New Member

Nice to see another 283 in a jeep, torquey little suckers aren't they.

As for the rear end, has that thing got a Model 20? No matter what the rear end, I'd suggest taking it to a shop and having a new pinion bearing and crush seal installed. If you are not familar with centering the pinion gear on the sun gear and checking for wear etc..., take it in to a shop, I had this done to a Model 20 for about $75 labor

/wwwthreads_images/icons/cool.gif Big Ed
'88 YJ, 4" susp,3" body,33's,283 Chevy V8,TH350,4.11's,D30,D35c

The "spews oil" part of your problem is a bad pinion seal, not a big problem and fairly easy to fix. The "has a lot of play" part requires some clarification on your part. I'll try to help you trouble shoot if you can supply some more information.

Do you mean that you can rotate the drive shaft a little in either direction? How much? Some play is normal here, too much play can be caused by a number of factors.

Or do you mean you can literally wiggle the pinion all over the darn place; up, down, side to side, and any combination thereof? If this is the case, the pinion bearings are shot. This could have caused some pretty serious damage to your ring and pinion and other components of the rear differential. If this is the case, and depending on the extent of the damage, there should have been some very disturbing noises, vibrations, and possibly even serious "jerks" coming from your rear end while driving.

Also, you should have a Dana 44 rear axle, it doesn't have a crush sleeve. It uses shims to set pinion bearing preload instead of the crush sleeve.

My other car is a BULLDOZER

welcome TimT,
there has been alot of axle repair topics on this board, have you tried the search tool: http://dosxxs.off-road.com/wwwthreads//search.pl?Cat= for this BBS? tons of info on everything and it's just growing/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif
without knowing all the facts, sounds like your pinion bearings (and seal) are worn out.

3/4tonYJ
My Jeep Page