97 Distributor Oil Leak - internal seal replacement How To (2 Viewers)

[South Texas 97]

After some help from the good folks on the forum, thought I would attempt a replacement of the internal seal and bearing

Symptoms:
Oil covered Alternator from the top LHS side of engine
Oil dripping from the alternator housing

Step 1. Remove Distributor Cap and observe if there is copious amounts of oil inside the distributor housing at the bottom.
if there is no oil inside the housing, it is probably the external o-ring on the distributor body
(Housing O-Ring 90099-14118)
there are plenty of descriptions on how to change that o-ring.

Step 2. If there is oil inside the distributor body, it is most likely the internal seal.
There is some good information available on Kernal's thread

Step 3. Order parts , none of these parts are expensive (both less than 10USD)
Bearing is a KOYO 6000 RS
Seal is a SKG 10x20x7 HMSA10 RG which is available from Motion Industries P/N 01371561 Description: 20X30X7 HMSA10 RG DBL GREY NITRILE SEAL

Note 1: OEM Seal is also a KOYO although in the process of removing the seal, I damaged it enough to not be able to identify more than the mfg. Looking through the KOYO seals catalog, it seems to be a 10x20x7 HMSA10 RG which I cannot find from KOYO, but there is an SKG which seems to be very similar to this
Note 2: OEM bearing has KOYO 6000 RS on it, but the current number seems to be a 6000 2RS, although when I got the new bearing, it shows the 6000 RS markings.

Step 4. Remove the Distributor
4a. Remove battery and battery box
4b. Remove distributor cap and note the orientation of the rotor (take photos and mark the case)
4c. Note the orientation of the distributor where it is bolted to the engine (to give you a ball park for reinstall) I marked with a scribe the top of the mounting slot on the housing

Step 5. take some measurements
5a. Mark (Scribe) the end of the distributor shaft to indicate the orientation of the gear at the bottom of the shaft, it is pressed on only, there is no keyway. There is a small depression in the bottom of the gear, I made two marks on the end of the shaft to align with this depression.
5b. Measure as best you can the distance of the gear from the end of the shaft, and the end of the shaft to the bottom of the distributor housing. (for me it was 4.2mm from end of shaft to side of gear, and 22mm from end of shaft to edge of housing)
5c. Look at the top of the distributor to see how the two sensors are aligned with the reluctor (more pictures)

Step 6. Drink a beverage

Step 7. Remove the gear from the shaft. I used a ball joint press to remove this

Step 8. Remove the shaft from the distributor housing. either using a press or a rubber mallet, supporting the housing on two sides so as not to damage the internal parts. The internal varnish from the oil may make this hard to press out. Be gentle.
Step 9. Remove the bearing and seal by using a long narrow soft punch (brass or aluminium) from the bottom of the distributor housing and either press or gently tap them out.
Step 10. using electronic contact cleaner to swab out the housing and remove the oil and varnish. Clean out any debris from the housing well, clean the shaft and bottom of the housing with contact cleaner to remove the varnish (or use carb cleaner on a cloth to get it clean)
Step 6. Drink a beverage
Step 11. Install the seal (used a deep socket and just pushed it in until it seats) and the bearing (using a socket that matched the outside diameter of the bearing.
Step 12. Install the shaft - it started easily but there is a groove on the shaft that required the last 20mm or so to be pressed on. used some 3:1 oil to lube the shaft first.
Step 13. Check the shaft aligment between the reluctor and the sensors as it was in step 5c above.
Step 14. Align the gear on the shaft and press on.
Step 15. Reinstall Distributor and check timing/adjust as needed.
Step 6. Drink a beverage
I will be monitoring this to see how well it holds up by tiewrapping a shop towel under the distributor weep hole to see when/if it starts leaking again.

The only tricky part about this is pressing the gear off and on the shaft.
Measurements

Mark the end of the shaft for gear alignment

Alignment of sensors and shaft

Seal pressed in

New Bearing Seated

 

[South Texas 97]

Marking the gear location on the shaft

While this is a 6mm thick version, this is shape of the seal, it does not match exactly the original seal, which I destroyed getting out, we will see how long it lasts.

I did notice a groove on the shaft it might have been cut by the old seal, or it may have been original - will see what happens

 

[Kernal]

Nice write up.

I also tore my distributor apart ? 8-10 years ago (can't find the photos, may have been on the hard drive that crashed), but found the same things.

