Use inner oil seal again?

[harrywt]

Hi from korea!!

I have found a great mechanic, he salivates over my Scout and he loves to solve problems!

I have d44's in my Scout with tabor plates in the rear. Mechanic was chasing down brake fluid leak when he pulled off the left rear drum. Big gacky mess. I thought wheel cylinder but loss of fluid in mb cylinder and amount of gack don't match.

Pulled axle out. Seal bent when installing, could be me, could be knucklehead I had work on it just before shipping Scout

I have the diff covers for rotated axles (just got 'em and installed by knucklehead mechanic while I was here and Scout in usa) and I suppose the exact level of oil is a bit of an art since the height of the fill hole is not matched to the rotation angle...

Anyway, we now have outer seal compromised and no inner seal and lots of gear oil. The oil leaked past the seal and gacked up the drum, shoes etc. It also washed the bearing clean of grease!

My question is, what do you guys think of going back to using the inner seal? I have omitted this for years with the philosophy of a little extra lube from gear oil on the bearing couldn't hurt anything. Now, with the higher fill hole on the diff cover I am revisiting that idea.

Would appreciate comments.

Harry

 

[Robert Kenney]

Yes the inner seal will help. The bearing retainer won't stop the gear oil.

 

[Greg R]

I have omitted this for years

If your axle tube has the counterbore for a seal, then yes by all means use one. They were not to be left out.

The later axles, mar. '77 and on, had the counterbore and seal omitted.

I have the diff covers for rotated axles (just got 'em and installed by knucklehead mechanic while I was here and Scout in usa) and I suppose the exact level of oil is a bit of an art

You should continue to use the factory fill regardless where the fill hole is. If the cover increases the volume, the level still has to be about even with the axle tube. I would measure the diff bottom to axle tube distance and correalate that on the new cover. A thick zip tie makes a handy dipstick; no art needed.

 

[harrywt]

if your axle tube has the counterbore for a seal, then yes by all means use one. They were not to be left out.

The later axles, mar. '77 and on, had the counterbore and seal omitted.

It's been a long time since I thought about this. Something like 10-20 years ago the thought was to leave it out so that's what I've been doing.

My Scout is a '72. The axles are d44. I don't know if they are original equipment. I went to the national seal website and found the part number of the inner seal and ordered a couple. We'll see if they fit.

You should continue to use the factory fill regardless where the fill hole is. If the cover increases the volume, the level still has to be about even with the axle tube. I would measure the diff bottom to axle tube distance and correalate that on the new cover. A thick zip tie makes a handy dipstick; no art needed.

I know, duh. I wasn't around so I told my wife to tell the knucklehead to fill to the bottom of the hole. Bottom of axle tube is a much more sensible reference point.

 

[FDChappie]

I can't say which was was "better", but what removing the inner seal did was to remove the requirement to grease the wheel bearings on a regular basis. My thoughts on the subject are that if you're planning to Ford a lot of creeks the inner seal May keep water out of the pumpkin. Otherwise a good synthetic oil in the diff is probably as good as the grease for the wheel bearings.

 

[Greg R]

But what removing the inner seal did was to remove the requirement to grease the wheel bearings on a regular basis

True. The older axles had their bearings checked/serviced at 48k miles. The newer ones had no service requirement, unless they got noisy.