Rear axle seal

[Mike Przano]

Hi all,
The right real axle on my 61 at the hub was leaking so I pulled the axle and found one O-ring which fits in a groove on the bearing. The CC catalog shows a real axle seal kit with 2 O-rings per wheel. There is a large flat washer that the bearing rides up against in the hub and I'm wondering if the 2nd O-ring which I could not find when I pulled the axle goes in front of or in back of this washer. Probably the reason for the leak. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike

[Mike M.]

Re: Rear axle seal

remove the leaking rear axle bearing from the axle and take it to the local bearing and transmission shop(Applied Indust. thechnolgies is the outfit here on the east coast) and they can measure your old bearing and provide you with a sealed bearing that'll solve your leak. doubt "missing" o -ring will fix the leak. good luck, m ike

[John M.]

Re: Rear axle seal

Hi Mike,
Hows life out there on the left coast? First things first, The leak is probably from a bearing seal failure and probably not from the O-ring. Also, ANY new bearing you put in right out of the box WILL fail again after just a few thousand miles! The source of the problem is that the bearings sold for many years are not the same configuration as the original bearings. The original bearings were open to the rear end lube and were sealed at the outside of the bearing with the lip oriented to prevent lube from migrating to the brake drum area. All the replacement bearings, are sealed from the rear end and the seal is oriented to prevent the lube from entering the bearing!!! After a few thousand miles, the factory grease starts to dry up and the bearing starts to heat up. When this happens, the seal will start to leak from the high bearing temperature melting the seal. Now, the bearing gets the lube it has been longing for, but it is too late since now there is nothing to keep the lube from flowing into the brake drums. If you pull your axles and take them to an automotive parts house or machine shop, the chances are that the new bearings will be installed as they come out of the box, and the cycle will start all over again!
There is however, a very simple process that will assure long seal life.
First, you will notice that the bearings sold today are sealed on one side and have a dust shield on the other side. Pry the dust shield off and discard it.
Now you will need to remove the seal from the bearing and turn it around so that it is on the outboard side of the bearing and has the lip seal oriented to seal lube from leaking out to the brake area. I have been very successful in removing the seals and being able to re-use them by using a small pin punch and driving the seal off by punching between the balls of the bearing. If you damage the seal, don't worry, as you can buy new seals at your local Auto parts store. You can now have your local machine shop press the bearings on as normal, and you can be assured of long seal life. One other little tidbit of info. The original bearings were .900" wide and had a .10" thick spacer behind the bearing, while all the new replacement bearings are 1.00" thick and you must remove the spacer if it is there to prevent damaging the bearing retainer plate when boting it down.

Regards, John McGraw

[James F.]

[Mike M.]

Re: Rear axle seal

Joh: i replaced the axle bearings in my 54,57 AND 61 with sealed bearings i got at the local bearing store(applied ind tech) after i took in the originals for exact replacements. the 54 has over 40k miles(6800 toBend and back in 89) and the 57 has about 10k miles( lot of 1/4 mil;e runs as well as autoX) the 61 has about 1000 miles on it. haven't heard any bearings singing yet but will be on lookout. i hope you and i are around in 25 years so i can side with jim but who knows. regards, mike

[John M.]

Re: Rear axle seal- John

Jim,
As you are aware, there were not many things that Dale and I agreed on but this was one of those issues. While I do not doubt that your car may have had sealed bearings,and that those bearings may have in fact been original, I do not believe that later cars used sealed bearings. My 60 still had the original bearings in it, and they were open to the rear end lube. I also have an original GM bearing instruction sheet that clearly shows that the seal was located at the outboard position. John Hinkley sent me this instruction sheet several years ago when this question first came up in my mind. I would also agree with you that the 56-57 bearings are .9" in width, but all the 58-62 bearings that are being sold now are 1.0" in width, or at least they are in the parts stores in my area of the country. In any event, this is just something to check before bolting the retainer flanges on. Don't ask me how I know that this can ruin a set of bearing retainers!

Jim, I would never be mad at someone who expressed a different opinion than me, and especially you. You have always been a gentelman and have never ridiculed my lack of knowledge on 56-57 cars when I was foolish enough to open my mouth when I didn't know what I was talking about. I have never heard you utter an unkind word to anyone in all the time I have known you, and this is a rarity in this day.

My thoughts are that GM changed to an open bearing on later models to combat a high failure rate of either the bearings or the seals, but this is only conjecture on my part and I have no other documentation to prove this. GM has used axle bearings that are open to the rear end lube and still do to this day on most of their differentials.
below is a link to a scan of the bearing instruction sheet.

Still friends!

Regards, John McGraw

http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=893908

[James F.]