I used a new retainer snap ring. You know what I just thought of.. the possibility that I used too much RTV and the retainer is not seated far enough onto the case. Mmmm. This would make sense. The seal may be rubbing the rings because the grooves are not lined up properly. This is unlikely, but it's a possibility.

 

Too much RTV would have squeezed out unless you let it harden before tightening the bolts down - but that's silly to think about.


If you opened up the snap ring too much to get it over the shaft it may have taken a permanent distortion. You have to open that snap ring just enough to sneak over the shaft without scratching it. Same would have happened removing it, this is probably why the FSM does not recommend reusing it.

 

I believe I torqued the retainer bolts to 22lbs or so. Hardly enough to compress the RTV to a nominal amount if it were too liberally applied. I did let it sit for a small amount of time, not enough to dry though. I was very careful with the snap ring, warping or distortion shouldn't be a factor. I'm going to retorque the bolts and see if the snap ring can seat correctly into the groove. If not I'll look elsewhere for the issue.

 

I believe hopeful/wishful thinking had gotten me to this determination. Bolts are as tight as they need to be, upon inspection I see no possibility of incorrect seating of the retainer to the case. I could use a slightly thinner snap ring. I picked up some rings that were extra after a SYE on a 231/242 and one of the rings is a different width. I wonder if this would be a bad move, or if it would be strong enough.

 

I gave you the OEM part number for the snap ring and the seal. Get them from the dealer. Don't dick around with thinner snap rings or Chinese seals.

 

The ring I purchased is from mopar, very hard to find unfortunately. Took nearly 2 weeks to get here. I will be ordering a OEM seal, no more napa. Hopefully that will fix it.

 

Hammer and small punch new one once its on should seat it unless shaft at groove it scared up.

 

Update:

So I went ahead and replaced the rear output shaft bearing, even though the old one was still seemingly in good condition. I then installed an OEM Mopar rear output seal and I haven't had an issue since. Considering the history of my seal leaking within ~50 miles I'm assuming that it is fixed. No leaks.

For those of you replacing the stock rear output shaft seal: Get the Mopar seal, don't go aftermarket. I went through 4 seals, 2 oil slinger/dust covers and about 3 quarts of trans fluid because of an aftermarket seal. I could tell immediately upon installation that the mopar seal was different, there's a clearance difference between the snap ring and the seal that was non existent from the Napa part.

 

Thanks for the follow up.



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Thanks for your help Ken, you were right about going OEM with the seal haha

 

Of course you saw my avatar.