I remembered how much fun it was trying to make something that fit the seal to tap it in with before and reaching through the tube with a pipe to tap it in and I was glad there was a better option!

As you can see it is made to fit the seal perfectly, and the other side fits inside the diff housing allowing you to simply press the seal in by turning the nut with a wrench. First you need to pull the axle shafts.

Tools I used (different axles/hubs/etc. may use different tools)

Step 1: Remove wheels, calipers, and drain oil

Jack up the vehicle and drain the oil. Remove cover plate (mine were 1/2" head bolts). If your bottom bolts are trashed it might be a job removing them, I used allen heads to replace the lower destroyed bolts. Remove wheels (mine used a 3/4" socket) and remove calipers. The GM style calipers are bolted on with two 11/16" bolts each and you do not need to unhook the brake lines, just set the calipers on the leaf springs. This way you do not need to bleed the brakes after putting it all back together.

Step 2: Remove hubs

If you have the stock hubs still I highly suggest getting a set of aftermarket ones - they are much simpler in design and less pieces to worry about. My hubs are Pro Comp brand which is very similar to MileMarker and many of the others. To remove mine I first removed the outer allen head bolts on the locking hub and popped the outer part off (you may need to tap on it with a rubber mallet to free it). Make sure the hubs are unlocked before removing them. Next there are two snap rings that hold on the inner part of the hub. The outer one is in the rotor part and the inner is actually on the axle shaft itself. The outer can be popped out with a screwdriver and the inner can be removed with snap ring pliers. After these have been removed the inner hub part will slide out (use one of the allen head bolts to pull it out with).

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Step 3: Remove rotor, caliper bracket, spindle, and carrier

You will need a special socket to remove the large spindle nut. After you remove the first large nut there is a lock washer that is sort of a pain to remove, I have an awl with a bent tip that I use to pull it out with but if you have small fingers you might be lucky enough to just pull it out. After removing that lock washer there is a second large nut you need to remove with the same special socket. After removing the second one the rotor will slide right off - be sure to keep track of any wheel bearings that might fall out. This might be a good time to repack those wheel bearings as well. The caliper bracket is held on by the same nuts that hold the spindle on. When you remove these the caliper bracket and spindle will come off allowing you to slide out the axle shafts and remove the 4 bolts holding in the carrier assembly.

Step 4: Finally - the seal!!

Use a seal puller to pop out the old seals, mine were destroyed! I actually used the tool wrong the first time so it wanted to "walk" its way out of the carrier. You will want to position the spacer between the nut on the threaded portion and the seal installer part to keep the tool from "walking" out of the carrier. Simple place the seal on the end of the tool and start cranking the nut until it bottoms in the carrier. That's it! It is extremely easy to use, once one side is in just loosen it up and flip it around to press in the other side.

what a bad seal looks like..

the other side..

the tool fits the seal perfect

pressing in the new seal

wallah!

now for the other side..

Step 5: Put it all back together.

Basically just do everything in reverse order but be sure to get those carrier bolts started by hand before you grab the impact and fire them in. I screwed the threads up on one cap (both bolts!) and had to re tap the differential housing - I really hope it holds up! While you have it apart it is a great time to repack the wheel bearings and if you have the small 7/16" studs it is a great time to upgrade to the larger 1/2" studs.

To purchase this and other must have tools check out the WhiteKnuckleMotorsports.net shop at WhiteKnuckleMotorsports.net