Half-shaft oil seals

[Peter Naulls]

Can anyone talk me through the procedure for removing and replacing half shaft oil seals on a '37 axle. It's 30 years since I last did it and can't remember!

So far I have split the axle and removed the innards. I assume the two bolts on the outside of each casing need to be removed to release the adjuster. Does this then unscrew to reveal the seal housing? and how will I manage to restore the adjustment to its original position when I reassemble? Strangely the Woodrow manual seems to gloss over this.

Peter.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Peter

Yes you need to remove the adjuster cover plates and unscrew the adjusters. Underneath is a wire circlip to be removed and then the felt seal should be under a cover plate. It probably should incur a full re-meshing process but perhaps if you mark the adjusters carefully it may be possible to get things back as they were?  Probably a good idea to replace the felt seals with lip seals while You are at it?

Cheers

Howard

[Alan]

It’s not that difficult to reset the mesh, so don’t worry, but what you can do is one side at a time. Screw the adjuster all the way in assemble the axle and then screw it out until it’s just over finger tight. That puts the crown wheel in the right place. Then you can do the other side. It’s harder to explain than it is to do.

[Bob Culver]

The right side adjuster preserves the original relation between cw and p. The left side may need altering to accomodate a different thickness separating gasket .Once run in any attempt to alter can turn into a saga as the ideal mesh pattern may not be acheivable.

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you all for your replies, on and offline. Much appreciated.

My wife came into the garage and, looking at the scene of devastation asked "how often do you have to replace these seals". I told her the current ones had been in for 35 years and that I probably won't have to do them again! If I do have to I'll have forgotten the process once again.

Peter.

[Tony Press]

It’s not that difficult to reset the mesh, so don’t worry,  but what you can do is one side at a time. Screw the adjuster all the way in assemble the axle and then screw it out until it’s just over finger tight. That puts the crown wheel in the right place. Then you can do the other side. It’s harder to explain than it is to do.

Not sure I understand ?

[Alan]

What I was getting at is as long as you don’t move both adjusters at the same time, you can return the crown wheel to its original position.