Front axle end seals

Artsifrtsi

Artsifrtsi

I just wanna go wheeling...
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Huntsville, AL
Looking at the thread for the hub conversion that @Mr. Bills did, I have a question about the seals. I have seen these available for years, and always thought about getting a set, but could never find reviews or anyone with experience with them.

Are they worth the cost/effort to use? Are the advertised benefits actually attained?
 
I had a set on an older axle I bought, when I swapped axles those end seals went in the trash. The inner seal is what keeps the oil in, not the outers. In fact, my current axle doesnt even have an outer seal installed, been like that for 9 months now.
 
All I've read is they aren't to keep oil in, but to keep water and debris out.

I would need to pull my axles shafts to see the condition, as I still have the factory plastic shields on...
 
I've never ran them, and I'm in the PNW, has never been an issue. The ones I have worked on, they get so built up with crap inside it makes it worse. I have a fat washer welded onto a small tube to clean these out when I need to.

I've just kept the plastic OEM ones on when they have them.
 
I've never run them on any of the jeeps in the past... but like I said, I've NEVER found any information on them...
 
Artsifrtsi said:
I've never run them on any of the jeeps in the past... but like I said, I've NEVER found any information on them...
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They create a serious problem, they aren't a needed solution to anything.

Say your inner seal starts to fail, you've got a serious issue, and you may burn up your differential....that wouldn't happen because you'd see fluid and buildup, the gear oil will actually be slung all over out there, and you'll say "hmm, I need to add fluids and get to that very soon."

Well, if you have these , and they hold the fluids in the shaft....you never see it.....and you slowly jack up your gears, nice mod right? Only if you're looking to regear and the wife won't approve unless you fry your current ones, then these are just the solution.
 
Artsifrtsi said:
Looking at the thread for the hub conversion that @Mr. Bills did, I have a question about the seals. I have seen these available for years, and always thought about getting a set, but could never find reviews or anyone with experience with them.

Are they worth the cost/effort to use? Are the advertised benefits actually attained?
Click to expand...

Not really. I would not run them ordinarily, but in my locale the snow wheelers use them. Mine were a gift. I don't think I would have ever purchased a set.

As justification for using them, a friend tells the story of being somewhere offroad in the middle of Lassen NF during mid winter and discovering that slushy water had found its way into his front axle tubes and frozen solid requiring use of a propane torch to get moving again. Might be total B.S., but it sounded convincing and I know one other person who claims he was there.

I will likely remove those outer seals the next time the axle shafts are out for some other reason. I was going to remove them when my hub kit was installed but I got distracted and forgot. It isn't worth the effort to me if the only purpose is to remove them. Also, I tend to avoid situations that would fill the tubes with wet gunk of any temperature and the fluid level in the diff has not changed suggesting that little or no gear oil has made it past the seals. I'll just keep my eye on things until then.

YMMV
 
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Mr. Bills said:
Not really. I would not run them ordinarily, but in my locale the snow wheelers use them. Mine were a gift. I don't think I would have ever purchased a set.

As justification for using them, a friend tells the story of being somewhere offroad in the middle of Lassen NF during mid winter and discovering that slushy water had found its way into his front axle tubes and frozen solid requiring use of propane torch to get moving again. Might be total B.S., but it sounded convincing and I know one other person who claims he was there.

I will likely remove those outer seals the next time the axle shafts are out for some other reason. I was going to remove them when my hub kit was installed but I got distracted and forgot. It isn't worth the effort if the only purpose is to remove them. Besides, I tend to avoid situations that would fill the tubes with gunk of any temperature and the fluid level in the diff indicates that no gear oil has made it past the seals, thus they are not causing any problems- serious or otherwise.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that!

It'd be interesting to see photos when you remove them!
 
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