sterling 10.25 axle seal

[crewchief219]

I went out to take some pics and messed around a little more. I swapped sides and got one hub to work. There seems to be two issues.. I just noticed a metal piece of the old seal is stuck on the spindle. And stuck good. Lol.. the other issue is that the inner hub on the side still off has less space for the axle seal than the other hub. It sticks out. I pulled the new seal back out to see if anything looked wrong and it doesn't. I did take some pics. Ill upload them in a minute. Any reason a hub would have less space for the axle seal?

 

[79jasper]

Are you just looking at the clean area as the seal surface on the axle side of the hub?

 

[crewchief219]

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[crewchief219]

The first picture is what I was trying to describe. The seal is wider than the area it's supposed to fit... but only on the one side, it fit perfect on the other hub, it was flush when installed. I pulled the seal back out (pic #4) and put some dents in the metal frame on the oil side. Is that ok to re-use since it was only half-installed in the first place?

 

[79jasper]

I'm not seeing what you mean by wider.

 

[crewchief219]

Sorry, poor wording.. When the seal is pressed in as far as it will go its not flush. It sticks out quite a bit. Its hard to see in the pic but that's what I was trying to show.

 

[79jasper]

Oh I gotcha now.
It should definitely be flush.

 

[Leeland]

Those pictures from before a thorough cleaning?
Toss the wheel seal and get a new one. Some guys can get away with it, some don't. Up to you if you want to gamble on wether it leaks again.
By your description of the old seals and the current problem I think you should set your hubs side by side and see what's up.

 

[crewchief219]

Side by side did show something. One hub is beveled and one is flat. The one that's beveled is the one that the axle seal sticks out of. I found in a search someone else had noticed this difference between their hubs but people said it must have been rubbing on something causing the hub to deform. I don't think that's the case with mine. Could it be a hub from a different axle? Nothing would surprise me at this point.

 

[Leeland]

That's what I was kinda wondering. What was the differences between the two old wheel seals? When you had the hubs together does every thing measure out the same?

* If it does/did measure the same and the seal feels solid in the hub and not like its going to pop out, I'd probably just run it for the time being.

 

[crewchief219]

Its really hard to say how different the seals were, they came out in pieces and I put them both in a pile. Really wish Id kept them separate with each hub.. I do remember that they were both flush.. but on the other hand the part that was stuck to the spindle could have been sticking out of the hub. I'm not sure I have a whole lot of options. The new axle seal fit really well other than not being flush and there were no clearance issues. I test fitted it just to see. Everything else about the hubs seems the same. No issues with bearings at all.

 

[Leeland]

Lol it happens. As long as the seal lines up where it needs to be on the spindle with the hub seated you may be ok. I saw the eaten up hub on pirate. Hard to say if it happened to yours or not.

 

[crewchief219]

Thanks for the help. I'll update later with how it all works out.

 

[ifrythings]

I did this to mine a few months back, the scotts seals (two piece seal) that I got were the nice press in with a bit more then hand pressure, the picture of the hub you posted looks like there is a ridge half way down were the seal should go, hard to tell but worth checking out.

Also check the breather line and the fitting that goes into the diff and make sure its not plugged, I changed wheel seals that were probably still good cause the fitting was plugged solid with rust making it leak when it warmed up.

 

[Leeland]

Also check the breather line and the fitting that goes into the diff and make sure its not plugged, I changed wheel seals that were probably still good cause the fitting was plugged solid with rust making it leak when it warmed up.

That's some solid over looked advice right there.