Memorial Weekend I changed my driver side rear hub seal using the procedure listed in this thread
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ake-shoes.html
Everything went fine, no real issues with anything. All went together A OK. I have put about 7-800 miles on the truck since doing this. Today I had to go to Houston for a training class and while on break for the class I look out at my truck and see some puddle of something wet by tire. Using my Sherlock Holmes like detective skills and knowing that there was no way in hades that it could be rain since we aint seen the wet stuff in a month of sundays I walked over to check it out and sure nuff it was heavy oil. Looked up in wheel well and can see where it slung out along the tire. . What could have happened to cause this so soon? I have not jacked the wheel up yet and investigate, but i shook it best i could and i can feel ever so slightly what feels and sounds like slack in the bearing? something else? I dont know. Wasnt sure if I should drive it or not, but decided what the hell, Ill drive it all the way to the scene of the crash so I took off on the 2+ hour ride home. I did so because even though i only discovered the seal leak about 2 months ago, I suspect it has been that way for 2 yrs when i first started smelling gear oil but couldnt figure out where from. Thats been 10's of thousands of miles, 130 miles should be no problem. Made it back just fine no problems, will investigate further this weekend while i drive the jeep tomorrow. I packed the bearings good when installing and poured some oil in the hub before tightening, could this have been excess oil that spilled over? Only thing i can think of that i did different than the procedure listed was that after tightening i backed the axle nut off 10 clicks instead of 7. Would that make enough difference to cause excessive movement to ruin seal? Open to suggestions. See pics below. Im afraid i know the answer, but does this mean another set of e-brake pads? ouch.





Inside of wheel, can see oil slung from center of hub onto tire.

 

When I last did one of my seals, I VERY carefully inspected the leaky seal surface on the axle and found some minute, insignificant machining burrs.

With a #6 flat file, a lot of patience and finesse, and some crocus cloth to polish it, I was able to get a very fine sealing surface. That's sorta' important to get right.

It's been over two years and still no leak.

Pop

 

Well, i didnt inspect the surface with a fine tooth comb, but i gave it a good once over and didnt find anything when i had it apart. The old seal was dry rot and came off in two pieces with one piece remaining on the axle when hub was removed. Guess i know what ill be doing this weekend.

 

Did you make sure your vent tube isn't kinked or otherwise blocked? Did the seal get dinged on install?

 

I did not check the vent tube. Im pretty sure the seal was not dinged, i was careful. But I will check all this weekend when i tear it all apart again. ughh

 

Prior to the install of the outer bearing cone and lock nut, did you add ~ pint of gear oil to the hub so that the small cavity in the hub was full of oil?

 

Just curious why you backed the nut off 10 clicks?

 

A pint? No i didnt add a pint. I did add enough to fill the space in bottom of hub before it would start to run out. Maybe an ounce or two at most which is what my Haynes manual said to add, one would be very hard pressed to get a whole pint in that area without having it run out all over the place.

 

Damon. When we did my seals a few weeks ago, we tightened the nut to 60 lb/ft, then backed the nut out a little then put around 20 lb/ft torque. Roland also used fine sand paper and sanded the spline that the seal seals against. Roland was the doctor at this operation.

 

So, you tighten til clicking stops, then apply 60-70lb/ft, then you back it off a few clicks of the nut, then tighten (till it stops clicking again i presume) then tighten to 20 lb/ft? All the clicking has me confused when talking about backing off then re-tightening for some reason.

 

Rick's Dana 80 calls for a different hub bearing torque procedure than the Ford/Sterling 10.5. We dressed up the spindle a bit because the seal rides directly on it with the Dana 80. The 10.5 uses an oil bath type seal with a "built in" wear sleeve. That is why the hub can be a booger to pull off.

For the 10.5, it is 60 ft-lbs followed by backing off 5 notches for new bearings and 7 for used ones. I did my right side over 100k miles ago and didn't use a torque wrench on it at all. I just adjusted the bearings by "feel" and let the nut lock in place when the socket was removed. No leaks. I keep a spare seal in my parts cabinet for the day the other side decides to give up the ghost.

 

Thanks for clarifying this Roland. Never did the 10.5 before.

You the man brother.

 

i did the 60lbs.. it was way too tight on my truck. so i just loosened it till the wheel spun freely

 

Well, my luck aint changing any. Noticed this leak thursday afternoon. Had planned to do it saturday, but figured that since this is my daily driver I needed to get it back on road asap so i took friday off to perform the rework of this job just in case i had to go to Ford for parts if needed as they would likely not be open on weekend knowing my luck. I took all apart friday morning, run into town to get parts, spent $$$ for new e-pads, rear disc pads, new seal, dropped rotor off to get turned and got a bunch of misc odds and ends for supplies. Left there, got inspection for the jeep, had lunch at a fast food joint, drive back to get rotor, wouldnt you know the sure fire way to kill a drought is to ride around town in a jeep with no top or doors, got wet. Get rotor, head home. After about 30 minutes of being home, realized i dont have my wallet. Look all over the house and outside, no wallet. Call all places i visited that morning, then i drive back to town and physically go everywhere i went before, no dice. LOST MY WALLET!! #$*%$*$ THIS SUX!!.. Spent all afternoon calling banks and credit agencies and all that jazz. Did not make any headway on truck. Im torqued like you wouldnt believe. No progress on truck.

Anyway, back to the hub seals this morning, like the original plan that i should have stuck with. The first time i took the hub and seal off two weeks ago the seal came off in two pieces (one in hub, one on axle) due to dry rot i presume. Well this time when i take off it too came apart in two pieces. Checked the inner bearing and had pieces of the rubber from the seal inside the back side of the cage, cleaned out real well before putting back in service. When i took apart this time I did notice some imperfections on the seal mating surface. I noticed first time as well but I figured the seal didnt ride that far back, guess i was wrong. Check it out.



So I got some emery cloth and polished her up so the surface should be good to go now. Heres the after.



So now i check out the vent. While its not pinched completely it does appear to be mashed a bit with the factory clip.






Pull the end down to inspect, cant see it all too well with this pic, but those of you that have dirt dobbers in your neck of the woods know what a pain in the @$$ they are, if there is a small hole, they WILL find it and stop it up. End of vent tube was plugged from dirt dobbers. Cleaned out and tied up with zip tie so not to kink. So that two possible causes I did not pick up on the first go round.

Put everything back together like before, no real issues, put oil in cavity before outer bearing. Tighten nut, back off 7 clicks. Thinking im home free from here and go to put rotor back on, pick up a rag to wipe the rotor and wouldnt you know it there is the 3rd spring from the e-brake that i failed to put on. $*#&$*#(@. Take all apart again, very careful not to damage the seal when taking the hub off, replace spring, and repeat installation. Tighten, back off 7 clicks. All seems good. Hopefully i got it all done correctly this time. While i was in the mood, changed oil in the jeep and installed my coolant bypass filter on truck before the day was up. Funny thing on the coolant install, after starting up to check for leaks there was a definite mechanical screeching of something going on that did not sound good. Water pump run dry? IDK. It quit just as fast as it started. Ill start a new thread for that. So hopefully all is good now. Now I get to gather all new cards, drivers license, and other IDs as needed. This sux cuz there is a multitude of stuff that was in that wallet as ALL MY INFO was in that wallet.

 

dunno myself. I read the procedure before doing the job, it said 7 clicks. But when I was actually doing it for some reason I had 10 clicks in my head. Maybe it was from that war movie i watched the nite before or something ("You need to hump it 10 clicks to the West to get to the LZ", i dont know) I had 10 on the brain for some reason. Re-read after I came in and realized my error, hoped for the best, didnt happen.