The grooves in the shaft are from the original seal, so a new seal will likely leak unless the new seal depth is off-set from the original. But as the replacement seal (as I recall) is shorter than the original the lips may press on the shaft in different location.

The rotary shaft bearing in my OEM/original distributor only had a seal on the side facing the distributor cap, the side facing the engine was open. Also the cage holding the ball bearings was a polyamide design (not steel). Not sure
why Toyota/Denso decided on that design (heat, expansion, clearances ??)

The original seal (mine was also half destroyed upon removal) seemed to have a shallow shield on the "dirty" side and a unique lip design.

Back when I did this I spent hours searching the net and called/wrote dozens of bearing and seal distributors and manufacturers looking for the exact same parts as the original but they weren't available. There are however, as mentioned above, standard size bearings and seals that will fit.

Good job

 

[South Texas 97]

More on the alignment of the gear. There is a small “arrow” on the gear that goes towards the distributor housing. However it does not seem to line up with the rotor at all. Of course I could have installed it wrong. We will see this weekend.

rotor

when I align the rotor to cyl 1 with the sensor aligned with the reluctor(?) the gear seems to line up with one side of the notch in the gear.

So long as it is installed with the same angle as it came out it should be fine. Will advise this weekend When reinstalled

 

[Devils Paw 80]

...So long as it is installed with the same angle as it came out it should be fine. Will advise this weekend When reinstalled

How did it work out?

 

[South Texas 97]

So far so good have about 10,000 miles on it, towed a trailer to Seattle and back. No drips coming from the weep hole at the bottom of the distributor housing.

 

[Sc0-]

Awesome, was looking into this a few years ago... Grabbed a aftermarket one off amazon and am surprised every time the truck starts but so far so good. I still keep the OEM internally leaking one in the truck if the Amazon unit craps out.

 

[Greyota]

@South Texas 97 - Was the backside of your Koyo bearing open or sealed?

Doing some research of my own and I believe the difference between 6000-RS and 6000-2RS is whether or not both sides are sealed. RS is a single side sealed and 2RS is both sides sealed. I'm also guessing that RS stands for Rubber Seal.

I'd also reference some good info from post #7 in this thread: Distributor oil leak - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/distributor-oil-leak.848497/ where @Kernal says regarding the bearing:

"As mentioned the original deep groove ball bearing (6000 series: 10x26x8)) is a unique design. It has a polyamide cage that separates the ball bearings but also serves as shield for the inward facing side; this allows engine oil to lube the bearing as the distributor is oriented horizontally and the housing has open oiling slits for splash oiling of the bearing and the shaft bushing. The outer side of the original bearing (facing the distributor cap) has a nitrile rubber seal however IMHO a Viton seal would be a better choice."

I found a couple of options that have one side open and the other side sealed:

1. SKF 6000-RSH
   1. Here is an ebay listing that has pictures of both sides
   2. Purchase here on same site that you can purchase the Oil Seal
2. Timken 6000-RS-C3
   1. Purchase here on same site that you can purchase the Oil Seal
3. Koyo 6000-RS-C3
   1. I don't think this is in stock, but it's a good look at what I think we're after

Seems like options #1 and #2 have the bearings in steel cages. Not the polyamide cage of OEM, but a cage open to oiling at least - can't say I know the difference and/or the benefits of the polyamide cage vs. steel. I also can't find a good detail on the Timken open side. I'd like to think there is some type of cage, but I can't confirm.

I suppose the question is whether it's better to have the second side sealed or to have it open with the steel cage?

 

[Kernal]

My best guess, shield on the side toward the engine with a seal on the (clean) side toward the distributor cap.

There's about a centimeter tall space between the engine side of the shaft bearing and the shaft seal. Guessing here, but when the original distributor was manufactured that space may have held (some) grease for the bearing as that side of the original bearing is open toward the engine.

The shaft seal should keep most engine oil away from the bearing but over time engine oil can/will work it's way past the seal and into the bearing, so that may be why the bearing was originallly designed to be open on the side toward the engine. In other words, knowing that the grease would eventually dry up or leak out the engineers might have figured they'd let the engine oil lubricate the bearing?? Just a WAG.


Either way, with one side of the bearing open/shielded (engine side) and during installation of the new seal and bearing you could put some bearing grease into that space (?half full) between the bearing and the shaft seal. That would act as a reservoir of grease for the bearing.

