Anyone made up a pinion seal retainer?

[ashyers]

The pinion seal in the rear lasted 1yr/3000mi.

I picked up a NOS seal and am thinking about making up an adapter so I can fit a modern double lip seal in its place. I figured an unmolested seal would be a good place to start. The sheet metal seal vs. a much heavier wall seal retainer has me concerned about the amount of press fit. One thing I don't want to do is damage the housing. The retainer will likely be mild steel.

Edit:
Looks like I may try and use a double lip seal National P/N 472041 (nitrile seal) or 472041N (polyacrylate)
Shaft or Inside Diameter Range: 1.8750 in
Bore or Outside Diameter: 2.506 in
Width: .3750 in
Continuous Temperature Range: -40 To 225° F.
Maximum Shaft Surface Speed: 3,000 fpm
Misalignment Tolerance: 0.015" at 800 RPM, 0.010" at 4200 RPM
Typical Application: General Purpose

Curious to know what peoples thoughts are.

Andy

[Jess]

Charles Talbert of M Series Rebuild has a modern seal and an adapter that he markets. It solves all the issues of NOS leather seals.

[Carter]

This might give you some ideas: http://www.g741.org/PHPBB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2284

[ashyers]

Carter,
THANKS!!!!!!!!! My weekend project has arrived...

Andy

[Carter]

You are welcome Andy, I thought it might be useful.

[just me]

I had to replace a leaking original pinion seal on my truck. The kits of seals and gaskets for front and rear axles sold by a major supplier to the hobby had Newstar leather seals included. Previous experience with anything from Newstar left me very Leary about its ability to work at all. True to form it proved itself junk long before it ever had the chance to be installed. The leather seal was so hard it may as well have been made of Bakelite! Even soaking in neatsfoot oil for 24 hours couldn't soften it. So, knowing it was probably gonna end in tears, used a spare companion flange to see if it could be fitted. Not a chance. It just peeled the face off the seal. Fortunately, the adapter that the seal was mounted in was well made. We drove the bad 'leather' seal out of the housing and pressed a new 1-7/8x2-5/8x5/16" double lip seal from my local supply house. Since they had no dust excluder like the felt ring on the Newstar seal, I cut the old seal in two radially and used a half to retain the felt dust excluder.
Will do the same with the one in my front axle kit, also.
Newstar must be Hindi for worthless junk.

[MSeriesRebuild]

I had to replace a leaking original pinion seal on my truck. The kits of seals and gaskets for front and rear axles sold by a major supplier to the hobby had Newstar leather seals included. Previous experience with anything from Newstar left me very Leary about its ability to work at all. True to form it proved itself junk long before it ever had the chance to be installed. The leather seal was so hard it may as well have been made of Bakelite! Even soaking in neatsfoot oil for 24 hours couldn't soften it. So, knowing it was probably gonna end in tears, used a spare companion flange to see if it could be fitted. Not a chance. It just peeled the face off the seal. Fortunately, the adapter that the seal was mounted in was well made. We drove the bad 'leather' seal out of the housing and pressed a new 1-7/8x2-5/8x5/16" double lip seal from my local supply house. Since they had no dust excluder like the felt ring on the Newstar seal, I cut the old seal in two radially and used a half to retain the felt dust excluder.
Will do the same with the one in my front axle kit, also.
Newstar must be Hindi for worthless junk.

My statement here is absolutely based on my years of experience, nothing more. I agree 110% with your thoughts on leather seal material, enough said there.

I'm partially with you on New Star, they do offer some decent stuff, but are bad apples on many others. We bought some deuce and a half u-joints from them for stock a long while back. Pulling them out of stock for use showed a problem with a loose joint upon installation. After precision measuring and arriving at exactly what the problem was, it proved a machining error, obviously from the manufacturer. A call to my local New Star Rep, Melinda Welbourne at the Raleigh, NC branch office, I was told tough luck; not because of the obvious machining error, but because they had been purchased 2 years prior. Yes New Star refuses to accept any return if an item was purchased after 2 years. I totally understand and agree if an item was purchased, installed, runs past 2 years from purchase date, there is no warranty. BUT, if a new item in sealed packaging that has been kept in dry storage is found to be defective out of the box because of a manufacturer's error, this is a totally different ball game; HOWEVER, to this day they refuse to even discuss anything other than the fact of date of purchase. After much discussion, they did ask I return one back, but only to check the error, not to replace or offer a refund of purchase price for a defective part. Today we are extremely careful about any purchase from New Star, and purchases are few and far between if at all. I guess this pretty much tells the story of relationship between New Star and M Series Rebuild.

Your seal fix may be decent except for incorporating the felt back into it. Actually the felt in the original seal is the largest cause of pinion seal problems. Felt absorbs and retains water. That in itself is far and away the biggest problem because it promotes rust pit formation on the companion flange seal mating surface, which is almost always THE issue that must be dealt with when installing new pinion seals that will last and not continue to drip.