I am getting leakage from the rear u-joint. The pinion nut is oily, as is the yoke. Am I correct in assuming that the seal is ok? Wouldn't it leak from the outer collar on the housing if the seal was bad? I should be able to mark the nut, take it off and clean it up then put some rtv on the splines and reassemble, correct?

Same thing I was thinking.

I replaced the seal not to long ago to correct the same symptoms. Real easy and followed the directions provided by board members. Do a search. The pinion seal leak fix has been discussed many times. Took about 30 minutes with correct tools. Good Luck!

Yup,sounds like the gear lube is seeping through spline and past pinion nut/wahser like happened on my car when they installed a new seal with a gear change and never put any sealer on the splines like they were supposed to do.

I removed the rear yoke,cleaned the pinion & yoke with braklean,applied silicon sealer on the yoke splines,reassembled & torqued pinion nut to 125-150 lbs per our resident 12 bolt expert BIG GEAR HEAD. It worked out great.no more leak.

Also,use loctite on the pinion nut.

Scott