PEAK PUTTERS

I've been struggling with this rear outer axle seal. They do not fit well and dont stay set inside the rear bearing assembly. Shouldn't be rocket science but I've tried installing three of these with success. Any ideas?

No ideas? Maybe the bearing cups got a little deformed over their life? I'll try honing the ID a bit so it matches the OD of the seals... Worse case I get new pockets.

A light smear of silicone to act as lube and a press is all I've ever used to put the seals in.

so you are having trouble getting them to fit, as in too tight? if so and if it is the pieces shown and i'm understanding it correctly heat one and freeze one. put the one that needs to be a bit larger in the oven and the one that needs to be a bit smaller in the freezer for an hour.

now if i'm way off in my understanding, please explain it in more detail.

I tried using the press to insert them, but it just boogered up the seal. You're on track Scumby. I'll try the hot and cold method next. Seems odd that I've never had this problem before. I wish that I would have saved the old seals for comparison. This is a used axle so maybe there is something goofy with the bearing cups.

keep us updated

After trying the hot/cold with no fix, I clearanced the ID of the bearing caps and decked the lip just a little, spread a glob of RVT high heat on the seals and popped them in. I have weights sitting on the bearing caps/seal combo while the RVT dries. We'll see how this goes. The problem seems to be that the ID bearing cap surface is cylinder shaped and perhaps a little too small ID. The seals OD is a little cone shape a perhaps a too large. The result is that seals want to spit out of the bearing cap. Goofy stuff that should be so simple. I need to get these right, because it will be a lot of work to replace them once the bearings and retainers are pressed onto the axle shaft. Thanks for the advice WT and Scumby.

when i was on a ship we used to heat bearings in the oven at 250 degrees, cool the reduction gear shaft with about 3-4 CO2 fire existinguishers and slide it home.

I'm still having issues with the outer seals for the 1992 (maybe) Toyota V6 axles project. The seals just seem too large for the bearing cups. I clearance the bearing cups a little to get the seals to fit well. Unfortunately the seals appear to be too tall and smash up against the backside of the axle flange before the bearing assembly is completely installed on the axle.... See pictures below. Any ideas? I can't find anything to suggest Toyota use different outer seals from 1985 through 1995 non ABS axles.

Where are your seals from? We can take apart my axle if needed

The first set came from Marlin Crawler. The second set came from Toyota. Both sets were the same size. I would like to measure a different bearing cup for comparison if you have one laying around. BTW, I'm setup to pull and press Toyota axle bearings if you need some replaced.

I finally figured out that I was putting the seal in backwards I should have paid better attention when I pulled the old seals a month age. The correctly installed seal is on the right.


In case you guys have a "how stupid is Steve" pool, the official time is 4 days 3 hours and 20 minutes. Sometimes it's very painful to be Steve

hopefully they don't leak since you did that grinding

79chevy39.5's wrote:hopefully they don't leak since you did that grinding

They still fit tight installed correctly, but I applied a coat of high temp RVT just in case.

I was going to mention that but I did not want to be insulting.

I prefer Right Stuff. Best sealant you can use, IMHO.

Way to go Steve. But, don't beat yourself up too bad. I'm sure that all of us have been in the same position a few times, well, several times.

I personally do not like sealant on rubber seals