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Possible leaking rear axle seal

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Lon_S

Lon_S

Freshman Member
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I was cleaning the rear breaks of my ’65 midget in preparation for a rebuild when I noticed that the right rear was far grungier and difficult to clean than the left. It also seemed to leak a lot of fluid when I first started to mess with it. The hydraulic line seems to be okay, which makes me wonder if the rear axle’s oil seal may be bad. My question is this: do I need to remove the right rear axle in order to replace the oil seal and o-ring?

Thanks!
Lon
 
Yes, the axle must come out and to change the axle seal, you need to pull the hud too. IIRC, once the hub is out, you need to drive the bearing out the hub to get at the seal. It's a really stupid design.



If it's just leaking at the outter flange, you can just change the gasket and o-ring.


p.s welcome aboard
 
Thanks! I'll have a friend some by that knows more about this than I and we'll see if it's the gasket or if I need to go all the way. Here's hoping!

Thanks!
Lon
 
You have to pay attention to the lube you use, too. Some of the modern synthetic gear lubes are very slippery, so much so that they will leak past a new seal - had this happen with my racer and its double bearing hubs, even with speedi sleeves installed. Use a heavy (8-90-140) all mineral lube after you replace the seal.
 
it's pretty easy to do though, even if there is quite a bit to take apart
 
The general consensus is also that too much oil in the diff can cause this. If you fill up the pumpkin till it leaks out the hole, that is too much, you can put in less than that. If you stick your pinkie in the hole and reach down, it should just touch.
 
Nothing like the high-tech pinkie metric test! :smile: Good to know. I'm thinking of just forgetting all of this "is it leaking or isn't it" game and just replacing all of the axle bearings and seals. It seems to me that give how long it has been since this car has seen the road it couldn't hurt.

Thanks!
Lon
 
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