Axle leak

Just in case anyone is still dealing with axle leaks I thought I would post the pics of the parts I have received so far...

Southeast didn't have the cork separate so I ordered a gasket set (# from the Army manual) and this is what came in it. One differential gasket, two axle seals, two cork inserts, and a copper crush washer. The seals were to expensive from Southeast so I ordered from two others, Clark and Memphis.

Clark sent the seals inner and outer, axle gasket, lock washer, and two cork inserts. You can order the cork alone. I didn't want to go to the hassle of pulling everything apart just to replace the cork so I will replace the seals also.

I am waiting on the shipment from Memphis. It is experiments like this that add to my spare parts. I have 2500 mile trip planned next summer so all this will help.

Anyone else dig into the axle leaks yet?
Dave

Havent dug in yet, But its going to happen very soon.....

Ah, the elusive cork inserts. If I read the envelope correctly is says "8757693" 2 Inserts.

Do you have the number for Clark Handy. I'd like to order about 10 of them since it will cost the same to ship 1 or 10.

Here are the seals I got from Antelope Valley Equipment and Truck

Clark Truck Parts

Phone number:

304-755-8811

Dave

Clark

Just got my package from Memphis Equipment today. By far the best looking stuff. This all looks new not NOS and the outer seal looks to be a better set up. Very good prices, fast shipping.

Memphis 901-774-0600

PA office 717-263-4194

axle seal again

I finally got to the axle seals on my Deuce. Pretty easy job but for those of us with no great experience I thought I would post some pics. First two are just the nice spray pattern on the rim and inside the brake drum. Next is the sludge on the brake pads and you can see what is left of the cork insert in the key way. Most of the grease has been washed out of the bearings by the axle fluid. Last one is everything cleaned up and new inner seal installed. I used two cans of brake cleaner on the drum and brakes. What a difference in braking now that it is all cleaned up. The only thing I think I will do is back the nut off one flat. After I repacked the bearings and installed everything I took her for a drive. I went about half a mile and no problems so I took off for about 10 miles. When I got home I felt all the "hubs", I guess you call them, and that one was just a bit warmer than the others. Non of them were hot, they are only slightly warm if at all but that one was just a bit warmer. Don't mean to beat a dead horse here but I hope this helps some of us that don't have much experience working on the Deuce. I didn't take any pictures putting it together, as long as you pay attention taking it apart you will be fine. I know there are some out there with this same problem, hope it helps.

Dave
(use the book also, it helps!)<---epiphany

I for one appreciate the repetition of images and experiences, that's the only way to learn. Good job cleaning the parts.

Hey H1,

Thanks for posting this. Great to have another reference to go by. I have to do mine when I get someone to help lift the tires off.

The only thing I think I will do is back the nut off one flat.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by that sentence?
Did you mean that you will back off the inner nut by one flat turn or by one flat edge of the nut?
Just how did you tighten it the first time, by feel or by ft/lbs?

How heavy is the brake drum and hub?

I liked the pics to. What size jack are you do have? I've been using a bottle jack looks like the floor jack would be faster.

you know....you dont need to actually seperate the tires from the hub, to save yourself some time remove the axel.....remove the outer lock nut.....
jack up the axel just far enough to get a " grease pig" (grease pig is anything that can greased up and used to slide the tire/hub combo laterally)remove the inner locknut....remove outer bearing......lower the axel just until pressure is taken off the wheel hub combo and slide it out, then just replace the seals, clean everything up, GAA up the bearings and reverse the procedure...just be careful not to nick the inner seal. FYI the majority of problems I have seen with the rockwells leaking was due to the breather(one way check valve) on the top of the axel being clogged. You should be abel to grab the top of the breather and freely spin the cap on top of it... if you have any doubts about the breather/check valve being fuctional remove it and make sure you cal blow air through it. Another consideration is to make sure you dont have to much oil in there.

