Covering oil seal groove in axle....???? (1 Viewer)

[BullElk]

Tomorrow I plan to replace the inner oil seal with a toyota seal. I recently put in a seal from O'Reillys and it still leaked. As you can see in photo there is a groove there....a 423k mile groove. I plan to cover that groove with the best option I can find.....electrical tape, duct tape, etc.

I am looking for suggestions of what you would do in this situation.

Thanks

 

[LS1FJ40]

Just hunching here but could you clean it really well, smooth JB weld in the groove and sand smooth? Its been a while but there isn't supposed to be any groove correct?

 

[Tools R Us]

In my experience the easiest, most effective thing to do is overdrive the seal. On the outer rim of the backside of the seal, take off ~1/8", then put a slight taper to make it start easier, belt sander works great. Drive the seal until it stops, will be depressed, under the surface of the axle ball, will ride on a fresh part of the axle, solving the problem.

 

[LS1FJ40]

In my experience the easiest, most effective thing to do is overdrive the seal. On the outer rim of the backside of the seal, take off ~1/8", then put a slight taper to make it start easier, belt sander works great. Drive the seal until it stops, will be depressed, under the surface of the axle ball, will ride on a fresh part of the axle, solving the problem.

I would take Tools' advice. He's probably done a thousand more than me. Im assuming he's done 1001 as I've only done 1.

 

[BullElk]

In my experience the easiest, most effective thing to do is overdrive the seal. On the outer rim of the backside of the seal, take off ~1/8", then put a slight taper to make it start easier, belt sander works great. Drive the seal until it stops, will be depressed, under the surface of the axle ball, will ride on a fresh part of the axle, solving the problem.

I was thinking that may be what the Oreilly's seal might do. I could tell that it seemed to press in past the edge...not flush with the housing like the Toyota seal does. I thought this may ride on a new smooth area. I also noticed there is a significant difference is strength and sturdiness than with the Toyota seal.

BTW...1/8" is about 1/2 of the seal...right?

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS]

@Tools R Us , have you ever under seat/driven the seal in? I did this on my son's 92? a year or two ago and all is good. The seal is about 1/4" thick so about 1/2 the way in easily gets you 1/8" out of the groove. Worked here.

 

[BullElk]

@Tools R Us , have you ever under seat/driven the seal in? I did this on my son's 92? a year or two ago and all is good. The seal is about 1/4" thick so about 1/2 the way in easily gets you 1/8" out of the groove. Worked here.

If that seal will hold tight only half way in, then I might try that option. If I had the time to wait on drying time....I would find something to fill the groove like JB Weld or even some type of strong glue and sand it smooth.

 

[SUMMIT CRUISERS]

If that seal will hold tight only half way in, then I might try that option. If I had the time to wait on drying time....I would find something to fill the groove like JB Weld or even some type of strong glue and sand it smooth.

It's worked here and think about it: the seal has to be driven in. It's not coming out or will it have any negative effects.

You might take a few measurements of the seal and the recessed mating surface. I'm thinking the distance may be closer to 3/8". 1/2 of that would be 3/16" in.

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

Wasn't there a discussion of sleeving the axle? speedysleeves? might require a machine shop to install the sleeve for you.

 

[dogfishlake]

I did the cut down and overdrive trick on mine, worked great

 

[Tools R Us]

@Tools R Us , have you ever under seat/driven the seal in? I did this on my son's 92? a year or two ago and all is good. The seal is about 1/4" thick so about 1/2 the way in easily gets you 1/8" out of the groove. Worked here.

Have done it both ways. Made a driver with a recess that the seal sits in, when driven until the driver contacts, the seal is slightly proud and straight/even. Have always worried about these popping out, never happened.

 

[Tools R Us]

I was thinking that may be what the Oreilly's seal might do. I could tell that it seemed to press in past the edge...not flush with the housing like the Toyota seal does. I thought this may ride on a new smooth area. I also noticed there is a significant difference is strength and sturdiness than with the Toyota seal.

BTW...1/8" is about 1/2 of the seal...right?

About 1/8", likely doesn't need that much, maybe .100", whatever it takes to move the seal to new surface. No need to fill or worry about the groove, I doubt that JB Weld would have much life in this application?

 

[mrsleeve]

Why not have a good machine shop weld up the grove then turn it back down to match the existing shaft diameter??? That would be the correct way to repair this kind of thing, though if you dont have the tooling to do this your self paying someone to do it is going to cost nearly as much as buying a new Birf

 

[jtwopark]

just find a used axle without a groove and install...very cheap and time effective.

 

[Tools R Us]

Why not have a good machine shop weld up the grove then turn it back down to match the existing shaft diameter??? That would be the correct way to repair this kind of thing, though if you dont have the tooling to do this your self paying someone to do it is going to cost nearly as much as buying a new Birf

The way to go would be to hard chrome it, probably cost more than new axles?

 

[Locked79]

Wasn't there a discussion of sleeving the axle? speedysleeves? might require a machine shop to install the sleeve for you.

^^^
This. Works great

 

[Locked79]

Not on an axle, but you get the idea

 

[Kernal]

Did a search, found a few Mud members who've used the Speedi-Sleeves in the past, these two numbers came up in old posts: #99138 or #99139, but probably best to first use a micrometer to get the OD of the shaft then pick the appropriate size.

Installing SKF Speedi-Sleeve

From the linked page above:

“If the shaft is deeply scored, fill the groove with a powdered metal epoxy-type filler. Install the sleeve before the filler hardens, enabling the sleeve to wipe off any excess filler. Clean away any remaining filler from the sleeve outside diameter surface.”


Marlin Crawler axle seals after 100K mi (see post #21)

Inner Axle Groove (see post #4)

Still leaks after axle rebuild

There are also Redi-Sleeves made by Timken:

Industrial Redi-Sleeves®

The RockAuto price for two Speedi-Sleeves is between $50-60 depending on size:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1835962&jnid=302&jpid=0

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1839884&jnid=304&jpid=0

 

[MikeB]

My post from last year about Speedi-Sleeve #99139 sleeves is linked above. I don't have any noticeable leakage after 15K miles with the sleeved axles and Toyota inner seals driven to the normal depth.

I used a slightly enlarged 1.5" PVC coupling to drive on the sleeves. I didn't try to fill in the grooves, or use any kind of adhesive.

Whether the sleeves are a better solution than over/under driven seals or replacement inner axles is debatable. But the sleeves do seem to work OK.

 

[LandCruisinMy93]

Didn't we cover this already in a different thread by the same OP about why electrical tape didn't work out for fixing the groove? Pretty sure I addressed replacing the seal and leaving it short of seating all the way in order to put the sealing surface just in front of the groove. Now we really are beating the dead horse, just calling it a cow this time.