Diff oil leak & pinion sleeve removal ?

[124cso]

I've got a 79 built spider with the Salisbury type diff (rear axle), which has always had a bit of an oil drip from the pinion seal. My understanding is that to re-torque the pinion bearings, one needs to replace the crush sleeve and as these have been unavailable, I have not bothered with it. Now that I have found a source for new sleeves, I am looking at my workshop manual and assuming that I can extract the front bearing and sleeve out thru the front of the axle, leaving the pinion insitu ?? Is this correct ? anyone else done it ?? any issues encountered ?

I certainly do not want to have to disassemble / remove the drive head with all the work that involves. I'd rather put up with the drip and top it up once every few years.

Hoping someone may be of assistance.

[vandor]

To replace the crush sleeve and set its torque correctly the ring gear has to be removed.
Because of this most people do not replace the crush sleeve, instead the nut is marked where it is situated on the pinion shaft and after replacing the seal it is put back in the same position where it was, or just slightly more torqued.