safety considerations.....I would only use the " grease pig" method on 1 wheel at a time, meaning the other 3 sets of duals are still installed and as an extra safety precaution you can wrap a chain loosely around the axel and frame, that way if your jack decides to fail your axel will only fall as far as the slack in the chain and not crush you or or your driveway

ahhh...something else I just rembered, as for as adjusting the spindel nuts this is how I was tough to do it. .........tires installed on hub.....axel removed........tires off ground to allow assembley to rotate.......tighten up inner spindel nut to snug.......spin wheel assembly and continue to tighten inner nut until when wheel stops spinning it " kicks back just a little" then back off inner nut 1/16 of a turn....install locking washer and lock nut and tighten the heck out of it while continuing to spin wheel assembly....when all is said and done the wheel assembly with axel removed should spin freely and then kick back a tiny bit once it stops( you will know what I mean when you see it) you may have to back off the inner nut a bit more than 1/16 of a turn once you begin tighteing the outer lock nut. and when you have it where you want it take a big bar..tankers bar if you have one and pry up on the wheel assembly makeing sure you have absolutely no slop in the bearings.

I used this procedure on countless pm's and never had a bearing failure

hope this helps and if this dosent make sense to anyone shoot me a PM and I'll get ya my phone number.

Steve

One flat

Polverone said:

Hey H1,

Thanks for posting this. Great to have another reference to go by. I have to do mine when I get someone to help lift the tires off.

The only thing I think I will do is back the nut off one flat.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by that sentence?
Did you mean that you will back off the inner nut by one flat turn or by one flat edge of the nut?
Just how did you tighten it the first time, by feel or by ft/lbs?

How heavy is the brake drum and hub?

Click to expand...

I will back the inner nut off by one flat of the nut not one turn. Before I dissassembled it I took notice that there was one thread showing on the end of the axle. When I put it back together and tightened the nut so only one thread was showing, it was too tight. I backed off the inner nut one flat at a time until it spun freely. When I was done there was a half thread showing.
The first time I put it together I tightened the nut by hand. It came off by hand so I tightened by hand. The outer nut I torqued by the book, don't remember the torque though.
The brake drum and hub are heavy but manageable if you are careful. I just slid it off and put it on padded cardboard. I put the hub/drum end-down in a five gallon pail when it came time to clean it.
The easiest part was removing the wheels. I just crack the outer nuts, jack it up just a hair off the deck, take the nuts off and slide the wheel off. Then I drop it down a bit, crack the inner nuts, jack it back up just a bit, remove the inner nuts and slide the inner tire off.
For the rear axles my 2.5 ton floor jack works great but once up in the air I use a good jack stand. My floor jack will not budge the front axle so I use an 8 ton bottle jack.
Typing pretty fast here, if I have confused anyone pm me... hope this helps. Pretty easy job but I was nervous because I had never done it and didn't want to mess it up. Just take a good look at each step when you disassemble.

Dave

hmmm

ahhh...something else I just rembered, as for as adjusting the spindel nuts this is how I was tough to do it. .........tires installed on hub.....axel removed........tires off ground to allow assembley to rotate.......tighten up inner spindel nut to snug.......spin wheel assembly and continue to tighten inner nut until when wheel stops spinning it " kicks back just a little" then back off inner nut 1/16 of a turn....install locking washer and lock nut and tighten the heck out of it while continuing to spin wheel assembly....when all is said and done the wheel assembly with axel removed should spin freely and then kick back a tiny bit once it stops( you will know what I mean when you see it) you may have to back off the inner nut a bit more than 1/16 of a turn once you begin tighteing the outer lock nut. and when you have it where you want it take a big bar..tankers bar if you have one and pry up on the wheel assembly makeing sure you have absolutely no slop in the bearings.
I used this procedure on countless pm's and never had a bearing failure

hope this helps and if this dosent make sense to anyone shoot me a PM and I'll get ya my phone number.

Steve[/quote]

Now that I have read Steve's post here, I may go back and double check using his method!

Dave

The axle seal replacement has been gone over before but there has been a lot more light shed on the subject here.

Thanks Dave and Steve. You both have really helped clear up a few more details.

As soon as I get them little cork gaskets I'll be tearin' mine down so I can drive it finally. It has been heck since I finally got it registered and the axle seal reared it's ugly beak the next day!

It's been so long since I drove/worked on my truck it's like having a brand new toy that I can see but not touch. I'm still building the house and working 2 jobs which keeps me off this site and outa my rig a lot.