And if you notice (look at previous photos above) there is a small vent/weep passage milled into the inside of the housing where the bearing fits (ie: along it's side) so if anything (grease, oil, pressure) builds up behind the bearing (engine side) it will be leak out via that weep hole/vent.

As far as which clearance and cage would be best for this application??

There's a ton of engineering that goes into deciding the specifications needed for any particular bearing application (and I'm not a bearing engineer). But I'm sure a team of engineers designed the distributor and chose those specific parts (bearing and seal) for a reason. But then maybe designs/technologies/lubrication available today might not have been available 30 years ago?? Sure.

Maybe a polyamide/nylon cage was chosen due to lower thermal expansion compared to a steel cage (so less difference between the outer and inner cages), lower noise, longevity, lubrication considerations,----???

And then there's the question of which clearance (internal of the bearing) is needed; tight or loose?? Loose on start-up, tighter after thermal expansion??
There are forumulas to figure all that out. Does using a polyamide cage instead of steel help in that regard??

Any bearing of the correct size may fit and may work, but will it last as long as the original design? And just about any rotary shaft seal of the correct size will likely work, but for how long??

It would be interesting if someone pulled apart an aftermarket 1FZFE distributor to see what type of bearing and seal were used. But then again
there's no way to know if that manufacturer (?Chynna) based their design on solid engineering data, or just tossed in the cheapest parts that would fit??


Here's a SKF web site with a ton of information discussing clearance, lubrication, cage types (steel versus polymer), etc,etc

SKF

www.skf.com

And another SKF link with more links:

SKF

www.skf.com

 

[Greyota]

My best guess, shield on the side toward the engine with a seal on the (clean) side toward the distributor cap.

There's about a centimeter tall space between the engine side of the shaft bearing and the shaft seal. Guessing here, but when the original distributor was manufactured that space may have held (some) grease for the bearing as that side of the original bearing is open toward the engine.

The shaft seal should keep most engine oil away from the bearing but over time engine oil can/will work it's way past the seal and into the bearing, so that may be why the bearing was originallly designed to be open on the side toward the engine. In other words, knowing that the grease would eventually dry up or leak out the engineers might have figured they'd let the engine oil lubricate the bearing?? Just a WAG.


Either way, with one side of the bearing open/shielded (engine side) and during installation of the new seal and bearing you could put some bearing grease into that space (?half full) between the bearing and the shaft seal. That would act as a reservoir of grease for the bearing.

And if you notice (look at previous photos above) there is a small vent/weep passage milled into the inside of the housing where the bearing fits (ie: along it's side) so if anything (grease, oil, pressure) builds up behind the bearing (engine side) it will be leak out via that weep hole/vent.

As far as which clearance and cage would be best for this application??

There's a ton of engineering that goes into deciding the specifications needed for any particular bearing application (and I'm not a bearing engineer). But I'm sure a team of engineers designed the distributor and chose those specific parts (bearing and seal) for a reason. But then maybe designs/technologies/lubrication available today might not have been available 30 years ago?? Sure.

Maybe a polyamide/nylon cage was chosen due to lower thermal expansion compared to a steel cage (so less difference between the outer and inner cages), lower noise, longevity, lubrication considerations,----???

And then there's the question of which clearance (internal of the bearing) is needed; tight or loose?? Loose on start-up, tighter after thermal expansion??
There are forumulas to figure all that out. Does using a polyamide cage instead of steel help in that regard??

Any bearing of the correct size may fit and may work, but will it last as long as the original design? And just about any rotary shaft seal of the correct size will likely work, but for how long??

It would be interesting if someone pulled apart an aftermarket 1FZFE distributor to see what type of bearing and seal were used. But then again
there's no way to know if that manufacturer (?Chynna) based their design on solid engineering data, or just tossed in the cheapest parts that would fit??


Here's a SKF web site with a ton of information discussing clearance, lubrication, cage types (steel versus polymet), etc,etc

SKF

www.skf.com

And another SKF link with more links:

SKF

www.skf.com

Looking at it a second time with your notes in mind, I can see how the engine side of the bearing would need to be either shielded or sealed with a grease lubricant; if the oil seal is working properly, then wouldn't that side of the bearing see little to no oil at all?

I haven't been able to find one with a rubber seal on one side and a shield on the other. I did, however, find design cut sheets for two with double rubber seals and polyamide cages here:

1. FAG 6000-C-2HRS-TVH-C3
2. FAG HC6000-C-2HRS-TVH-L207-C3

The only difference I can find between the two of those is the type of grease used. The first uses a standard grease and the second one uses a high temperature grease. Either way, I can't find any place to actually purchase them.

