14 Bolt 6 lug

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I found a good 14 Bolt 6 Lug. Before I install it are there any seals or items I should replace while it’s sitting on a stand? I am going to do the breaks and change the oil. All help is appreciated. Thanks-Mike
 

DonYukon

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Not sure about your budget but when I did mine I replaced the pinion seal and axle seals. Also about a month after I installed found out both wheel cylinders were leaking
 

packer0440

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Change the axle seals when you have the diff cover off changing the oil, those are pretty easy on a SF axle after you get the c clips out. As old as these trucks are, pinion seal could also use replacing. Just make sure you attain (and do not surpass) proper preload on the bearing when tightening back up.
 
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Change the axle seals when you have the diff cover off changing the oil, those are pretty easy on a SF axle after you get the c clips out. As old as these trucks are, pinion seal could also use replacing. Just make sure you attain (and do not surpass) proper preload on the bearing when tightening back up.
It has the G80 in it. How hard is it to do with the G80 PosiTrak? I have the coveroff. Do I need another crush washer if I replace the pinion seal?
 

Supercharged111

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It has the G80 in it. How hard is it to do with the G80 PosiTrak? I have the coveroff. Do I need another crush washer if I replace the pinion seal?

G80 doesn't change a thing with respect to changing seals. No need to bother with another crush seal, that was a big fear of mine. I used the 3 dot method on both trucks and my Camaro.

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Mark before disassembly, replace seal, then line up the nut, pinion shaft, and yoke to reassemble.
 

Schurkey

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When this was me, I replaced the axle seals without dicking with the pinion seal. With the axle shafts out, cleaned the grease off the axle shafts, then I drew a "relatively" straight line from just behind the bearing area to just ahead of the splines on each shaft using a white paint pen. That'll tell me if I ever twist an axle shaft. Which will never happen, but what the heck.

Verify the bearing and seal area of each axle shaft. As the shaft is the inner race for the bearing, it has to be "perfect". The seals will wear a groove into the shaft over time. If the groove gets big enough, it'll leak. I haven't looked to see if they make a repair sleeve for the seal groove. Probably not--it'd be a bytch to install.
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You've got the pin out to remove the C-clips. Make sure the pin isn't worn, and that the spider and pinion gears in the differential case aren't wiped-out. This pin, and the gear are "done".
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My pinion seal wasn't leaking. Figured "sleeping dogs" could go right on lying.

I spent too much time spinning one axle shaft, to see if the G80 would lock. It did, reliably. 'Course, I would spin the one axle shaft fast...slow...half-fast...three-quarter fast...trying to see how much it took to get the G80 to lock. That was fun for about half-an-hour but it didn't accomplish anything useful.

Then I installed Amsoil gear lube with "posi" additive already in the oil, which made the G80 slip so bad it was useless. Drained the Amsoil in favor of Valvoline with NO "posi" additive...twice...before I had any indication that the G80 was working again. MOST gear lubes have "posi" or "limited slip" additive already blended-in; my advice is to avoid those in favor of the stuff that does not have additive. Or get the "smells like grape-juice" special gear lube direct from GM, which costs an arm and a leg.

Replacing the wheel cylinders is a fine idea, as is welding-up/grinding down any grooves the shoes have worn into the backing plate pads.

Beyond that--usual brake job stuff. Might as well bend-up new brake hydraulic tubes from the outlets of the brake hose to the inlets of the wheel cylinders.
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Continued below. At the limit for photos.
 

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Good time to replace the rear brake hose.
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Check/cut/replace the drums, verify the shoes, springs, adjuster, etc. Make sure the park brake cables aren't seized or sticky. The new Right Rear cable I bought from O'Reillys was NOT a "direct" replacement even though they claimed to be. The Communist Chinese and their collaborators in this country can screw-up anything. First Guess: the O'Reillys cables are the same ones everyone else sells, and they're all going to require some cable-housing mods to fit in the brackets.

Removing the brake cables from the backing plates is easy with the Thexton #450 tool. Photo from my K2500 14-bolt full-float 10.5" rear brake rebuild.
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