Witches hat leak

[mdevino]

I haven't dug into this at all yet, but based on the size of the puddle I'm thinking I lost most of the contents of fluid in my front diff on my 710. I'm guessing it's the witches hat seal, based on the oil coming from around the front cardan shaft housing flange.

Any advice on the best approach to getting to this seal? I'm thinking pull rear diff and center tube, while supporting the transmission. Doesn't sound fun, but probably a bit easier than pulling the front diff.

Thanks,

Mike


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[rmel]

Nope, you gotta pull the front diff out. You really can't disassemble from the back end
all the way to the front diff witches hat. That would be a nightmare and a disaster.

If your located in SoCal or TX might want to see if Goatwerks or FatFab can do a front
diff job for you. It would also be a good excuse to upgrade to EX-II. And yes the front
diff job is a huge PITA.

[Brady 712k]

I did the witches hat seal on my 712K. It was leaking from the hat off of the transfer case to the drive shaft going forward. I got tired of topping off the transfer case every 180 miles and filling up the torque tube!
Side note..... if the torque tube becomes to full, the gear oil will heat up expand and blow out of the vent breather tube up by your starter!!!!......
Ok so....
It was an $8.00 seal but to do the job I had to buy a gantry crane and chain fall from Horrible Freight for about $700.00 bucks!
It wasn't a difficult job but a bit time consuming.
If you think any pics of the rear hat seal being done will help I can post some here!

[mdevino]

I'm a little late here, but thank you both for the replies. I finally made room in the shop to get at this...brady712k, any photos you have of how you supported things would be hugely appreciated!


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[Brady 712k]

Sorry for the delay I'm just seeing this post now!
I just bought a Gantry crane and chain fall from Harbor Freight and used a winch trap and with the one chain fall supported the whole rear of the Pinzgauer from the Gantry crane above it.
I'm sure you've gotten the work done already but this system worked great for me.