rear axle seal replacement

M

metro1

Senior Member
While replacing the brakes on my '59 Galaxie, I noticed a slight seepage around the axles. Is this one of those that you have to press the bearing off to remove the seal or is it pressed into the housing? The rear in this car does not have an inspection plate.
 
No, but the axle has to come out to replace the seal. The seal fits inside the axle outer tube. The bearing retainer to backing plate and the backing plate to axle tube flange have paper gaskets that would likely need to be replaced if changing a seal.

Ford made the 9-inch so long that there are modern variations in bearings and seals but all the old ones are pretty conventional as was already described.
 
If you can procure/source look for&find O.E.M/ORIGINAL metal cased leather as they won't leak compared to aftermarket neoprene rubber seal.
 
The ones I pulled from my '59 were leather and made in Mexico, name brand. I replaced them, had one leaker, my fault. I picked up a seal driver kit and installed a new one. They have to go in square with no damage to them.
 
My OG set was made by National, with the leather. The new ones are made by SKF, so are the axle bearings. One side was shot when I got the car, and leaking.
 
I would think a leather seal would get oil logged and seep as I have seen others do that. I'll have to do so research on neoprene vs leather . All newer vehicles I've worked on use neoprene but maybe it's just less expensive to manufacture.
 
In our over 5oyrs experience ,
Whenever a customer has complained about a leaking grease retainer/oil seal,
99.9% of the time it's because they couldn't find locally or interstate an original grease retainer/oilseal (A1/leather) so they could only find a neoprene rubber which leaked,
Due to it being unsuitable for older style greases/lubricants&metallurgy,
Whenever we've sold a leather replacement grease retainer oil seal instead of a neoprene rubber it's stopped the leak,neoprene is only suitable for high-temperature &modern thicker lubricants ,leather being softer is kinder to old style metallurgy&lubricants being that once you've soaked them overnight in light oil,
They don't run as dry nor wear a shaft compared to neoprene rubber when it gets hard it can cause a shaft to wear leaving groove on a shaft negating use of a speedie sleeve.
 
The NATIONAL oil seal part number is: 9568 they're NO LONGER manufacturing that particular part number with a leather lip what you want is: NATIONAL 6939,
As they're originally made with a leather lip.
 
I was mechanic for 30-years at the phone company. We always cleaned the surface that the seal was going into with brake clean and then applied a little of the good red or black silicone around the outside of the seal to make sure there was a good seal around the outside too. That was the way I was taught to install seals and I've done hundreds of them. Put a little gear oil on the seal lip and around the axle so it doesn't start off dry. The axles can be a little tuff to get out without an axle puller. Some guys at home will use a large chain bolted to the lug nut's, leave some slack in it and give it a good yank.

Don't forget to buy the paper gaskets that go between the backing plates and housing. The drums should be machined within .010 of each other to prevent the brakes from pulling to one side. Make sure the shoes fit the arc of the drum with full contact. Short shoe to the front long shoe in the rear, I've seen so many of them put on backwards. Replace "all" the brake springs, they start breaking after 10 to 15 years and don't use plyers or dykes to stretch them, use brake spring plyers. The little marks left on the springs by the plyers can cause them to brake. Lube the brake backing plates pads where the shoes sit with a little white lithium grease or better yet disc brake caliper slide grease. Otherwise, the shoes will wear grooves into the backing plates, and the shoes will hang up on them. I've welded up many of them. Use never seize on the adjuster threads. If it has self-adjusters, when its assembled pull the adjuster cable back and make sure it rotates the star wheel, sometimes you need to bend the adjuster to contact the star wheel properly. You might as well rebuild or replace the wheels cylinder too. That way you won't be going back in there again for years.
 
I bought the brakes from Rock Auto. The fronts have a big and little shoe but the rears (Bosch) are all the same, kind of strange. I did have to weld the grooves in the backing plate and smooth it down.
 
