need some help with axle seals it seems like

1-they gave me the wrong driver seal
2-the axle that was installed is not the right one

why?

because passenger side went in smooth but driver side don't want to go in all the way so we decided to take out the seal and seems like it don't go into the axle all the way cause inner diameter of seal is smaller so we went back and bough the other one listed for left side that is the largest available for our cars and it turns out that it fits the axle perfect but it wont fit the tranny i know for sure my tranny is a vlsd(i30t) cause i double checked the numbers on it, so supposedly all vlsd trannys use the largest seal on the driver side but like i said it fits the axle perfectly but it don't fit the tranny is just loose theres no way to put it in back so what i need is pics of vlsd seals and replecement numbers from people that actually changed them maybe i'm missing something need help asap working on the car right now

 

Check the stickies for pics and partnumbers, might be in the all motor forum too

 

did that but still need some more info and or pics also need to know the difference of lengths between all axles available with abs if any vlsd or not

 

Are you sure that an open dif wasn't put in your car at one point? If that was the case I would say that you probably messed up the sides on the open dif. seals, the passanger & drivers side have the same OD but the passenger side has a smaller ID, so the passanger side will go in fine and you won't realize the mistake until you try to fit the drivers side in.

I will get you vlsd part #'s tonight

 

sure is a vlsd cause i check it with spinning one wheel and looking at the other

 

Vlsd driver side axle seal is like 3" while the nonlsd is 1.5ish

 

I find it unlikely that you would have the wrong VLSD seal.

I don't quite understand what kind of fit problem you're having. If you're having trouble getting the seal tapped into the tranny case, that's understandable. Be patient and get it started with lots of little taps. Also make sure that you have it pointed the right way - the flat part of the seal case goes outward and you tap it in until the flat part is level with the metal around it.

If you're having trouble getting the axle into the seal opening after you've installed the seal into the tranny, like the axle only goes partway in - then it would seem you have a problem with the snap ring. Put a bunch of vaseline on the snap ring, and center it on the groove. (WIth the ring perfectly centered, you shouldn't see more than half the thickness of the ring hanging outside of the axle splines.) Now push it in gently until it stops. Pull it back a touch and pop in back in hard. That should get it in there.

Dave

 

38342-51E00, Unfortunatly I don't have my digi with me so I can't show you a pic of what happens if you drive the seal in to far, allthough it is missing the center anyways.....

 

The original post is quite confusing but here's my take.

All VLSD transmissions have a driver's side axle seal that is approximately 3" outside diameter, if yours isn't that size, then it's not a VLSD. Both open diff seals are approximately 1.5" outside diameter, you could fit them both in the each hole if you wanted to (but the inside diameters are different so you would get leaking from where the axles fit into the seals).


Here's a bad picture of a VLSD, you can see how large the hole is for the axle seal (the actual seal is not installed in this picture)




Here's a picture of an open diff, you can see how small the axle seal hole is compared to a VLSD trans



For open diff seals, the one with the larger inside diameter goes on the driver's side and the with the smaller inside diameter goes on the passenger side.

 

ok heres the thing i have an 98 i30t with vlsd i'm sure it is vlsd no just because all i30t's comes with vlsd but bacuse i did the test turning one wheel and looking a the other turn in same direction

when i was taking out the axle i noticed the driver side wasn't all the way in when i was putting all back together with new seals and all that i was having the same issue the damn axle didn't want to go all the way in so i took the seal out and noticed the seal won't go all the way into the axle because the inner diameter is smaller thus did not let the axle go further inside the tranny , but it sits nicely in the transmission so i though that maybe they gave me the wrong seal at the store(advance auto) so went back and they gave me this other seal that is like 3" o/d and fits nicely on the axle but too big for the tranny so theres something going wrong here so is either i have the wrong axle, the wrong seal or i have the weirdest i30 so far

now thinking further is there a way to use the vlsd internals on a non vlsd housing because thats the only explanation i can think of like just changing the back housing from a non vlsd on a vlsd tranny

is theres a stamped number somehere on the tranny that indentify the housing or something ,also are the housings similar in size or any other notable difference besides the internals?

one more thing my tranny looks exactly like the one on top but with samller seal hole

sorry for my grammar but still need to work on my english thanks

 

help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You have a non lsd tranny, sorry...

If the 3" axle seal doesn't work, get the regular seal and regular axle.

If the seal looks the same as the passenger side then you know its nonlsd

 

then how it is that that both wheels turn at same direction when one is turned like it says on the fsm i have no trouble using the regular axle but that makes me think that it maybe possible to swap the housings and previous owner did it for some reason if i can find a video cam i will show you i just did the turning test again and 100% sure both turned in same direction triple checked with someone else

 

It's not possible to swap the internals, and this makes no sense to me.... But use the open-dif seals on the correct sides and you should be all set.

 

it don't make sense to me either but if by some reason one crack the housing or something happen and one can't find a vlsd tranny to replace the old one with and wants to retain the vlsd then it makes sense but not just swapping the internals maybe just differential portion of the transaxle the bolt pattern looks very similar

but thats what i'm going to do tomorrow i'm buying the m/t axle no vlsd and see what happen thanks anyway

 

It's impossible to fit a non-lsd housing on a VLSD... the bearing won't fit. No amount of modification could make it fit, it's just not possible. If your trans has the small axle seal, it's an open diff not a VLSD.

Apart from the size of the driver's side axle seal, there are absolutely no visible differences on the outside of the trans between VLSD and open diff. the bolt patterns on the two transmissions i posted are completely identical, they are just taken from different angles...

 

Did you mean to say axle seal? I'm assuming you did, you're probably going to need to buy another passanger side one as well, take a look at it, I'm somewhat certain you will notice a 1/4" gap around the axle and when you start filling it up it's going to **** out tranny fluid..........

 

If this is off topic sorry.

But has anyone been able to pull the pass side axle out far enough to replace the seal without removing hub to strut bolts and not screwing up the cvs?

 

hahaha, good luck doing it without the axle completely removed, and even then with the y-pipe and crossmember it's a biatch, but no, it wouldn't be possible.

 

the axle was off the car and finally figured out what was wrong with it

1- my cousing trying to help me out putting back the axles
2- using another passenger side seal on the driver side
3-trusting the store guy that gave me 2 passenger side seal in the first place

when i bolted the tranny to the engine is was time to go to work so he told me not to worry that he would take out the seals(i decided to change them after i put back the transmission) but when i came from work he told me what happened so i took it for granted , so today i checked everything and realized what was wrong so after all it is in fact a vlsd it can be done with y-pipe and crossmember on as long as you have a seal remover tool is very easy by the way

what made me suffer is that when i took out the axles not a single drop came out of the transmission so i though that maybe was kind of low on fluid but after unscrewing the bolt to drain it, out out came less than a quart so is was running almost dry i put 5 complete quarts of mt-90 and hope it last for a while but know if feels so much smoother than before and not to mention the clutch just feel great compared to the one that was installed before that looks like previous owner replaced with a cheap no name one