Grease coming from axle?

[JGood]

I did my rear wheel bearings last week, and had a lot of trouble with the passenger side. The puller ended up cutting into the teeth on the hub a bit. This made pushing the axle through rather difficult. I ended up having to tap on the backside with a hammer to get it in far enough to thread the nut. After that, the nut pulled it the rest of the way, although somewhat hard.

Anyway, I put maybe 100 miles on it and jacked it up to double check my work. This is what I found:




So how is it coming out from in between those metal plates, and what do I do? A decent amount came out, it was splattered on my wheel and trailing arm. I cleaned it all of and put another 20 miles on tonight, I will take a look tomorrow to see if anymore leaked out.

[e30_kid89]

110% the CV boot is torn or the metal part is damaged, throwing out grease.

Get another axle.

[JGood]

That's why I attached the picture. As you can see, the source of the grease is about 2" away from the boot and clamp.

I have 2 spare axles, I don't mind putting one in, but this is the first time I've seen this and want to know exactly what is wrong with it, and what would cause it.

[e30_kid89]

I had the same problem except with the inner CV joint... twice

First time it was on the same outer CV joint except i used a chisel/hammer to push the axle splines thru the hub(me = dumbass), punching a hole in the housing which then made it leak grease in the same places like the ones in your picture.

Second time the housing where the bolts go through to the diff came apart (shitty rebuilt axle FTL) plus the actual bolts were loose so while i was driving it was throwing out grease....there was the same black grease on the spare tire well, the trunk underside and some on the subframe. Swapped out the axle = no moar thrown around grease.

Have you looked at it since? I think you're gonna find more grease. I don't see where else it would come from.

[JGood]

Well it's definitely coming from the metal part of the splined end of the axle. That's very clear. I just don't see why. I guess it could be cracked or something. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to put a new one back in without hammering it... It took probably 15 minutes of tapping that one just to get it in enough to get the threads started. I even cleaned both splined surfaced and used a little grease to help it slide in.

[e30_kid89]

Once I some how managed to push the spline through to get it threaded by the nut without hammering, but i cleaned the shit the hub's splines. But since that was clearly a fluke i tap lightly on the edge of the metal part that i circled/squared lol.

[JGood]

That's exactly what I did...

[JGood]

What the fuck.

I pulled the axle today, cleaned the splines of the hub and new axle with a stiff bristle brush and brake cleaner. Greased them up, and slid it in. I gave it one little half-assed push to see if the splines were lined up, and it popped the whole way in to place.

Done. That easy.