680HPStroker Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 My GM 12-bolt housing was modified five years ago with weld on bearing housing ends to get rid of the factory c-clip setup. The shop that did the work is the same shop I've been dealing with for years and everything up until this has been golden. Now after five years my axle seals on both sides started leaking. The same shop replaced the axle seals with the exact same brand/part# seal as what was used during the initial setup of my rearend(only accepts this particular seal). Within two weeks the driver side seal is leaking yet again. I talked to the company I bought all my rearend parts from(Tom's Axles) and he believes that the jig used to do the setup was not running true, or I have a twisted housing. I'm not convinced on the jig theory as the same jig has been used for many modifications/installs with no issues. Ed at the shop is going to replace the seals one more time and really go over everything with a fine tooth comb to see if there is something going on with wear, twisting, or something else like possibly just a bad seal, or he installed it wrong. If it is revealed that he(Ed) did something wrong at any point in his work on my 12-bolt he will take care of it at no cost to me. If Ed doesn't come up with anything it is either beyond the scope of his expertise(I doubt that), or the housing is a little tweaked. If the housing is the issue I'll have to bite the bullet and get a new one(not used) and just transfer everything over from my old rear. Curry Enterprises has a housing that comes with the weld on housing ends already installed for around $800.00 . I just don't get after all this time something is going on now. I've never raced my car and I overpower the chasis so much with street tires that I just go up in smoke from a stop so there has never been all that much stress on the rearend. I guess it's time to dig the money pit just a little bit deeper. If I go down this road unless someone comes along and offers me over $25K for my car I'm stuck with it for life. Any ideas out there? Sorry to be so long winded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreese Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Hey Greg, Couple of things come to mind, 1. New seal was bad or could have gotten tweaked a little when the axle was re-installed. 2. Seal could have been buggered up on the installation (but it sounds like your guy knows what he is doing. 3. Check the vent to make sure it is not stopped up. 4. Check fluid level to make sure the housing isn't overfilled. 5. Check axle shaft and flange for runout. Highly unlikley but you might have a bad axle. Just throwing some things out. I say all this cause of I got the same issue on my Moser rear(Bolt in Ford Axles). Gonna check the vent and if good, replace the seal. I have over 3000 miles on the rearend and a bunch of pass at the track. It just started leaking about a 2 weeks ago. Drivers side. I'm betting your guy will be able to figure out the issue. Hopefully it is just something simple and cheap to fix. Keep us posted, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam (Bones) Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 check the vent! it's simple and can cause seal failure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGD72Monte Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
680HPStroker Posted August 4, 2012 Author Share Posted August 4, 2012 Thanks David. Your number one two and five are possible, but three and four have been checked already. Number five I'm not to sure about as the whole setup was golden for five years and now all of a sudden I'm having issues and I'm not very hard on parts(yet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreese Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Hey Greg, Just a little update. Seems the seal on the drivers side was a little buggard up, not bad, but enough to cause the leak. Installed the new seal and replaced the vent system I had with a simple pop up type from Currie (much like the OEM vent)and all is good. You will just need a 1/8" female NPT to 1/4" male adaptor to make it work. Total cost for the vent and adaptor about $6.00. Hope yours is just a seal issue. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
680HPStroker Posted September 26, 2012 Author Share Posted September 26, 2012 Well my car finally goes in tonight to have this axle seal issue put to bed once and for all. I'm getting my carb tweaked a little as well. If my new guy is even close to being the mechanic/tuner my last guy was it will be a good run for as long as it lasts. There still might be some test and tune nights in me yet as I've had the car set up for five years now and if something breaks maybe I won't feel as bad. I know I'm dreaming, but it makes me feel better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreese Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Get to the track and lett'er rip!!! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
680HPStroker Posted October 6, 2012 Author Share Posted October 6, 2012 Axles seals are fixed. Problem with second set was they were installed improperly(wrong tool and a little deep). As for the first set the only theory is that maybe my car sits for too long and after five years there becomes a wear spot where oil can get by. It's just a theory, but it's all we got. The car has been driven twice for thirty minutes since the seals were put in and so far everything is bone dry. Brian backed off on the jets in the carb from 73 to 71. If my plugs(switched from NGK to Autolite Racing) look better after some time on them problem solved. He also changed out my accelerator pump as it was leaking. You would think that a company like AED would have used the neoprene pump that comes in a Holley trick kit, but it had a standard dominator pump. To top it all off Brian is delivering my car to my house tonight so I can have it for a car show tomarrow. You can't beat that with a stick. We talked about my driveline vibration. It's the same one I've had since this drivetrain went in five years ago. Brian has determined as I believed that it's not in the motor, but in the driveline. So either the driveshaft has been out of balance since day one, or due to it's mild steel tubing it is either transmitting harmonics, or making some of it's own. Soon I hope to be getting a new aluminum driveshaft from either Mark williams, or Denny's Driveshafts. According to Brian based on experience with some of his race cars an aluminum shaft balanced correctly will solve any harmonics issues not associated with the motor. I might wait until I can pull the string for the Gear Vendors overdrive. That way the shaft is made up only one time. We will see. If I do spend another $3K on this car that put's me over $40K invested in it. At that point if not already I'm stuck with this car for life, but that's not really a bad thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreese Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Good news Greg!! Glad you got the seals fixed and the carb tuned. Keep the car. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
