Rear Axle Oil Seal Replacement

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

Excellent outcome.   I forgot to say slack tool and wobble it to see if the tapers had separated.

[Lebro]

I think it would have been more obvious had I removed the washer first

Bob

[BlueTR3A-5EKT]

1 hour ago, Lebro said:

I think it would have been more obvious had I removed the washer first

Bob

Yep, been there done that.

[Lebro]

All going back together now, new seal in place, wheel studs changed to mushroom head type (had to drill holes out to ½" dia. used a 10mm dril to accurately center the bigger drill 1st.

   

I don't think the old studs would ever have pulled out mind you ! & definately not a job you could do with the hub on the car.

Bob

Edited December 24, 2022 by Lebro

[stuart]

20 minutes ago, Lebro said:

All going back together now, new seal in place, wheel studs changed to mushroom head type (had to drill holes out to ½" dia. used a 10mm dril to accurately center the bigger drill 1st.

   

I don't think the old studs would ever have pulled out mind you ! & definately not a job you could do with the hub on the car.

Bob

I have done them with the shafts still attached but pulled from the axle and on the bench, depending on stud length you sometimes need to grind a little flat off the edge of the mushroom to clear the hub edge. Ive know studs that have started to turn where previous tyre places have wound the nuts on with air wrenches and then its hells own job to get the wheel off.

Stuart.

Stuart.

[Lebro]

Yep, I had to grind a bit off one side of the mushrooms to get them to sit flat. These are the slightly longer studs from Cambridge Autos, not a problem with steel wheels & hub caps.  Had to spend a bit of time with various thicknesses of thin washers to get the split pin hole to line up on the central castilated nut, even with the torque range of 125 - 145 ft lbs. Got there in the end at the top end of the scale. went for quick test drive, & re torqued, had to remove one very thin washer to get the hole lined up again - this time at a lower torque - around 130 ft lbs.  Will do the other side after Christmas,

Bob

[stuart]

12 minutes ago, Lebro said:

Yep, I had to grind a bit off one side of the mushrooms to get them to sit flat. These are the slightly longer studs from Cambridge Autos, not a problem with steel wheels & hub caps.  Had to spend a bit of time with various thicknesses of thin washers to get the split pin hole to line up on the central castilated nut, even with the torque range of 125 - 145 ft lbs. Got there in the end at the top end of the scale. went for quick test drive, & re torqued, had to remove one very thin washer to get the hole lined up again - this time at a lower torque - around 130 ft lbs.  Will do the other side after Christmas,

Bob

Yes same studs I used as they were for my KN minilites which need slightly longer ones to go with the tube nuts.

Stuart.

[Lebro]

So, now that the required trip to the Brooklands 1st Jan gathering has been done, I set about changing the grease seal on the offside rear hub.

I had not been aware of any leakage problem on that side, but since I had the hub puller on loan (thank you Peter) I thought it prudent to renew the seal while I could.  Well, I glad I did, because having got the hub off I could see that a fair amount of grease had already escaped, & was slowly making it's way towards the brake shoes !

Loosening the hub was easier this time, my method was, remove nut (& washer this time), insert 1/8" short steel (piano wire) rod into the split pin hole to stop it collapsing, & replace the nut wrong way round to support the shaft end.

Attach puller, & tighten up as much as possible with long bar on the ½" socket.

Srtike end of puller screw with a mallet a few times, then use impact wrench (air powered) to tighten screw further. more mallet blows, then more use of impact wrench, & off it popped.  Much less drama than last time.

After a good clean up in the parts washer, the old wheel studs were drilled out, & replaced with the new Mushroom headed ones.

New brake shoes fitted, & then hub replaced. A quick test drive, followed by checking the torque on the axle nut (163 - 190 Nm) fitted a new split pin, & replaced hub cap - job done.  All in half a day, when last time took 2 days !

Bob

 

[stuart]

2 minutes ago, Lebro said:

So, now that the required trip to the Brooklands 1st Jan gathering has been done, I set about changing the grease seal on the offside rear hub.

I had not been aware of any leakage problem on that side, but since I had the hub puller on loan (thank you Peter) I thought it prudent to renew the seal while I could.  Well, I glad I did, because having got the hub off I could see that a fair amount of grease had already escaped, & was slowly making it's way towards the brake shoes !

Loosening the hub was easier this time, my method was, remove nut (& washer this time), insert 1/8" short steel (piano wire) rod into the split pin hole to stop it collapsing, & replace the nut wrong way round to support the shaft end.

Attach puller, & tighten up as much as possible with long bar on the ½" socket.

Srtike end of puller screw with a mallet a few times, then use impact wrench (air powered) to tighten screw further. more mallet blows, then more use of impact wrench, & off it popped.  Much less drama than last time.

After a good clean up in the parts washer, the old wheel studs were drilled out, & replaced with the new Mushroom headed ones.

New brake shoes fitted, & then hub replaced. A quick test drive, followed by checking the torque on the axle nut (163 - 190 Nm) fitted a new split pin, & replaced hub cap - job done.  All in half a day, when last time took 2 days !

Bob

 

Well done, 2nd time is always easier Bob

Stuart.

[Trumpy3]

Just a note on leaking axle seals.

Back when I was doing track work with my 3A, I almost always showed a leaking left hand oil seal and replaced them. I had fitted a speedi sleeve also. Most of my running was at Wakefield Park which is a clockwise circuit. Finally it dawned on me that maybe the leaking seal was only the symptom, not the cause.

Now the Girling rear end utilities taper roller wheel bearings, When turning a right corner, the thrust is transmitted up the LH axle through the aluminum spacer in the diff and then up the RH axle and taken by the RH bearing. So in effect the thrust is carried by the opposite bearing to the side the load  is being applied. We now have in effect a single long axle running between two taper bearings.

The manual shows the total axle end float specs to be between 0.004" and 0.006" which is adjusted by shims. When I measured mine, it was 0.008". I shimmed it back to .005" and have not had any more axle leaks over the last 12 years and over 80,000Km..

The issue was that the excessive end float allowed the axle on the unloaded bearing have to much radial movement and the oil seal could not cope.

Brian

[Lebro]

Interesting, & noted. I did not disturb the bearings, only removed the hubs, changed the grease seal, & replaced. The old ones were leather, & definatly past their best.  Part of the process of parting the hub from the shaft involved clouting the the center screw of the puller with a mallet. It did occur to me that that action was not doing the central spacer any good. I had not reallised it was made of aluminium, so that makes it even worse. I will check the end float next time I have the rear end up in the air.

Thanks for the heads up.

Bob

[Trumpy3]

When I purchased my car some 28 years ago it was a 'kit car' ( it was in boxes and a thousand bits). Way back and after the owner had striped it down for resto, it went under in a flood. When I removed the rear diff cover, all I found was a ball of rust. Apart from the housing, the only recoverable item was the aluminum spacer.

This was fortunate as if you utilise a Triumph saloon diff center, you need this spacer. The saloon diff, apart from the housing, is the same as the TR except the saloon does not have the spacer. They are IRS, so no thrust transmission from the axles.

That is how I found out about this spacer.

Brian