Chevy 14 bolt FF axle question

Finishing up an axle swap on my K5, first time ever messing with a FF axle.

Pulled the drum of the pax side to look things over, no surprises. Pulled the drivers off and f*** me. It is the nastiest greasiest dirty mess I think I’ve ever seen, gonna take like 3-4 cans of brake cleaner to clean that crap up.

All I can think is the rear seal must have been leaking, though it never leaked out of the drum the 6 years or so I had it sitting.

Anything I’m missing for a cause/remediation?

Charlie

Chilton repair manual is your friend.

True, but I’m good with assembly, I’m hoping someone who has laid hands on one can confirm.

Charlie

I’m not much help. Only 14 bolt full floaters I’ve dealt with have been a disc setup and never leaked. But damn solid axles. It may be telling you it wants upgrades

Yes, it's been doing alot of talking during this rebuild... I immediately thought of a drum/disc swap but it's about $600 to include calipers that will also do the e-brake function. I'm into it for about $100 on rebuilding everything but the drums. Going to use the $500 to get some tube doors.

Charlie

You should have just called me, I have done several hundred wheel seals over the years

Not a hard job just heavy parts. The hub seal is giant and usually two-piece. There's also a gasket where the axle shaft bolts to the hub.

This afternoons job

14 bolt heavy? It’s all about perspective......

But we do see you had to break out the "big" (or medium depending on perspective) hammer

John tells everybody to get the biggest hammer you have and hit it as hard as you can until it comes off. It works.

Judd, I have bigger hammers at work and home

BigPig, if you can aim a hammer is a big help