I'll start this with the obligatory: I searched for hours looking for a similar thread and answer to my question to no avail. I'm actually quite confused and have never run into something like this...

My parking brake wasn't working, and I noticed an oil spot on my rear drums, so I decided I'd do a full rebuild of the brakes and bearings/seals on my 1976 F250 4x4. The parts I ordered were timken set 38s with part # 104949 and part # 104911 (ordered from jeffs bronco graveyard as a D60 bearing and seal kit) and it came with what looks like a national(?) seal but it is unmarked. When I pulled the hub off, I noticed that the seal was not installed in the hub, but rather just pushed up against the face of the drum backing plate. So I removed everything and cleaned it all up. I compared the old bearings and seals to the new, and the seals appear to be the same and the bearings are identical part numbers. This is where it gets weird. The inner race is so close to the edge of the hub, that the seal has no room to seat into the hub. I thought it was weird, and went ahead and hammered in a new race thinking that I must be insane, and maybe the PO (who was a hack by the way...) just didn't hammer the race in completely. Sure enough, the race bottoms out right where the old one was, and I'm hitting it with a bearing race driver and a 4lb sledge. So now, I'm perplexed. I got fed up with it and had to set it down for the day.

So now I need to find out where I went wrong. I'm 99% certain that I have a D60... I looked for a tag, but it was broken off. I looked for a BOM, and couldn't find anything. But even if it was a D61, those bearings and races are the same part number as far as I know. I honestly am at a loss on what to do. I should have snapped a picture of it, but I didn't, and I had to throw it back together for now due to a high maintenance HOA. But I WILL snap a picture of it at some point this week. Has anyone run into an issue like this? It feels ridiculous if I'm being completely honest. Hit me with some suggestions. I'm going to attach some pictures of the diff in case I am misidentifying it.

 

Make sure the differential vent is not obstructed forcing the diff and tubes to pressurize pushing oil out any and all of the seals.

 

Nothing to with the seal or bearing but is that a crack in the housing on the right side, just inboard of the tube. The weld hole and tube look like they may be weeping lube. I can't enlarge pic. Just curious.

 

those are the right part numbers I'm pretty sure. done a lot of these and never had this problem.

when you say there's not enough room for the seal how much room are you talking ?

Have you pulled the other hub to see if it has the same problem ? I have to wonder if the hub was damaged and someone ground it flat or something. you see some crazy chit has happened to these rigs after 45 years nothing can be ruled out.

 

440 is on to it.....I actually have modified a hub but change seals so it still works....long story but I bet 440 is correct. That or the race in not going deep enough, like a bur has it caught or something is off.....the flat goes to the center of the hub, bearing, then seal. If you get it cleaned up you should be able to tell. Pics would help a ton. All assuming it is a Dana and not a newer axle that was swapped in(Sterling)...even then I would expect overlap in parts fitment.

 

Thank you for the advice gentlemen. Took me awhile to get the pictures, but I finally had a moment this morning to pull both sides and compare. I think I found the issue. 440, you were correct. I guess at some point it was ground down, which doesn't make any sense to me at all, but as I stated before, I don't think the PO had any business working on this truck... Now I'm not 100% sure what my next step should be. I have searched for new rear hubs, and couldn't really find anything that I knew was the correct part. There is also a 14 bolt for sale in the next town over for $250. I would like to keep the 60 if at all possible and if it makes sense to financially. I'm attaching pictures of the good hub first, and the ground down hub second. The race is seated fully, and I only have about ¹/16th inch to where the seal is supposed to sit. I appreciate yalls advice

 

Likely what happened was it road around with a bearing bad and somehow ruined the hub. No reason on a rear to "clearance" anything like I did on my front...that was a whole different ball of wax. It appears the one hub is a tad different....could be it was swapped from something else and not quite right. Normally if that is the case you will see other issues like drum not fitting correct, axle etc.
You should be able to find a hub in a junk yard, etc. Be lucky it is the rear! Rear is common, front not so much. Quad 4x4 will have it or can cross reference it as well as any Dana/Spicer places. If you were in central AR I have one I could give you.

 

Not really any way to fix that. hubs should be easy to find there are thousands of them laying around, if you can't find one locally look on ebay.