[redlehr]

Hello again friends, I recently replaced axles in my 64 Gal ,but I was told I need to put new axle seals on as well.
OK, the axles are out of the rear end,so now how do you get the old seal out and the new seal in the axle ? Do you need to take the rear brakes off to get at the seal ? If so, how do you get the brake housing off ?
As always, many thanks.....

 

[FEandGoingBroke]

Raise and support vehicle

Remove rear brakes
Remove backing plate
Slide axle out of housing
Reach in with pull hook and pull out seal
Put new seal in it's place


All done, not put it back together

 

[redlehr]

Raise and support vehicle

Remove rear brakes
Remove backing plate
Slide axle out of housing
Reach in with pull hook and pull out seal
Put new seal in it's place


All done, not put it back together

Thanks FE, When you say remove the brakes, do you mean take the whole braking system apart ,remove the springs, cylinder ,cables, etc ???
The car is up on jacks,the axles are out of it,so I'm at the brake system part of the show. Sorry for the novice questions,you're info is a great help.
Red

 

[Mroldfart2U]

I thought you could change the seals leaving the brakes/backing plate untouched. Its been forever sense I've rebearing-ed one. Maybe someone else can verify further...

 

[1976kjell]

You can remove the brake as one unit from the axle end flange, included the backing plate, without taking the whole braking system apart, but then the brakefluid pipe have to be disconnected

If the outer diameter of the seal is smaller than the shaft hole in the center of the backing plate, then its possible to replace the seal without touching the backing plate/brake. Im not sure if the seal is wider than the shaft hole

 

[FEandGoingBroke]

By removing brakes I mean the following.

Remove Parking brake cable.

Disconnect brake line from wheel cylinder.

Remove 4 backing plate nuts.

That should do it. It's been about 20 years since I did a ford 9" rear seal.

 

[PSIG]

I thought you could change the seals leaving the brakes/backing plate untouched....

+1. Many 9" rears have full-diameter backing plate holes. This means you don't have to touch anything but 4 nuts to do the whole job. I do not know if your Gal is one of them, but normally:

• remove wheel
• remove drum
• use hole in axle flange to access and remove the four retainer nuts
• remove axle
• remove seal (seal hook, or collapse seal ring inward with punch or screwdriver)
• install new seal with appropriately-sized driver
• grease seal lips
• install axle (support while inserting so seal is not damaged)
• install new fiber gasket if required
• install and torque the four retainer nuts
• install drum and wheel - torque properly
• drive happy

That's about it if you're one of the lucky ones. If not, then back to FE's instructions for brake assembly removal.

David

 

[redlehr]

WOW, what a battle ..... I found out you do not have to take the brake housing off to put the seal in FE and David, but the seals were factory and they used some sort of adhesive when they put them on. Well as you can see in the picture the first one gave me quite a tussle(it looks like race), until I found a small tire iron with a cats claw and pried it out with that. First seal took me 1 1/2 hrs and I lost my religion,,,again.(I'd still be there if not for the tire iron) second seal 1 1/2 mins.
I have a picture of the new seal from NAPA.
Thanks for the help everyone !!

 

[puttster]

Red, what is that first picture? Don't tell me it is the thing that is supposed to keep the oil in.

 

[redlehr]

Red, what is that first picture? Don't tell me it is the thing that is supposed to keep the oil in.

The first picture is the first seal I took out after trying to collapse it with a screwdriver,a hook, and just short of C-4....then I found the right tool.
There is quite a difference in the construction of the old seal and the new seals.The old seal looks more like a race,you can see what I mean in the picture that has the 2 old seals in it.
For future reference the seal I took out is 2.5 inches outside diameter.

 

[caper150]

heres what I used to do mine 15 min max to remove and install, mind you I had the axle disassembled.
Borrowed an old puller from a friend who modded it just for this purpose:

out with the old:

 

[caper150]

And in with the new:

this is the tool I used to install them.