What the heck is this thing??!!

What’s up Yota people? I’ve got a question for ya.
I just replaced the pinion seal in my front diff, placed a clean bucket down to catch the gear oil, removed the oil slinger for a minute to check out the bearing. Realized the bearing was not going to pop out easily enough for a quick inspection like captain YouTube did, so I put the oil slinger back on, installed the new pinion seal and put everything back together. While I was pouring the gear oil into a different container I noticed this round spring stuck to the bottom of the bucket. Definitely was not in there at the beginning of the project. Anyone know what it is, and what do I need to do to make it right. Thanks in advance!

 

That goes inside the bearing seal just to give a little pressure for water sealing. I saw one when we changed the tires on the Harley and I lost a spacer.

 

As mentioned it's a spring that is in the seal that give the seal more pressure to help it seal against the pinion shaft, if you check your old seal you will see it's missing the spring and why it was leaking, you're good to go!

Here's a cross section of a seal showing the spring.

 

Awesome news. Thanks for the info! Glad I don’t have to pull the new seal back out!

 

Well when the seal fails you can install another one and make sure the retention spring stays on. It is always right to do it right the first time. If it wasn't necessary the seal manufacturers would leave it off to save money.