Ferrari Dino 308GT4 Driveshaft seal replacement

So I got stuck in an tackled the drive shaft seal. First thing was to remove the axle from the car. Undoing the M8 hex bolts was ok for the inner C.V. joint using a long extension and a tough 8mm hex drive - turning the axle each time to get to the next bolt. The nuts are the locking type and were original so had probably never been off but they weren't rusty at least - they need a spanner on though until the bolt comes out. With the inner joint separated you need to remove the outer one to remove the axle. I needed to use the 8mm drive straight onto the bolts and jam the hub. I ended up removing the brake, disc, shock absorber, top A-arm and hum carrier to have a good clean around and better access to the axle and drive flange in the gearbox.








Everything out



The offending seal. Note the RTV sealant in the drive flange bolt hole. Oil can leak through the differantial, through the bolt in to the C.V. joints to you have to seal it when intalling the drive flange. I used ThreeBond/HondaBond.

With the axle and other bits out of the way it's easy to remove the one bolt to remove the drive flang, but I drained the transmission oil on my Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 first as I was going to change it anyway and I followed Robert Garvin's great tutorial on Birdman's website. The old seal came out of the differential case pretty easily and was rock hard as all the other seals I've replaced have been. New seal from www.superformance.co.uk for about £5 pushed into place and the drive flange refitted. Had a clean up with degreaser and a toothbrush whilst access was easy and also stripped both C.V. joints on the axle and fitted new boots and repacked with fresh grease - I figured the old ones must be 30 years old as they also looked original. It's a dirty job replacing C.V. grease but it's done now at least on the passenger side. With it all bolted up and a few good runs there's only a hint of oil residue, so no dripping leaks as before and now surprise given the state of the old seal. I was a little concerned that the inner drive flange had noticeable play when the axle was off, but R&D in Manchester seemed to think it was not too bad as did Nick Cartwright - thanks for the advice.