It took me a little doing to find this thread but enough violin playing...................

I replaced the rear axle seals on the rear left front duals and buttoned everything up. The tire would stop and just "kick back" a little as professed in this thread above at least it looked like it did? Took it for a drive and the hub was pretty warm after a 15 minute run. I brought it home and there it sat for 3 months until today. I took the axle out and loosened the inner nut by 3 flats.
Now it would spin a lot smoother and when it stopped it would turn the opposite direction until the heaviest point of the tire/rim(s) returned to the bottom dead center. Sometimes 1/2 a revolution - always to the same point. I can now move the inner nut by 1-2 flats (with my fingers - with some effort). If I tighten it by 2 flats it will stop and not turn until the heavy point reaches 6 o'clock position.
I figured I had the nut where it is supposed to be. Just drove the truck for 45 minutes and when I got out the hub was still warmer than the rest of the hubs, not smoking hot but definitely warmer.

So, my question is, is the nut looser than it is supposed to be? How loose is loose?
I never tried the huge bar under the tires looking for slop in the bearing but I don't think it is any where near that loose.

I never checked the hub for warmth before I did this so I dunno..........

Post edit........just pulled the axle and checked using the 8' breaker bar under the wheels. Yup, it had a little slop in the bearings so I may have had them loose all along. Re-read again and going to try the tighten till it stops turning routine then back off one flat. I had a Chevy 4X4 and repacked my front bearings a lot since I was always in the water/sand/mud. Never had problems...........getting old(er) I guess.

Help please.

I used the h1crwchf method described several years ago when replacing a bad brake cylinder. I replaced the bearing seals when doing the repack as a precaution as the whole mess is apart anyway. I made my little corks from cork stock with no problems. The brake drum is heavy but not unmanageable getting it off. Putting it back on without damaging the seals takes some doing. Assistance makes it a whole lot easier. And on the funny side, if you are doing it in a building, make sure you have enough space between the truck and the wall to pull the axle out!!! LOL...

I know it's not exactly the same but here is my shots of the RF rebuild.


as I said before do it before you have to. dont get into water if you know you have a bad boot. do it first. mine was ripped behind the boot guard and I didnt see it till the washdown afterwards.

Clem1226 said:

ahhh...something else I just rembered, as for as adjusting the spindel nuts this is how I was tough to do it. .........tires installed on hub.....axel removed........tires off ground to allow assembley to rotate.......tighten up inner spindel nut to snug.......spin wheel assembly and continue to tighten inner nut until when wheel stops spinning it " kicks back just a little" then back off inner nut 1/16 of a turn....install locking washer and lock nut and tighten the heck out of it while continuing to spin wheel assembly....when all is said and done the wheel assembly with axel removed should spin freely and then kick back a tiny bit once it stops( you will know what I mean when you see it) you may have to back off the inner nut a bit more than 1/16 of a turn once you begin tighteing the outer lock nut. and when you have it where you want it take a big bar..tankers bar if you have one and pry up on the wheel assembly makeing sure you have absolutely no slop in the bearings.

I used this procedure on countless pm's and never had a bearing failure

Click to expand...

i just did my wheel bearings and seals. i bought a hub nut socket before i started the job, boy what a nice touch that was!! i tightened my spindle nuts as per the instructions in my T.M. torque the inner nut to 50 foot lbs and then back it off 3/16 to 1/4 turn. then set the licking nut to 100-200 foot lbs.

Re: Clark

h1crwchf said:

Just got my package from Memphis Equipment today. By far the best looking stuff. This all looks new not NOS and the outer seal looks to be a better set up. Very good prices, fast shipping.

Memphis 901-774-0600

PA office 717-263-4194

Click to expand...

memphis seals are prolly brand new. the more than likely are getting them from newstar. after lots of research i have found newstar to be the only ones who sell new inner and outer wheel bearing seals for the 2.5 ton axles. the only problem with newstar is they only sell to their distributors.

RE: Re: Clark

The first few I got from Memphis in 2002 didn't last very long. The new outer ones as well as the outer ones from TNJ Murray looked like they had a taller lip on them facing the bearings where the rubber seals against the hub.