v13311
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This tip came from Budd Bennion, membership chair of the Pacific Tiger Club, Seattle, WA. He felt that the Alpine world would appreciate this info.
TECH TIP – Leaking rear axle seals - Alpine / Hillman
I started seeing grease showing up on my 1960 Hillman Husky rear wheel obviously coming from the rear axles, again. I have installed new rear axle seals before, in fact too many times. The last time was when I put in a complete new used rear end out of an Alpine about 6 years ago to get a higher gear ratio. (I went from 4:55 to 4:22) But the axle hub and seal are the same on the Hillman and Alpine and so are the leaks. I swore I would investigate until I came up with a better solution or just what was the cause of these leaks.
I have used in the past seals from Sunbeam Specialties and other times I have used a NAPA seal (p/n 19832) both work as designed. I think the NAPA seal is a bit tighter on the inside dimension. However this time I wanted some more advise. The NAPA seal is a CR (Chicago Rawhide) now owned by SKF so I email the company and got back an interesting reply.
I had stated to SKF that the axle hubs were polished smooth and had no scarring on them and wanted to know why the oil seal would not seal on the axle. The reply was “ The reason the seal doesn’t last is basically that the smooth surface doesn’t allow oil to be present to lubricate the seal and the seal lip wears down fastâ€. The hub should not look polished but should look like the top of an aluminum pop can. The solution is to either replace the axles or try a repair sleeve (also know as a speedy sleeve). SKF stated that “Yes, the repair sleeve does increase the shaft size by .022†but modern seals can overcome that slight increase with no stress to the sealâ€. They also offered the suggestion you can take your axles to a machine shop to have the surface corrected but make sure you instruct the shop to only take off about .005-.010†and to plunge grind the surface using odd ratios to avoid “lead†lines that will cause leakage.
So I went the route to use Repair Sleeves. SKF told me the sleeve that should fit my axle size was a SKF #99199. These cost me about $60 each (two required) and I had a machine shop press them on my hubs for $15.
I decided to use the seal I purchase from Sunbeam Specialties, as they seemed to not fit as tight on the now new increased diameter hubs but I am sure the NAPA/SKF seal would work also. Since I had both on my shop bench I made my executive decision.
If you have not replaced seal before then you need to pull the axles and remove the hubs. Removing the hubs usually requires you take them to a machine shop and have them pressed off. I have had mine off so many times that I can use a wheel puller to remove. The trick is to put a lot of pressure with the wheel puller on the hub then take a large hammer and strike the bolt of the wheel puller a number or times to create a shock or vibration to the axle. Then maybe give another turn to the wheel puller and strike the bolt again. It will all of a sudden pop off. Not to worry it will not fly off the axle into the wall. It will “bang†and move a few inches.
I did this about 6 months ago and so far no rear axle leaks.
See you on the road.
--Budd Bennion
TECH TIP – Leaking rear axle seals - Alpine / Hillman
I started seeing grease showing up on my 1960 Hillman Husky rear wheel obviously coming from the rear axles, again. I have installed new rear axle seals before, in fact too many times. The last time was when I put in a complete new used rear end out of an Alpine about 6 years ago to get a higher gear ratio. (I went from 4:55 to 4:22) But the axle hub and seal are the same on the Hillman and Alpine and so are the leaks. I swore I would investigate until I came up with a better solution or just what was the cause of these leaks.
I have used in the past seals from Sunbeam Specialties and other times I have used a NAPA seal (p/n 19832) both work as designed. I think the NAPA seal is a bit tighter on the inside dimension. However this time I wanted some more advise. The NAPA seal is a CR (Chicago Rawhide) now owned by SKF so I email the company and got back an interesting reply.
I had stated to SKF that the axle hubs were polished smooth and had no scarring on them and wanted to know why the oil seal would not seal on the axle. The reply was “ The reason the seal doesn’t last is basically that the smooth surface doesn’t allow oil to be present to lubricate the seal and the seal lip wears down fastâ€. The hub should not look polished but should look like the top of an aluminum pop can. The solution is to either replace the axles or try a repair sleeve (also know as a speedy sleeve). SKF stated that “Yes, the repair sleeve does increase the shaft size by .022†but modern seals can overcome that slight increase with no stress to the sealâ€. They also offered the suggestion you can take your axles to a machine shop to have the surface corrected but make sure you instruct the shop to only take off about .005-.010†and to plunge grind the surface using odd ratios to avoid “lead†lines that will cause leakage.
So I went the route to use Repair Sleeves. SKF told me the sleeve that should fit my axle size was a SKF #99199. These cost me about $60 each (two required) and I had a machine shop press them on my hubs for $15.
I decided to use the seal I purchase from Sunbeam Specialties, as they seemed to not fit as tight on the now new increased diameter hubs but I am sure the NAPA/SKF seal would work also. Since I had both on my shop bench I made my executive decision.
If you have not replaced seal before then you need to pull the axles and remove the hubs. Removing the hubs usually requires you take them to a machine shop and have them pressed off. I have had mine off so many times that I can use a wheel puller to remove. The trick is to put a lot of pressure with the wheel puller on the hub then take a large hammer and strike the bolt of the wheel puller a number or times to create a shock or vibration to the axle. Then maybe give another turn to the wheel puller and strike the bolt again. It will all of a sudden pop off. Not to worry it will not fly off the axle into the wall. It will “bang†and move a few inches.
I did this about 6 months ago and so far no rear axle leaks.
See you on the road.
--Budd Bennion
