How much a pain to replace transaxle gasket/seal?

[Big Rectangular Car]

There's a minor leak in the seal of my GM's transaxle. Now the transaxle is whining, so I stopped driving it until I get it fixed.
How difficult is it to remove the axle cover, remove and replace the old seal?
Also, I notice the check and refill plug on the axle needs some sort of hex wrench. Anyone know what size that is?

Thanks!

[DuceAnAHalf]

The fill plug just needs a 3/8" drive ratchet in it. The cover is easy to remove. You have to remove the sway bar if you have one. Remove 12 bolts and the cover. scrape the old gasket material off both sides. use a bead of RTV for a gasket, hand tighten the cover, let sit for an hour, then fully tighten it down.

[mrltd]

Is it the cover that is leaking, the pinion or an axle seal?

[Big Rectangular Car]

Hmm, hmm. It won't take a socket wrench... I realized I could get a pic of it and then I could look more closely. This is what it looks like:



And this is what the rest of it looks like. Not that anyone needs to know what it looks like, but I thought I'd post pics of it anyway.

[Big Rectangular Car]

*light bulb suddenly goes on*

Oh, I get it now... 3/8 DRIVE RATCHET! Yeah!

[85crownHPP]

yes! Ford was nice and decided to make that so handy. some other cars do need hex and star bit the check things...
you could try tightening the bottom few bolts of the axle cover also, they make be loose. replaceing the seal is more stinky than difficult

[zwack88]

Yes it is rotten that smell. I didn't even get any on me that I knew of and my shit took 10 washes to get that smell out.lol

Ya see if the bolts are loose and tighten them if they are or if it is the gasket take the whole pumkin off. Rearend oil probably needs changed though since it is 21 years old and who knows if it has ever been changed. Just loosen the bottom bolts first and let most of the oil drain out that way then remove the rest of the bolts, then you won't give yourself a shower in it.lol

[Big Rectangular Car]

Well, it looks like I'm not going to be able to accomplish much in this area. I couldn't get the plug off to even check the oil level. This morning I put it back up on jack stands, got under there, put the ratchet drive in, and struggled for a while with it. It's not budging. I've sprayed it with stuff to loosen the bolt, and still nada. My head wants to keep trying, but the rest of me is protesting too much.
Looks to me like the pinion seal is also probably in need of replacing, so I'll have to wait until I have the $ to take it in to the pros. Bah.

[zwack88]

Ya try to soak it in pb blaster for awhile and see if that helps. If you can't get it off just order a new diff. cover for the 8.8 rearend that has fill and drain plugs in it. They cost alittle bit of money but it may be the only option for you if you can get that plug off.

[Mercmarquis]

Put a pipe on the end of the ratchet, gives a lil more ooomph to bust anything out.

[DuceAnAHalf]

Put a pipe on the end of the ratchet, gives a lil more ooomph to bust anything out.

Ive got an 18" long piece of stainless pipe that works as a great breaker bar.

[Mercmarquis]

I got a 4ft steel tube from our old garage door I use for some really tight stuff like on my old rusted pickup. I also got a 2ft one I use most of the time cause it can fit in smaller places.

[Big Rectangular Car]

Soaked it in PB blaster a few times, cranked the ratchet handle back and forth , tapped around the plug with a small hammer, to hopefully break whatever is holding this thing frozen, pounded a bit on the ratchet handle with hammer, and still nothing.
Okay, I'll bum some more money from my son and go get a pair of ramps, and a piece of pipe.
I have not met with a more stubborn piece of metal in I don't know when!

I found out though that the differential oil was changed a couple years ago.

[85crownHPP]

make sure they are good ramps!!!!!

[gadget73]

Yeah those plugs can get rusted in there. PB Blaster is good stuff. I used it on my trans crossmember bolts when I wanted to slide the trans back to get the flexplate bolts properly positioned. I tried my damndest to get the one bolt apart and it absolutely would not let go. I soaked it and soaked it, had a 4 foot pipe on it and I was moving the car on the lift. Gave up on it figuring they would never come apart and ended up using a big pipe to pry the motor around so I could get the flexplate situated. Well I blew the trans like 2 days later and now those bolts *had* to come out. I got out the big pipe again and flew halfway across the shop when I yanked as hard as I could and the bolt just came right loose. The PB Blaster had been soaking on it a few days by this point and it just about fell apart.