I have a 1969 FJ40 with drum brake spindles that I am attempting to rebuild. I have been trying to search to find an answer but because the key words seem to be "dust seal" and "felt", all I can find are posts relating to the seals on the inner side of the knuckles. When I disassembled my kunckles, this piece had what appeared to be a really compressed and grimy piece of felt jammed in the inner groove:
Since my rebuild kit came with what appears to be a felt piece that kinda fits in there, I am presuming the intent is for it to go in there and provide a dust seal for the back side of the hub.
My repair manual shows it in the exploded diagram but more so behind that plate: (I am reading it as the steel ring is item 31 and the felt seal is 29)
If I try to put the felt inside the groove in the ring as shown on the bench, it is too wide, you can kinda compress it and jam it in there but is is springy enough that it works its way back out as you move around the ring compressing the rest. If you rotate the ring by 90 degrees and put it in the ring it is narrow enough to fit in the groove and stay but it is too wide towards the center of the ring to the point that the hub cant fit inside and just presses the felt out if you use any sort of force.
If I try it behind the ring like the exploded diagram, the felt ring is too large in diameter to fit inside the little pocket that is machined into the face of the spindle.
I feel like I am missing something super obvious but none of my manuals go into detail regarding installation of this seal and all of the front spindle rebuild videos I can find all seem to be about spindles with disc brakes and they don't have this seal as far as I can tell.
Any help anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Since my rebuild kit came with what appears to be a felt piece that kinda fits in there, I am presuming the intent is for it to go in there and provide a dust seal for the back side of the hub.
My repair manual shows it in the exploded diagram but more so behind that plate: (I am reading it as the steel ring is item 31 and the felt seal is 29)
If I try to put the felt inside the groove in the ring as shown on the bench, it is too wide, you can kinda compress it and jam it in there but is is springy enough that it works its way back out as you move around the ring compressing the rest. If you rotate the ring by 90 degrees and put it in the ring it is narrow enough to fit in the groove and stay but it is too wide towards the center of the ring to the point that the hub cant fit inside and just presses the felt out if you use any sort of force.
If I try it behind the ring like the exploded diagram, the felt ring is too large in diameter to fit inside the little pocket that is machined into the face of the spindle.
I feel like I am missing something super obvious but none of my manuals go into detail regarding installation of this seal and all of the front spindle rebuild videos I can find all seem to be about spindles with disc brakes and they don't have this seal as far as I can tell.
Any help anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Last edited:
