Rear Axle Seals...

Just wanted to say I pulled all the hubs off of the rear. I cleaned the shoes, bearings, hubs, and drums. Repacked the bearings and gooped up the keyways to hopefully prevent them from leaking again. It really wasn't that bad of a job with the proper tools. Took me and one other guy 4 hours to do all four. And 3 of the drums were caked on the outside with grease and gear oil and dirt. Drove it 20 miles today and no leaks as of yet. I was suprised as to how simple it all was. No pics, because there wasn't much to see. The bearings and seals looked brand new, the cork key way seals on the otherhand did not.

That is all. Carry on.

D

Sweet............ so I have "an expert" I can turn to for advice since I will be having to replace at least one of mine. I would appreciate any input/advice you may have since this will be my first try at this.

Thanks.

Some labor involved but very little technical stuff. No one should be intimidated by this job..

Make sure you have a big impact. And some PB blaster. I had a few lug nuts not wanna come off. I actually had to get a torch and heat 4 of them up to get them off. Other than that it went real smooth. Oh and a big torque wrench to crank out 325 ft. lbs. for the lug nut torque, 90 ft. lbs. for axle flange nuts, 150 ft. lbs. outer spindle nut, and 50 ft. lbs. then back off a 1/8 to 1/4 turn for the inner spindle nuts.

D

Yeah I hear you on the impact.... I need to get a big socket that will fit the lug nuts. I had to change a flat last Friday and it about killed me. All manual labor. I had a small 2 foot bar and I had to jump up and down on it to get them to break. I ended up doing the same to tighten them up. I have an impact wrench but my wee little compressor can't keep up. I'm gonna add an accumulator tank to it for more volume. I appreciate all the help and input. I figured I would get it while it was fresh on your mind. I know after I've slept I tend to remember less

You will need a 1 1/2" socket for lug nuts, then a 1" square socket for the bud stud/lugnut thing. You will need a 3" 8 sided socket (Napa or Oreilly P/N KD2445- KD TOOLs brand) for the spindle nuts. 3/4" socket for the axle flange nuts. And a chisel or punch to bend the teeth on the lock washer over. You will need some blue/black RTV for the keyway and axle flange gasket. You will need 2# of wheel bearing grease for each hub you service. Also several cans of brake cleaner and a roll or 2 of shop towels. Also a big jack and preferably a 6 ton jackstand. I think that is about it. Oh and a strong friend for picking up the drum/hub assembly. Also a long pry bar is nice for leveraging the tires back up onto the hub. Oh and some anti sieze for the lug nut studs. Be prepared for the worst, maybe a frozen lug nut/ or stud. I had one lugnut that instead of it coming off the inner stud thing came off, so that was fun. The torch took care of it though. I had a can of PB blaster available too. Good luck.

D

Any issues with overheating hubs after your test drive? What brand or source of seals did you use. This will be a spring job for me as I had trouble with the right rear most hub overheating. Another thread suggested poorly made outer seal. And after adjusting the bearing per tm's three times and bad weather, I set it aside for spring. This time I going to focus on the seal for the problem.

zak said:

Any issues with overheating hubs after your test drive? What brand or source of seals did you use. This will be a spring job for me as I had trouble with the right rear most hub overheating. Another thread suggested poorly made outer seal. And after adjusting the bearing per tm's three times and bad weather, I set it aside for spring. This time I going to focus on the seal for the problem.

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I didn't replace the seals. I just replaced the cork keyway deal with RTV. And the hubs were only warm to the touch after driving 10 miles at almost 60 mph. That was with the bearing torqued to 50 ft. lbs. while someone was spinning the hub and then backing off 90 degrees.

D

That stopped the leaking? Huh... just a cork key way. Mine has been leaking so I ordered the seal kit from OD Iron. I guess I'll just do the seals since I'll have it apart and save the old ones if they aren't in bad shape for emergency spares.

Yea 90% of the time that is the only problem, the key way leaks. I've got 50 miles on it since I fixed it and still no leaks.

D

I pulled all the rear hubs off one of my Dueces today. You said you packed the bearings. I thought they ran in oil from the diff. When you siliconed the keyway does that stop the oil from the diff getting in there?? So then packed bearings are good?? I was going to order new seals tomorrow, but if the oil is sealed out and the grease takes care of the bearings I don't need to.

When I brought my truck home the left rear seal started to leak. I cleaned everything up repacked the bearings reused the seals and rtv sealed the cork keyway and 800 miles later no leaks.


Racky

poppop said:

I pulled all the rear hubs off one of my Dueces today. You said you packed the bearings. I thought they ran in oil from the diff. When you siliconed the keyway does that stop the oil from the diff getting in there?? So then packed bearings are good?? I was going to order new seals tomorrow, but if the oil is sealed out and the grease takes care of the bearings I don't need to.

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The oil from the diff. shouldn't be in the bearings.
If you have gear oil on the bearings either the outer seal is shot or it's leaking from the keyway. If I had it down I'd replace the inner and outer seals as they don't cost that much and even though a seal looks good it can still be leaking.

My m211 had deteriorated cork seals and while it was apart changed the wheel cylinders,[there are two per wheel on these] and used brake clean on every thing. Worked well but the hub on these M211's has tapered sleeves on the hub bolts. Those were a bear to snap loose. I had to put hydraulic jack pressure and hit them with a maul to shock them loose. Everything else was easy. Repacked the bearings bled the brakes and good to go. Now the master cylinder went bad. Oh yeah, I put new seals on inside and outer, while it was apart . They were worn too. I was alittle anxious before doing the job, but after taking it apart it was quite simple. Go for it. Have a good strong support under the axle. I use 6x6 blocks. I dont trust jack stands on a heavy truck like this.Go for it.

pa.rich said:

My m211 had deteriorated cork seals and while it was apart changed the wheel cylinders,[there are two per wheel on these] and used brake clean on every thing. Worked well but the hub on these M211's has tapered sleeves on the hub bolts. Those were a bear to snap loose. I had to put hydraulic jack pressure and hit them with a maul to shock them loose. Everything else was easy. Repacked the bearings bled the brakes and good to go. Now the master cylinder went bad. Oh yeah, I put new seals on inside and outer, while it was apart . They were worn too. I was alittle anxious before doing the job, but after taking it apart it was quite simple. Go for it. Have a good strong support under the axle. I use 6x6 blocks. I dont trust jack stands on a heavy truck like this.Go for it.

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Thats why I used 6 ton jack stands. Thats 24,000# capacity. And I only jacked one axle at a time. I think that is more than sufficient. And then I used a 10 ton low boy jack to jack it up. Whatever works, that works safely.

D

Usually as long as I have the truck that far apart anyway, I replace all the seals.

toddm said:

Usually as long as I have the truck that far apart anyway, I replace all the seals.

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I was going to do that aswell but I am going to flip the hubs here in July so I decided I would do it all then. This was just to stop the leaks and repack the bearings.

D

I ordered new seals today. Only one wheel had oil in it, the first one we pulled. I pulled this truck down because it had sat for several years. The master cylinder was frozen and junk when pulled apart. I figured the wheel cylinders were the same. The wheel cylinders fared better and cleaned up nice with the hone. Installed kits from ODIRON and reinstalled. Cleaned everything up and made sure the adjusters were free. Since the front axle has no oil we reinstalled the wheels with old seals as they looked good. Today pulled the air-pac. It looked like it was installed just before the truck was surplused. Took it apart and cleaned it up. It did have brake fluid on the air side. Internal componets looked new just dirty. Cleaned it all up, lubed with vasaline and put it back together. Will not know if it is OK until it is all back together to ckeck for leaks. Thank you to those who replyed to my questions earlier.

There is a great post in the old forum for doing the front axle seals and boots by Banshee 365

Here: View topic - Front axle seals and boots stepXstep :: Steel Soldiers :: Military Vehicles Supersite


I forget who sent it to me but the article that got me through my rear axle seal replacement is attached below as a pdf.

I am in the process of replacing my rear seals. I have the hub off and replacing the inner seal. TM 209 says to wipe off any grease that is on the rubber seal. However TM 361 says to lightly gease the rubber seal. What is the proper technique? Lube or no lube on the rubber seal that makes contact with the hub?