Freelander 1 pinion oil seal

Evening all and hi as me and my good lady are new to the landy world.

There is a slight oil leak from the diff pinion oil seal. I would like to replace this seal when the VCU is changed but the talk of bearing preload has me scared.

My thoughs are it probably isn't that bad if the collapsible washer is changed and torqued to 190Nm as this in theory this should preload the bearings. Has anyone done this job and how hard is it? I've not been able to find much out about it.

It's reasonably easy to change the pinion seal in situ. There is a collapsible spacer between the bearings providing preload so, provided you only tighten the nut up to the same or slightly less than it was before removal, the spacer won't collapse any more. You can get a rough gauge of how tightly the nut is secured with a breaking torque wrench. The process is easy but time consuming. With the torque wrench set to, say half the correct torque, try to undo the nut. The wrench should "break" indicating that the nut is tighter than the torque wrench setting. Don't apply more force after the wrench has broken as this will give you a false nut torque. Just increase the tention and try again. Repeat this sequence over and over until, at some point, the nut will start to undo before the torque wrench breaks. This should be a similar tention to the factory setting. Once you know what tention the nut was, it can be removed so that you can get to the seal. Replacing the seal isn't difficult but do it carefully to avoid damage to the seal surfaces. Refitting the nut is easy enough. Reduce the final setting on the torque wrench by 10 or 20 Nm and tighten the nut back until the wrench breaks again. This will tighten the nut sufficiently but at the same time, not alter the bearing preload.

Check the breather isn't blocked first, it might be the reason for the seal weeping!

Many thanks all, it was the pinion oil seal, our local guy is fixing it at a good price so letting him do it. I would like to have had a go but didn't seem worth stressing. The breather is on the small pipe on the diff isn't it.

Hello, just seen this thread.

Been trying to read on the internet on how to do this but not had an in depth detail as of yet. Could anyone point me in the right direction in terms of part numbers for the seal, a picture or a good old youtube video please.

Also both of my rear diff output seals are leaking to, again any information would be great. I will check the breather first to make sure it is not that, just in case.

Not sure why you have to remove the driveshafts - even the second picture show them still in place. I assume it's so you get a correct reading for the preload.

Thanks the images

I think I have found the part number for the seal (LR017552) But have not been able to find the other parts mentioned like:
Collapsible Spacer
Pinion Bearing
Oil Thrower
Pinion Nut
Any help would be great

Thanks

Ebay auction numbers 331863747248 and 230986253221

Just found this, have seen the pinion bearing as TZZ100140 or TZZ100150 though all being well this will not need replacing.

Pinion Oil Seal is LR017552 and probably FTC5258 as well
Collapsible Spacer is TXT100010
Which just leaves the Pinion Nut which could be either TXV100020 or TXV100000

Also Output Seals are TOC100000.