680HPStroker Posted October 24, 2012 Author Share Posted October 24, 2012 After four 30, or so mile trips my axle seals are still bone dry. As far as the carb tune goes I have mixed reviews. It idles better and cruises a little smother, but lays over more on hard acceleration from highway speeds. It did that a little bit with the 73 jets, but it was to be expected with a manual shift tranny with a big solid roller cam. The lay over(hesitation) might be from the accelerator pump setting. Brian set the clearance to Holley specs minus a few thousands, but the carb might like the pump on kill with zero clearance. I'll be going back to 73 jets and setting the pump to zero to check and I've specked out my wheels and Mickey Thompson drag radials fo next year. Brian said he would help me tweak the monte to run the best possible ET it can and show me the ropes at the track. My fear in all this is I'll get bit by the race bug and I'll end up cutting up my car if for nothing else to put a six point roll bar in. Once I do that next I'll want to run down into the 10's and my pocketbook can't afford to replace broken parts from running NO2. Somehow I'll have to find the restraint to just be happy where I'm at, but that isn't my nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreese Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Sounds like you are getting her sorted out. Do you know if you have jet extentions for the secondaries? If not, you could be uncovering the jets under hard acceleration causing a momentary lean condition. Just throwing something out there. Yep when you go to the track and make that first pass where the car hooks and goes you will be hooked. Then it is all over with. You will want to go faster and faster. It is a awful sickness. I'm toying with adding more gear. Right now I have 3.73's. Thinking either 4.10 or even 4.56's. I think my s/b would like it, a lot! I would be relagated to keep my cruise mph's to around 60 with the 4.56'. Cruise rpm would be around 3200 3300. It would make Drag Week a little tougher but still doable. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domonte Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 When I was researching my monte's 12 bolt rebuild Moser engineering told me that C-clip eliminators were a race only setup, and that if you drove it on the street the cornering would eventually wear a (hole?) in the seals letting rear end lube leak out. let me see if I can find the page. here's the page: http://www.moserengineering.com/moser/faq/#answer6 Can I use c-clip eliminators for street use? A. We do NOT recommend using C-Clip Eliminators for street use; a C-Clip Eliminator is made for drag race only ( As a safety issue so you do not loose an axle, if it breaks ).C-Clip Eliminators are made for the straight shot down the strip. If you use C-Clip Eliminators on the street the aluminum block will eventually flex from cornering or just going around curves causing the C-Clip Eliminator to leak Rearend fluid. Probably wasn't the cause of your problem but it sounded similar. hope this helps -Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbreese Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Hey Adam, Greg and I both have moser housing with Ford big bearing ends welded to the axle tubes. The axles flange actually bolts to the housing end and through the backing plate. There is a seal inside the axle housing located behind the bearing. My seal was pinched which caused it to leak. A new seal and all is good. David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
680HPStroker Posted November 7, 2012 Author Share Posted November 7, 2012 Exactly. That's the difference between a stock 12-bolt and a race ready 12-bolt/9" hybrid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyDavey Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 After four 30, or so mile trips my axle seals are still bone dry. As far as the carb tune goes I have mixed reviews. It idles better and cruises a little smother, but lays over more on hard acceleration from highway speeds. It did that a little bit with the 73 jets, but it was to be expected with a manual shift tranny with a big solid roller cam. The lay over(hesitation) might be from the accelerator pump setting. Brian set the clearance to Holley specs minus a few thousands, but the carb might like the pump on kill with zero clearance. I'll be going back to 73 jets and setting the pump to zero to check and I've specked out my wheels and Mickey Thompson drag radials fo next year. Brian said he would help me tweak the monte to run the best possible ET it can and show me the ropes at the track. My fear in all this is I'll get bit by the race bug and I'll end up cutting up my car if for nothing else to put a six point roll bar in. Once I do that next I'll want to run down into the 10's and my pocketbook can't afford to replace broken parts from running NO2. Somehow I'll have to find the restraint to just be happy where I'm at, but that isn't my nature. lol...that's pretty much how it works Greg...wife to Davey...let's take it to the track and see what it will do...12.60..not bad...I'm in....the smell of rubber, the competition, nothing like it...man 11.99 would be sweet...okay done that, now 10.99 would be awesome....hmmm....gee I'm running 10.20's now, boy if I could get a 9.99....holy cow, 9.50's....hmmm the chassis cert is good to 8.50.... It can be an expensive thing but is also a blast, the racing community is for the most part a great group of people...kind of a life style, I absolutely love it. The thing is to know your car's limitations and don't try to move it past that until changes are made to improve its capabilities. Guys break a lot of things because they don't do their homework on what it takes to support the whole car. Sure sometimes things break but you have a lot of control over that. Typically guys throw a lot of power at a car and don't change the rest of the set up..that equals broken parts....knock on wood in the past three years of racing I've broken one flexplate (cheap stamped one, knocked off 2 teeth) and one ring and pinion (with my new motor), that's about 500 passes. Keep the car within its limitations and it will be fine... on your carb, my Prosystems likes the accelerator pump set as you say "on kill", zero clearance. For that hesitation you might try going up a couple of thou on the squirters.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.