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Triumph TR6 - Changing the seals in rear axle

Hi, TR6 friends, I´m Carlos from Barcelona and I need your help.
I´m trying to change the rubber seals ( left and right) in the rear axle. I have the axle out of the car, in the bench, (actually I don´t have a car, I have a beautiful grey chassis, a boxed engine and lots of cardboard boxes full of smelly pieces ).
The front seal was changed succesfully, but with the other two that goes each side , things are different.
After unbolting the big nyloc nuts in the shafts, or the four bolts in both sides of the housing that contains the seals, I´m unable to separate the parts. It´s suposed that the two inner shafts slides smoothly inside the housing, but mines got stuck.
Does anybody has any clue.
Thanks in advance.
Carlos

Carlos,

It sounds like the inner axle bearing is holding the shaft in. This bearing is pressed on the shaft and pressed in the axle housing.

You will probably have to press the shaft out.

When I did mine, I managed to separate the inner axle flange from the inner axle shaft. I did not pull the inner axle shaft out. I could then access the housing and oil seal.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Mike Petryschuk
Michael S. Petryschuk

Thanks Mike.
I was trying to separate the inner axle flange from the inner axle shaft with an extractor with no success. It seems that the little key that goes between the two parts makes the task difficult.
Anyway, I think I will open the rear cover and loosen up the retainer that holds the bearing.
Thanks again.
Carlos

Carlos,

An extractor is limited in its capability to generate enough pressure to split the 2 parts. A hydraulic press helps but the flange must be reinforced so it doesn't warp during the press.

Most people recommend you take it to a shop that has experience pressing these two pieces apart.

Good Luck
Michael S. Petryschuk

You are right, Michael. If the flange gets bent, I will have leaks everywhere.
I will go for the rear cover.

Thanks and If you want, I can send you a couple of pictures of my car.
Carlos

Carlos
Send your pics to Charlie B so we can all see them. There is a current thread BBS MEMBERS CAR PHOTOS.
Rick C
Rick Crawford

Carlos-Maybe I am missing something, but removing the inner axle assembly is usually the easy part. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the seal retainer to the diff and a few whacks with a hammer or sliding hammer and the assembly comes out. Outside of the seal retainer bolts, the only thing holding it is a slight interference fit of the bearing in the diff. The hard part is pressing the drive flange off the axle shaft. The shaft is tapered and sometimes requires a lot of pressure and the flange should be supported with a bearing seperator to prevent bending. After the flange is removed, then the retainer and seal can be removed. I don't think that removing the diff rear cover is going to help. Good luck.
Berry Price
BTP Price

Hi Carlos
I recently changed these seals myself(Last Week). You aren't actually changing the rear axle seals; they are located in your axle stubs that bolt through your trailing arms. These should be sent away for rebuilding because irrepairible damage will most likely occur when trying to disassemble these. but back to what you are trying to replace. I used a good quailty large 2 prong puller on the axle flanges of the differential. In order to tighten the puller enough I put two bolts in the holes of the axle flange and held against the tourque of the puller with a pipe wrench using the old bolts. this prevents any damage to the axle flanges. When you have tightened the puller on to the splindle and flange as much as you can strike the end of the puller with a mallet and the flanges will pop off the shafts this method worked well on both sides as well as the front of the differential. Make sure when you reassemble to replace nyloc nuts or use medium strength loctite on shaft threads I used loctite it was cheaper and easier than waiting for $8.00 lockuts.The recommended torque for all three nuts is 90to 100 Psi. Get a good torque wrench and torque these using the bolts and pipe wrench to hold back against the tightening. Please e-mail me if you need anything explained further. PS I was sending my trailing arms in to be clear powder coated so I removed rear plate and sandblasted.It looks really nice in clear powder coat. I POR15 the rest of the differential
housing and front bracket. PPS do not remove the 4 flange bolts that hold assembly to differential this will not help one bit! Regards John OMeara
jh omeara

Hi Carlos Just an afterthought on that procedure. I had two people to get the flanges off; one holding the pipe wrench on the ground and the oter tightening the gear puller onto the shaft and tapping the end of the puller to free the flanges from the shafts. the keys on the shaft seem to be the reason the flanges are on so tight but its nice to know when your driving down the road! I used a couple 3" bolts and nuts that fit through the flange bolt holes and held them with the pipe wrench Good Luck Regards John
jh omeara

I thank you all friends for your interest. Tapping the end of the puller seems to be a good idea.
Thanks again.
Carlos Suarez

This thread was discussed between 04/04/2005 and 07/04/2005

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