Pinion seal frustration

Hey guys,


Well it's been the typical three-month mark, and i've been due for amother gigantic pain in the ### with this truck for a while.

Volvo 630, 563,000 miles. Started kicking oil out of the pinion seal a rear differential last Friday.
Immediately put it into a shop to get it fixed, ended up taking till Tuesday afternoon to get done, they did not have the seal in stock (even though they lied, and told me that they definitely definitely did which is why I brought it to the shop, which is not my favorite at all in my hometown area.)

This morning, after having driven on it for roughly 600 miles at most, I get up and start checking the truck down before I roll-lo and behold oil everywhere over the rears, the pinion seal has reopened.

After I got the pinion seal replaced, I drove about 60 miles then had an alignment and rotation done on all my drives in an X pattern. The alignment came back OK, it wasn't terrible but it definitely needed done. I don't know if it did or didn't add to the issues with the pinion seal, it's a possibility but I don't believe a large one.

I don't know if these guys just used the wrong pinion seal, or if they're just totally incompetent. Which I guess one would lead to the other.

Does anyone have any thoughts about a pinion seal failing twice in the same week? It's pretty clear to me something else might be wrong.
And yes the ventilators are clear, the only other thing I could think is that the differential oil is above the fill line. Maybe an overfill? The overfill, I believe that came from a TA premium p.m. lube job.

 

When I asked about some of these you've mentioned I got blank stares.

I mean as in sitting here prepping to go into another shop I'm getting progressively more and more angry. This #### is ridiculous.

One thing I forgot to mention was that the locking nut had 1/4in tack weld on it and the yoke for some reason, they couldn't figure out why it would've been there, this is starting to make some sense in the bet placing arena. Just went back under and checked for loose nuts and pins- nada. Though they did reinstall all old parts aside from the seal.

I am making the shop that ####ed this up pay for it to be repaired again.

Hopefully not worn splines, that's not what I need this week.

 

When it comes to the tac welded nut I agree with the red flags, but that said nothing visible to concern anyone outright.

Speedi sleeve? Haha that's awesome, I'll have to bring that up with the service guy when he comes back. Still waiting but running down the checklist of culprits...

Got a funky ### nut tac weld, but someone mentioned above could just be lack of a part and wanting assurance it's gonna stay on or heated off etc.

Maybe just a bad seal? Let's face it though, simplest seal set up in the world, installation takes less time than removing the old one.

Worn shaft- that's where my money's sitting. Or just plain wrong seal, we had a lot of problems with ID'ing the seal. Luckily I'm back up in Chicagoland so even if this dealer doesn't have the parts, take your pick. #### I could go get them today myself.