Your note about taking apart an aftermarket one - this is partly why I'm digging into this. My OEM was leaking a lot of oil from the internal seal so I replaced it with a cheap one from Amazon to give it a try. I essentially just used the housing from the new one since the rotor and cap from my old one were both pretty new Denso units. It works - however, I can really hear the new gear spinning in there and it just makes me a little uncomfortable, so I'm considering trying to rebuild my OEM.

One thought I had was to just use the shaft out of the OEM and re-use the seal, bearing and housing from the new one but there's no guarantee that the shaft diameters would match, so the seal may not be the correct ID size. If I got the OEM rebuilt, then I may take apart the new cheap one just to see what they used. My guess is that we're already putting more effort into it then they did.

 

[South Texas 97]

Thanks guys, great discussion.
the bearing was the Koyo 6000 RS which is sealed on one side only. I did not pack with grease but that is a good idea.
the seal was open on one side as per the diagram on the plastic bag above.
there are several weep holes, so Toyota expected some leakage over time.

have about 15k miles so far with no problems.

if you have a press, this is a pretty easy job. Just take your time with lots of photos of the alignment of the shaft, gear and rotor.

 

[Greyota]

Thanks guys, great discussion.
the bearing was the Koyo 6000 RS which is sealed on one side only. I did not pack with grease but that is a good idea.
the seal was open on one side as per the diagram on the plastic bag above.
there are several weep holes, so Toyota expected some leakage over time.

have about 15k miles so far with no problems.

if you have a press, this is a pretty easy job. Just take your time with lots of photos of the alignment of the shaft, gear and rotor.

Ok, that's really good information there, thanks.

I'm still having a hard time visualizing how the bearing is getting lubricated though. If the bearing is on the distributor side of the oil seal, and the oil seal keeps oil out, then how does the bearing get oiled? What am I missing there?

 

[Greyota]

Part 1 (I can only upload 5 pics per post)

I finished this up yesterday and wanted to add some of my experiences for anyone else who'd like to give this a try. I actually had to do it twice, and I can tell you the second time it was actually pretty simple. Much of this is in the beginning of this thread, but here's what I did:

Things you'll need to buy:

• Bearing: Koyo 6000 2RS C3 10x26x8
  • This is sealed both sides. See the above thread for more details on choices for this bearing. The first one I used (that I ended up destroying later - my fault) was a Timken 6000 RS C3 and was sealed on one side and open cage on the other. I put some grease on the open side, but I never ended up installing that version in the truck.
• Seal: SKF 10x20x7 HMSA10V
  • This is a Fluoro Rubber version of the one South Texas used
• Distributor o-ring 90099-14118
• Tools (I had everything from my recent birfield and knuckle job)
  • Brass drift set
  • Brass hammer
  • 3-Jaw puller
  • Seal puller (this is a maybe, depends on whether your seal stays in the housing)
  • Bench Vise

My process:

1. Remove the distributor.
   1. Unplug the harness plug on the top
   2. Remove the 3 screws/bolts on the distributor cap
   3. Remove the 12mm adjusting bolt
   4. Pull the distributor straight out towards the battery
2. Measure
   1. I found 2 measurements that matter. The first is from the end of the shaft to the gear, and the second is from the gear to the housing. South Texas shows them above as well. Mine were 4mm and 6mm. The gear is 12mm thick. Total was 22mm from the end of the shaft to the housing (this one comes into play at the end).
3. Remove the rotor
   1. This should just pull straight off
4. Mark the shaft location
   1. I lined up the notch on the gear to the notch on the housing, and then marked the inside of the shaft where the right sensor was. This makes it really simple when re-installing the gear later to make sure the alignment of the shaft is in the same place relative to the notch in the housing.
      
      
5. Remove the gear
   1. I used the 3-jaw puller for this and it worked well.
      
6. Remove the shaft from the housing
   1. Initially I tried using the 3-jaw puller, but that didn't work so I used my brass hammer to push the shaft down through the housing while the housing straddled the vise. Make sure your sensors are not resting on the vice - mine were the first time and I ended up with some damage. When I ran out of room with the hammer (the shaft was flush with the housing), I used the small brass drift from my drift set. That's a 3/8" drift. Make sure to catch the shaft as it falls out the bottom.
      
