Fat_Mike:

I've had to do this miserable job on this Horses' Ass setup twice on the passenger side. The best advice I can give you, is to pay extra for the seal at a Chrysler Dealer and ask them to loan you the installer tool.

The first time I did it I built my own tool by welding the old seal to a nut, threading it on ready-rod and it didn't work. You need their tool because it centers everything and pulls the seal in straight. It's a blind pull so everything has to line up perfect and ready-rod with big washers and nuts won't do it. I took photos last time of their puller and I have a die from a ball-joint installer kit that fits their seal perfect. I will try to build another but this time will spend a day doing it.

The seals leaking isn't your fault from doing the u-joints, Mike. There is a trick to re-installing your axles, pm me. If you let the u-joints go too long they vibrate/have too much play and beat the seal up. Then the leak starts. Of course, it doesn't show up until after you get everything back together, happened to me too.

I feel your pain: These straight-axle front-ends in these trucks is the worst design I have ever seen in my life. Made to fail, and made to anger the do-it-yourselfer to all ends. What kind of an IDIOT Engineer positions an axle seal six inches inside the tube and makes it so you can't see what you're doing? The kind that has a supervisor telling them to make it so the Customer has to take it to the dealer to do, that's who. I have a solution to fix the whole mess but it's more work than it's worth.

Let us know how you make out on the driver-side: I haven't had to do it...........yet.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just trying to get a riot going for all the Jeep and HD Owners who continue to have to deal with this mess.

*Edit* I have the service manual as a pdf if you need, let me know.