but the clunking I get by rolling the steering link up and down sounds alot like the noise I am hearing.
Also, when looking at the axles where they go into the knuckle, there is a loose plastic ring on both sides. Is this part of the dust shield or an oil seal?
Thats the sound coming from I think the front left area and the rate is proportional to speed. It only occurs at slow speed from about 5 to 15 mph and it seems to only occur for about 30% of each rotation. I plan to jack it up and check tire wobble or if the sound occurs during free spin. Any other things to check?
View 11 RepliesI have a E99 F350 7.3L 4x4 I know some or most of you have already probably replaced this part and or pulled a front axle shaft out. So here is my question...In the pictures provided you can see what I think everyone is calling a "Dust Seal" and as you can see it is bad and making a very terrible noise when i hit a bump...I was wondering what parts I would need to replace this seal? I tried looking it up and just get lost in all of the other things....I have found write-ups for the axle being removed while changing ball joints but none by it self to just replace this seal.
[URL] ....
I have developed a sounds that sounds like metal on metal. Not a grinding but more of a "swish swish swish" light metal rubbing when the truck has been running a mile or two. I can barely hear it over the radio but its very noticeable when the window is down. It is not affected by the pressing the brakes and it gets louder and faster in direct portion to speed. It will occasionally leave and start right back up. I touched the front rim around the hub and it was hotter than I wanted to hold onto. It didn't burn but it was hot. It was 105 degrees that day. Here is what I have done.
I replaced that front hub in 2010 and probably have 50K miles on it. I did the 3-9 test and there was no noticeable play. I spun the hub and while it seems to spin ok it does seem a little dry.... I will pull it tomorrow and see what it looks like.
I pulled the calipers off and the brakes pads are at half way and there is no burnt smell. I spun the rotor and it seemed flat and straight. I do have a small tiny lip all the way around them on both sides but I figured that's normal with 265K. I pulled the pins and they were dry but they didn't seem to be sticking. I cleaned them up with the boots and am going to replace them when I get some brake grease tomorrow. I have not looked real hard at the caliper but I plan on pressing that with a C-Clamp tomorrow to check it. Since the rotors and pads looked OK, I assumed there was not a stuck caliper although haven't ruled it out. The axle behind the hub seem to spin freely before I removed all this stuff and the hubs are not locked.
I think I covered it all .. I also thought it could be a rock or stick but nothing came out of my caliper or rotor when I took them off ..
I am replacing the ball joints on my 07 f250 4x4. got down to the removal of the shaft itself and it won't budge. What is the secret here. Have to go to work on monday, and the weather in Cleveland isn't going to be very good on Sunday.
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