Rear wheel seal wisdom... Needed

[fsr7]

Hey all-
Getting ready to hit the road again, I replaced the driver rear wheel seal no more than 5000 miles ago in my buddies garage in south carolina and it sure is leaking again. The axle is a sterling srw out of a 94 F250 IDI. Is there a specific brand of seal that needs to be used for this application or something? I don't remember seeing any other damage in the area or having any bearing issues or anything during the install in SC. I got the part from O'reillys. Thoughts?

 

[TWeatherford]

When I did mine, I researched a fair amount and lots of people recommend Scotseal XL Plus, part number 34384. I replaced both and they didn't leak for the two years I still had the truck.

I recommend replacing the brake cylinders while your in there, I discovered both mine were leaking. They're a cheap part and a leak will ruin your brake pads. If yours are leaking, it might be hard to tell with the leaky wheel seal as well.

 

[79jasper]

Scotseal is good.
Autozone does have a equivalent seal that does last.

It's a two piece bearing type seal that you want.

Timken 370047A
Use black rtv on in the hub where the seal sits, and on the axle area. Should be shiny.

Sent from my USCC-C6721 using Tapatalk

 

[dunk]

Yep, I fought rear hub seal leaks for the longest time. Got sick of either having no rear brakes or wasting money on seals and shoes every few months to a year. Eventually learned of the two piece seal which rotates inside itself and no more leaks. Every truck I've had has got the upgrade and totally new rear brakes while in there. Definitely worthwhile next time you're in your hubs or brakes.

 

[franklin2]

The two piece seals are not cheap, but definitely worth it. I think Autozone wanted around $30,00 each last time I bought one.

 

[typ4]

Follow the seal install instructions that come with the seal, some say oil some dont. we find this everyday on semi seals. many different styles so we go with the latest instructions.

 

[fsr7]

Made some phone calls, the only one I've found that I believe is equivalant to the timken is a national brand oil bath seal with the same part number. This was at advance auto parts, the woman claimed to pull it out of the box and claims its a 2-piece style. Should be the one I assume?

I'm curious to see what style I put in before - I don't recall, and my buddy had bought the part and I gave him cash so I have no reciept.... grr....

 

[fsr7]

Sad day... was able to pull the part number through my account at Oreilly and the national 370047a is the one I purchased/installed in March.

Guess I'll install it more carefully this time!

 

[icanfixall]

Being clean can't be stressed too much. Once oil has a pathway it will wick out and leak no matter what you do to stop the leak. Good luck and this time take pics and post them here. Others may have ideas why things are going bad for you.

 

[franklin2]

The one at Autozone comes with a large round piece of metal to use as a "seal driver" to get it in square. And like someone else said, the instructions on this seal tell you to actually put a little rtv in the shiny area where the original seal used to run on the axle stub. The new seal has it's own seal surface up inside it.

 

[HammerDown]

FYI...National makes Timken seals > working on my Vette I found this out.

 

[Double-S-Diesel]

once you put it together make sure the axle breather is open

 

[79jasper]

once you put it together make sure the axle breather is open

That's a very important piece of information.
Could possibly be causing the leak again.

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[fsr7]

Put the new one in last night -

the only thing amiss in the assembly was the ebrake arm had worked its way into traveling too far, so it had worn on the bearing assembly itself and there was a fair amount of tiny metal shavings in there. I think one of those probably got into the seal and tore it up a little - even though there was no damage I could visibly make out to the seal itself.

I was able to bend the tab on top of the ebrake arm into a position that it is actuating properly, so hopefully that doesn't become problematic again.

I've wanted to swap in a true dually axle for some time, so... pretty sure that's the last seal this one will get. Everything was clean and went together as it should, so hopefully it holds up till then.