ECGs bushing and CV axle seal

After installing the new ECGs bushing and the new seal (1st time ever) now after everything I’m pretty sure my cv axle seal was missing the spring tension because I remember cleaning the seal before installing the new seal and not seeing a metal ring on there, I already have the axle back in, I plan to pull the axle out again to verify will this cause damage the new ECGs bushing? When i pulled out the OEM needle bearing it broke at the lip.

 

No. The bushing and seal are generally not damaged when pulling the CV. Your bearing was probably just done with life.

Is the diff seal leaking? If not, I would not mess with it.

When I swapped in the bushing at about 50k, folks said to leave the existing seal alone. I swapped it, seated it a scosche too far in, and had a leak. Looked like a murder scene under the truck, but only lost a couple ounces. It will be very obvious if you have even a tiny leak.

 

No, diff not leaking. I’m afraid once I put it into 4wd then the seal wont hold.

 

The performance of the seal is not dictated by whether or not the truck is in 2Hi, 4Hi or 4Lo. If it isn't leaking now it isn't leaking in 4wd.

I recently did the ECGS bushing on my truck and I left the diff seal alone. If it ain't broke.....

 

Put it in 4wd. If it leaks then you know. If the spring wasn’t in there I’m pretty certain it would leak almost immediately in 2 or 4wd. Kinda a lot of work to replace if not needed and running the risk of actually damaging a new seal and creating a leak.

 

Your CVs and spider gears are always turning. Like @MR E30 said, 4WD is not a factor.

 

If you put a new seal in, coat the outside of the seal, coat the inside of the seal with grease, put a couple dabs of grease on that spring to hold in place as well, then coat the cv axle in grease on the part that goes into the Diff, this helps a lot with installs and avoiding damaging the new seal. I have done a lot of them, and only had one leak on me bc it was a seal provided to me by the customer. Always use a Toyota seal too, no aftermarket.

 

What kind of grease should I be using? Thanks!

 

Any Automotive grease will work, but I use grease with Moly in it for just about everything that I lube.