I have been screwing around with the axle to hub seal for a couple of
months now. I have swapped hubs from one side to the other and tried
spacers made from locking washers behind the hub to try to close the gap
between the axle flange and the hub. One side seals and the other does
not. There is a gap of at least 3/32nds or enough to take the tip of
your finger on the edge of the gasket and see it move back and forth in
the gap. I use Hylomar to seal it (great stuff). One side seals
perfectly and the other with the small gap leaves a ring of greasy oil
in my wheel well.
I am trying to determine if this is caused by the width of the
replaced bearing in the hub, or the shape of the axle flange. The axles
I got with my car turn out to be from a much later car like the 1500
Midget. Are these axles different from the earlier ones. Does the
sealing surface extend further towards the inside of the car? I mean to
say, if you stood this axle and an earlier one side by side, splined end
down on a level surface, would the surface that seals against the hub be
at the EXACT same height? would one be lower than the other? I think
the hubs are original to the car, they were on the banjo when I got the
car and the number on the banjo indicates it is original to this car.
The car was only on the road until 1976. Not likely to have replaced
one of the hubs, but not impossible. I would like to get this resolved
before the end of July when i leave for Oregon for the big Healey meet.
Mike MacLean-60 Sprite
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