Leaking axle... and not the good kind

[paulfarber]

Today I was shooting grease in the zerks and got to the forward read axle. Both inner rims were covered in grease and oil. I took the vent off and removed the spring and seal (no fording in the near future) and started to search of leaking axle posts here. The drivers side wheel was significantly more greasy/oily than the passenger side.

The pics show the inner wheel on the passenger side in one of the pics. The drivers side was 10x worse... I wold say at least 1/32in of grease/oil coating the inner wheel.

If you look at the pics the brake backing plate is dry, as is the outer hub. The fluid looks to have come from the open holes in the brake drum.. but the bottom of the backing plate is dry.

I plan to take off the drum to check brakes and remove the hub to repack the bearings.

Any other tips as to what the issue was?

 

[Srjeeper]

Question....

Paul,

What leaked out, does it smell like gear oil or grease?

The reason I ask, is if it smells like gear oil, I'd suspect the cork seal or a slight over full senerio. If it's grease, perhaps the bearings are heating up to the point where it's melting the grease to a semi liquified state and slinging it out.


Keep us posted on your findings..

 

[Heavysteven]

pretty straight foward fix. Pull the hubs replaces the seals, new cork, pack the bearing, and put it all back together. Hardest part is taking off the wheels and putting them back on.

No stupid boot like the front, I hate that boot design.

 

[paulfarber]

It was a mix of liquid and 'goo' that was grease like. The passenger side is all oil.

I have both wheels off (not that hard... lucky me) but I have about 1000 miles on the truck since I got it, and this is the only real issue I have had other than the boot (which was already ripped with I got the truck).

Whats odd to me is that both sides blew oil. I would think that one side would blow first and release the pressure leaving the other side more or less in tact.

Only thing that sucks is that I won a trailer and there is a small possibility that the EUC could clear next week, giving me 10 days on the clock.

 

[DieselBob]

I used a 15 gal. round wash tub and 5 gallons of mineral spirits for cleaning. Was easy to set the hole hub / drum assembly in and scrub the crud off.

 

[Heavysteven]

I vote vent clogged gear oil went through seals and took the grease out of the bearings.

Good link:
http://www.xm381.com/xm381/How_To/Pages/Hub_Flip.html

 

[ODdave]

#1 tip, New Cork (or equivilant) wedge in the key way.

mine where doing the same thing. I cleaned & repacked the berrings using the old seals, installed new wedges and havent had any problems since.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Yup, plan on putting in all new seals. When you go to clean the brake pads, if they are salvageable, do yourself a favor and just unbolt them from the backing plate, it will make the job 10x easier.

 

[Truckie]

You may want to check/rebuild your Wheel Brake Cylinders while you have is all apart

 

[rrrr]

Axle vent clog, my guess !

I notice a slight leak on the same axle and pulled the vent, it was clogged. Cleaned and reinstalled and no problem since. I also pulled the other two vents and cleaned. My drivers front boot is torn and leaking so I'll be doing boots soon. Not looking forward to it.

 

[deathrowdave]

My vote goes to the cork seal gave up the chase !!! Anyway clean everything repack bearings and replace the seal with some RTV on it should be good to go !!

 

[RAYZER]

I serviced all 3 axles with new seals on mine,3 wheel seals leaking, sprayed parts cleaner into keyway to clean them out and sqeezed in some rvt black gasket sealer,no problems since! Pull back rubbers on brake cylinders and make sure their dry.

 

[Vintage iron]

Paul, I had the same problem with my truck. I found out that everything was new, but someone damaged the inner seals putting them in. I bought a newer style from Boyce. They are heavy duty design and they have a dam on the inside. Just make sure you sand a taper on the edge to help get it seated. Put your old seal next to the new one and you will see the old one has a rolled edge to help it get started. I am just trying to figure out what kind of gear oil to use now.

 

[Clay James]

Mine did the same thing on that axle. Every wheel on every axle was leaking when I got it But they did stop for a while but finally gave up last week and I replaced them. The inner seals kept it all out of the brakes though, they were totally dry. The previous guys that worked on it put all the cork seals in upside down so it's no wonder they failed.

Now to figure out why the front is leaking for 3rd time(spindle bushings I'm guessing). I just call this truck "leaky" now.

 

[ODdave]

how would you put the cork seal in upside down?

 

[paulfarber]

Follow up:

The cork and seals all looked OK. Still put in new seals and repacked the bearings. Serviced the vent.

One hub is hot.. but I think its the brakes, not the bearings.

I did reuse the cork and also RTV'd it to fill in any gaps. So far no leaks... but what a mess.

 

[dynodave1]

What is the cause when you have gear lube in the wheel bearing area?

 

[Heavysteven]

Seal failure

 

[DieselBob]

What is the cause when you have gear lube in the wheel bearing area?

Most likely the outer seal has failed. The gear oil from the differential will travel down the axle tube and pool on the outside of the outer seal. If the outer seal doesn't seal against the hub the differential oil will seep past and contaminate the bearing grease.

 

[Clay James]

how would you put the cork seal in upside down?

The ones that were in there were sloped on one side like it was meant to go at the back of the keyway.