No I used grease. Again Bubba suggested it and it will dissipate and not affect anything. I actually forgot to put the wheel sensor hanger back on so I had to pull the shafts back out. So far so good and no leaks. Also while moving the axle around I tipped it and dumped a bit out of each axle tube so that may have helped too...haha. Tell me about cold it wasn't back east cold but when its in the mid forties sitting on concrete sucks. Fortunately my garage is insulated and with the door closed it wasn't too bad. It did make the welds cool a lot faster too.