I bought the brakes from Rock Auto. The fronts have a big and little shoe but the rears (Bosch) are all the same, kind of strange.
Click to expand...

You need to source your shoes (riveted) from a vendor such as BENDIX -

(CORRECTION as BENDIX now uses an outside supplier one-fit all)

- or RAYBESTOS. You don't buy brake parts due to price.
 
Last edited:
I bought AC Delco and Raybestos wheel cylinders only to find out they are both made in China. The brand names don't mean much anymore. I thought I was buying the "good stuff".
 
metro1 said:
I bought AC Delco and Raybestos wheel cylinders only to find out they are both made in China. The brand names don't mean much anymore. I thought I was buying the "good stuff".
Click to expand...

Don't feel like the LONE RANGER. I needed wheel cylinders for a TAURUS recently, don't have access to FORD parts directly anymore and looked them up on NAPA. Showed an ILL and they had WAGNER CASTING ID on them.

DAMN! USA made ! Sent MY LITTLE THUMSCREW down to pick them up and MADE IN CHINA was the result. You can't get away from it anymore.

It's best (IMO) to hold on to OEM and rebuild it even if it needs to be sleeved.
 
KULTULZ said:
You need to source your shoes (riveted) from a vendor such as BENDIX or RAYBESTOS. You don't buy brake parts due to price.
Click to expand...

There should be a short and long shoe. If you received all long shoes that doesn't seem right, maybe they were boxed wrong. I've seen little tiny rear drum brakes on front wheel drive cars that the shoes were all the same length but not on full size cars and pickups.

I stole this from another site;

"Short shoe in front . . . because it's the “self-energizing” shoe. The front shoe tries to jam itself into the brake drum – which makes it the stronger shoe braking-wise – when the brakes are applied so it's smaller to match the power of the larger secondary shoe".

I'll add this to the statement. Because the rear show is forced into the drum from the self-energizing action it wears faster than the front shoe. That's another reason it longer but its also usually thicker so the front and rear shoes wea at the same rate. The length of that front shoe (primary shoe) will effect the force applied to the rear ((secondary shoe). We don't want to mess with the original engineering of the system.

As far as riveted versus glued shoes. I used to only like the riveted shoes, I didn't trust the glued ones. After years of working as a fleet mechanic I changed my mind. The glued ones "never" lost their bond. They wore down until they were paper thin, that was with quality parts. The riveted shoes as they got thin would crack across the rows of rivets and then loose pieces of the shoes. Our phone company fleet was badly abused and the trucks usually undersized for the weights they carried. The mountain F-350 aerial boom trucks would only go 4000 miles on a set of six tires. The bakes would be cooked. The disc brake calipers boots would be cooked, cracked cleaned though the brake rotors, pad metal backing were drak blue, cracked drums, cracked shoes... Anyway, I have a lot of experience with what last on drum brakes. We usually only used Bendix shoes and pads or preferably Motorcraft parts on Fords and Delco on GMs.

I get a lot of my personal parts from Rock Auto because they give you the option of economy or quality parts and I know the quality of the different brands. There prices are fair and the shipping fast. Except, sometimes not all of the parts you need are located at the same warehouse, and you end up paying more for shopping. I rarely buy anything from the big chain auto parts stores, especially "any" electronics. One of their new coil modules left my daughter stranded in the middle of nowhere, a dangerous situation. I will never buy any electronic component from them again. I have many trusted mechanic friends that have the same problem with their parts. One of those stores sales a brand of motor mounts we tried at work, and they would not make it between services without breaking. I cringed when I saw that brand on the shelves. Thay also caried a brand of economy brake pads we tried on the front-wheel drive cars, and they caught fire. I swear, they must have been made from compressed cardboard. So what if they guarantee their parts when you have to replace them every six-months. Go there for your oil, wax... but not your car parts. They put the local parts stored that carried quality parts out of business,, that only leaves mail order for me if I want quality parts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top