Nothing worse than a leaking rear end! – As you can see by the pictures there is a quite a nasty leak which has been diagnosed as a leaking pinion seal. Because of the nature of the leak, gear oil has been flung around under the car including onto the exhaust!
The friendly folk on the vintage mustang forum let me know what sort of diff (8″) I have as there are no casting marks or tags plus the parts I needed. I would honestly be lost without the forum so if you haven’t joined I suggest you do.
With the rear end out from under the car I can now replace the seal. I hit a problem instantly. I don’t have a socket large enough (27mm) to remove the pinion nut! (Queue the order of more tools).
It seems this rear end (based on the casting numbers) may have come from a Ford Fairlane/Torino, cast on the 30th August 1965.
After removing the pinion nut & flange I was able to remove the old seal (with a lot of persuasion). Before I install the new seal I will clean up and paint the flange. You can see all that here.
Once the pinion housing had a coat of paint I then installed the new seal using my seal driver kit (really really glad I bought it).
The rear end has been reassembled but I won’t know if there is a leak until I fill the casing with fluid. Fingers crossed!
My Mustang Journey 