Thread: Front axle oil seal

I's hard to see what's happened- your photo won't blow up.

I'm assuming the seal had a metal case? If there is a complete bead of weld, how are you going to grind it out perfectly round so the seal sits truly enough to prevent leaks? A cylinder hone perhaps?

What are you doing about the swivels?

I wire-brushed the rust out, phosphated the bare non-chromed metal then filled it with Araldite. Then an hour with the orbital sander starting with 320grit & finishing with 1200.

At $300 each new (?), it's worth a go! Time will tell.

Has anyone tried powdercoating with a Teflon thingy?

I was considering powder coating with some sort of Teflon

Originally Posted by geodon

Has anyone tried powdercoating with a Teflon thingy?

I was considering powder coating with some sort of Teflon

You cant powder coat PTFE...

The photo blows up for me, though it opens two new windows, one with a small photo and one with a big one...?

Until I start working on it, it's hard to see what happened even with the axle in front of me! The bead of weld covers the entire area where the metal shell of the seal should be, so I have not idea whether the shell is still there. Compared to the other end of the axle, the rubber seal looks to be too far inside the axle casing, but it's hard to tell.

At this stage anything is possible. It may be that the seal was removed and refitted without it's shell, a new "shell" being created with a welding torch. It might even be that there was not a correctly sized seal to hand, and some monkey just welded in something "close enough".

I am hoping (?) that the weld has not penetrated beyond the outer edge of the seal. If this is the situation, then the area where the seal sits should (may?) be OK. I'm guessing there's a bit of work with a die grinder to get the weld removed to the point where I can pull the seal, then inspect the axle casing and see what is possible - and that could be anything from finding that the axle is fine, through building the casing back up with weld and then boring it out, or the axle going in the scrap steel bin and using another one!

I considered repairing the swivel housings, and investigated epoxy fillers etc. This particular pair of balls are actually in very good condition generally, but have a fairly major gouge in the area where the seal sits in the "straight ahead" position. It looks like there may have been sand stuck in the seals, and it's ground out the ball.

Swivelhousing.jpg

In the end I decided to replace them - a pair of genuine LR swivel housings, complete with all seals, bearings (and retaining collars etc.), gaskets, almost all genuine Land Rover parts, cost about $500 including shipping.

Part of that decision was that whilst the vehicle is in pieces it is easier to fit new balls than to repair and have to go back in when/if the repair fails!

It all becomes clear.....

It would seem that at some point, someone has removed the oil seal and in the process smashed off the upstanding portion of its steel cage. Then for whatever reason they have refitted the same seal. Obviously the unsupported rubber seal won't work, so the "technician" has attempted to rebuild the steel cage with weld.

A small amount of persuasion, after breaking the small section of weld outside the seal, and the seal popped out. The outside steel ring is still there, but as stated above the back face is missing and was replaced with weld.

Oilseal2.jpg

The good thing is that the area of the axle casing where the seal sits is undamaged, and once the outside portion is cleaned up a new seal can be fitted without issue.

Several questions remain:

1/ What kind of a budget deficit or time shortage would cause someone to do this?

2/ How did they manage not to incinerate the rubber?

Originally Posted by Warb

I

Several questions remain:

2/ How did they manage not to incinerate the rubber?

Perhaps the axle casing was stood in a tank of water to submerge the seal. The things some people do to their cars!

Those damaged swivels look like they would respond well to filling with epoxy filler Warb, because of the roughness - worth keeping them I would think,

Cheers Charlie

Originally Posted by geodon

I wire-brushed the rust out, phosphated the bare non-chromed metal then filled it with Araldite

Can I ask what you mean, and how you did it?

1. Using a flat wire brush in my 4 inch angle grinder & I removed the rust. On mine I had tram lines from where the seal stopped & over the years (?) of no movement the chrome was attacked & rust formed,

2 Phosphated means using a phosphoric acid rust inhibitor: it converts iron oxide (rust) to iron phosphate.

3 This leaves me with tram tracks at a lower level than the chrome surface which will rust again unless covered. Iron phosphate dissolves in water.

4 Epoxy resin eg Araldite is pretty damn tough & can fill the tram tracks to above the level of the chrome.

5 An orbital sander finishes the job starting with medium coarse wet'n'dry paper up to ultra fine leaving a smooth surface that is a bit discoloured but hopefully will be oil tight.

How long will it last??? Obviously not as long as chrome but I estimate it cost me about 5-10 bucks per swivel & can in theory be repeated ad nauseum if you've got the time.

Time will tell!

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If you are wondering what that crude extra cross member across the front is, it's to support a seriously heavy PTO winch and roo bar combo. How heavy? I moved it today with a carry-all attached to the Fergie & it did a tiny "sit up & beg" when I lifted it.