SLEEPER 86

Does anyone have any tips on getting my 9bolt axle seals to seat all the way? I have whacked the axles pretty good with a 4 lb sledge several times and i think they're seated, but the seals are still out about 1/4" from being flush with the caliper mounting brackets. The brackets are the 1le conversion brackets from a board member and are about 1/4" thick.
I tried to pull the seal in with the mounting bolts and managed to bend the seal cover some.
I have an old input shaft.that just fits thru the service hole in the axle, should I just try to pound the seals.in using the input shaft against the seal cover?

SLEEPER 86

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SLEEPER 86

So no one has ever done this? In "everything I know about the 9 bolt" he says just torque retaining plates to 36 lbs. This started to bend the retaining plates. Maybe fine sand the axle seals (one looks to be rubber the other is not painted). Pounding axles in does not seat the seals. Is there a special tool for this?
I am also using E.B.Miller's caliper mounting brackets that are thicker than the stock brackets, but do not use dust plates.
Need tips.please!

duponte

Hey Sleeper 86,
Know this is an old thread but I am having the exact same issue with the axle seals on my 9 bolt. I have read most of the other threads but I haven't seen a detailed explanation solving this issue. I know time has gone by since your build but could you enlighten me on what you did to fix your issue and what parts you used?

scooter

iTrader: (11)

If you replaced them, did you get the CORRECT seals? The lookup for the seals I got were not correct for the axle and cause the seal to sit proud of where it is supposed to. I have a set of the correct seals, and they are MUCH different then the ones you get at the parts store or Rock auto.

I did successfully use the one "wrong" seal, it was the fully rubber coated seal, by spacing the retaining plate with some washers. I put the bolts in evenly and lose to see how much gap there was going to be, then I used a little less washer than it all hand tight showed so the plate would press the seal into the housing, and put preload onto the seal, but not so much that the plate distorted much. The plate doesn't see all that much force exerted on it since the "outside" wheel in a corner is taking most of the G force, and that is trying to push the axle into the housing. The inside wheel is the one trying to pull the axle out, and that wheel is less loaded in the corner, so using some washers should be fine.
I also recommend replacing the interference fit nut (crimped) with NEW when you pull an axle. I learned that lesson the hard way, had the axle come out of the housing..... fortunately it didn't wreck my day, week, year or life

duponte

Thanks for the reply

Here are the problems I'm having:

Pass Side: Timken 710179
-when tightening down the retaining plate, the seal sticks out and the plate bends.

Drivers side: National:
-doesn’t seem to stick out as much but has a rather sloppy fit on the axle seal surface.

I'm really just looking for part #s of seals that others have found that worked. The brake setup is the 9 bolt standard pbr calipers and brackets.

duponte

Drivers side: National 224255

scooter

iTrader: (11)

710179 is the wrong seal from Timken. If you order the National seal, it should be the correct seal using that part number (according to the picture on Rock Auto). This is the seal that I used the washers to space the retaining plate. It has held up so far, and no leaks. It is not the correct seal from Timken.

224255 is the wrong seal, and will likely leak because it has no seal around the outside. I did not utilize this seal. I would try and use the Timken 710179 on both sides if you can't get the correct "bell" shaped seal for each side. The 710179 looks like it should work to seal around the outside, but since it is a directional seal, may potentially let oil past the axle since it is not designed to run that way.

duponte

No offense, but I am not going to use spacers behind the bearing and seal retaining plate since none were used from the factory. Correctly fitting seals exist for this rear end with the stock PBR brake setup and I am not going to rig something up. My issue is selecting the correct seals without having to go through many more seals and potentially wasting money or more bearings.

The 710179 STYLE of seal seems to be recommended by a lot of users here but, like you said, you had to use spacers on the National 710179 seal so I am going to disregard that one too.

The 224255 seal might work on my application but I was simply concerned with how sloppy the seal was to the shaft. The seal still made contact all around but it just wasn't very satisfying. As for the sealing on the outside, I could just use some RTV on the outer face and it would likely be ok but it would make reinstallation for any reason a real pain since I would need to reapply RTV every time I remove and reinstall an axle.

Looking around I found the CENTRIC 41762033seal which looks to be a metal shell covered in rubber type and am considering trying one next.

Any more references to part numbers would be greatly appreciated.

scooter

iTrader: (11)

No, the National seal of the same part number as the Timken should be the correct seal, going by the picture.
The Centric part number you posted will also be incorrect going by the picture.

So you're not willing to use a spacer, which is fine for this application since there really isn't enough stress for it to be an issue, but you're willing to slather on RTV in a place where it shouldn't be and will definitely leak? If you look at the whole seal/bearing arrangement, the seal is what keeps the axle bearing loaded into the housing. It is a very small contact area. The retaining plate is preventing the axle from being pulled out of the axle, and the only time the axle is being pulled is when it is the inside corner, but most of the weight of the car is on the outside wheel, so whether the spacer is there or not isn't going to make a difference. The bolts are holding in tension whether the spacer is there or not for that part. The bolts are holding the backing plate in shear, and the primary friction source is on the axle side since the bolts are really in single shear.