front axle seal leak

That is the way the tech manual says to do it... 20-3 manual ch 10...

I remember some dial indicator and block set up that was posted and a crazy cost. Myself I like Steve's way.

friend I did mine with.... we just used a chunk of machined metal and a Caliper to measure depth and did the math to determine neccissary amount of shims needed. Pretty easy and more accurate cause of measuring actual distance from machined surface (machined block on machine surface of hub) measured to inner surface face. From that distance just used math to determine specific shims needed to ensure proper setup... Required setup is in the TM drawn out next to a diagram of the hub (same page shown in post 21 above but image is cut off... though spec. is in the text too.)

this is essentially what the TM says to do

After I read all the posts plus post #11 I thought as Steve said he would trust his way over the TM repair. Yea Steve's way may take longer till you get the feel for it but myself feel it is the better way. Maybe I read it wrong and thought you were leaning towards making the cut off hub tool back then and the feel it method. Guess it all boils down to what one is comfortable with. https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?144834-M1078-LMTV-planetary-hub-setup/page2

Even that diagram doesn't show it that clearly. A cross section would have been better. The guy in the video shows it best like Coachgeo described...