   2. My seal and bearing came out with the shaft and did not get stuck in the housing.
7. Remove the seal and bearing from the shaft
   1. Maybe I got lucky, but my 3-jaw puller was just big enough to use to remove the bearing and seal together without issue.
      
   2. If your seal stuck in the housing, you can pull it out with the seal puller. Be careful not to mark or scratch the housing wall.

Continued in Part 2 for more pics....

 

[Greyota]

Part 2

1. Install new seal
   1. Place the seal in the housing and tap it into place with a socket. I used a 16mm deep well with the ratchet end of the socket on the seal to get as much of an even distribution of force.
      
      
2. Install new bearing
   1. Place the bearing in the housing and tap it into place with a brass drift. Tap this in going around the bearing to make sure you're tapping it in straight and even.
      
3. Install the shaft
   1. Slide the shaft into the new bearing and make sure it's lining up with the exit of the housing on the other end.
   2. This is where measurements matter. You want to tap the shaft using a brass hammer or brass drift down through the bearing while making sure the amount of shaft protruding from the housing on the other end is 22mm (measurement from step 2 above). If you go too far, then you'll have to tap the shaft back the other way and are in danger of the bearing starting to come out of the housing along with the shaft. This is what happened to me the first time and I ended up having to get a new bearing and do it all over again.
      

 

[Greyota]

Part 3

1. Mark the shaft alignment
   1. Line up the mark you made on the inside with the sensor, and then put a line on the end of the shaft where the notch in the housing is. This new line is your line for the gear notch.
      
   2. Put the gear on the end of the shaft, lining up the notch to the line. Be sure that the other end of the shaft (the inside) is flat against your work surface. You do not want the shaft to be able to work its way back down the housing as you tap the gear on. I used a deep well socket over top the gear to tap into into place.
      
   3. It's ok if you over-drive this a little. If you do, use the 3-jaw puller to fine tune your measurement and match whatever it was when you removed it. Mine was 4mm from the gear to the end of the shaft.
2. Put your new o-ring on, make sure to pre-lube it with engine oil
3. Install the rotor, re-install the distributor, re-install the cap and set timing
   1. There are lots of threads on how to do these steps. Key is to make sure you're at TDC before re-installing the distributor. Also, this thread is a good one for setting the timing.

Other notes:

1. There are some plastic covers on the sensors that cover the copper wiring there. The first time I removed the shaft, I had some of that plastic break and flake off. That may have been because I didn't notice the sensors were resting on my vice surface when I was tapping the shaft from above so they took a lot of that impact. Not sure really. I had purchased a cheap distributor from Amazon, so I switched out the electronics when I finished all the other steps. I wasn't comfortable with the copper wiring being exposed. You can see the before pic in step 4 above and the after below.
   
2. My OEM seal came out clean. It's marked KCR 108. I believe it's a Koyo seal. Here is a pic.
   

Hope that helps anyone looking into doing this one.

 

[FirstToy]

excellent work! great future ref

looks like you could clean out and fill the old connector w/ epoxy to cover the copper windings- maybe save it as a spare?

*the reason I say this, I've noticed a large quality difference in parts- even OEM- compared to what is on the truck.
With copper prices what they are, I wouldn't be surprised if there is far less material inside the new part. That old OEM might still be worth keeping.

 

[Greyota]

excellent work! great future ref

looks like you could clean out and fill the old connector w/ epoxy to cover the copper windings- maybe save it as a spare?

Thanks. That’s a really good idea about the epoxy, I’ll think about that for sure.

 

[South Texas 97]

Nice work, between us we have given a very nice and complete “how to” on a topic that was not previously covered. Perhaps we can get the moderator to post to the FAQ section.

 

[clx16]

Pulled one of mine apart today. I have a couple used ones and figured I would try this. Pulled the gear off and then pressed the shaft out. the bearing stayed in the housing. I flipped the shaft around and when pushing it in i could see the seal had some back and forth movement. so pull shaft out a little and the seal would pull away from the bearing. (not surprised this thing was leaking). took some needle bearings from an old ujoint and stuck them down the hole to lay sideways and then just pushed on the shaft again to push the bearing out. Here are pictures of the seal and the bearing (both sides). it is an odd seal as you can see. KCR 207 is what it says, which should be 10x20x7 right?

​

Going to order 2 sets might as well rebuild my other oem distributor also. I am feeling less and less good about my chinese one that is installed now. dry, works, but the rotor rotates too much on the shaft for my liking.

 

[voorland80]

great write-up and pics too ! thanks !