MGB rear axle seal

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stu60
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MGB rear axle seal

Post by stu60 »

Hi
in case anyone needing to change rear hub axle oil seal on MGB type axle.... differing quality of oil seals

I purchased new brake shoes, springs etc from MGB hive together with axle oil seals as part of rear axle overhaul Fitted new seal but weeped after few miles. though i needed new thrust washers as slightly marked so changed these too BUT still weeped. I also checked and replaced the axle breather valve but definitely not the problem. Assumed I had damaged seal on installation so fitted other seal from MGB Hive but still had oil weep after few miles.


purchased another seal (eBay item number:283119702180) from danbury hydraulics. Whilst seals looked the same when installing the Danbury version was a much tighter fit ....RESULT no more oil weep.

So it took me 4 brake and hub strips (i was getting it down to a 40 minute fine art!) before realising i wasn't doing anything wrong but the seals whilst looking identical were "different".

Hope this might save someone else some bother.
rgds Stuart
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peterc
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Re: MGB rear axle seal

Post by peterc »

This sounds like another case of a copy part quality versus an OEM quality item.
At my recent rolling road session the engineer warned me off copy parts including Intermotor and stated that even Lucas are not what they used to be.
So we dumped the Lucas distributor cap and fitted a genuine JLR item and gained 9 bhp!
Yet there were no visual problems with the Lucas item.
Same goes for oil filters. One of our members reluctantly admits that he learnt the hard way and paid the price for not fitting the JLR item.
I think the comment is you get what you pay for.
When rebuilding the rocker gear on a Rover engine I had to query how a rocker arm at £15 was as good as one at £32.
Perhaps, just maybe, that’s why some TVR owners have had rocker gear failure when re building their engines.
Peter C
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amulheirn
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Re: MGB rear axle seal

Post by amulheirn »

Thanks for this info. I refurbed my own axle, and have a slight weep on both sides. Makes me want to weep.

Looking at receipts, I purchased 2 x GHS179 oil seals from Brown and Gammons. I guess I'll have to change them out. The oil isn't getting on the brake shoes, but there's a bead of oil at the bottom of the drum.
stu60
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Re: MGB rear axle seal

Post by stu60 »

hi
that sounds exactly like mine. all i can say is Danbury seals semm to have worked. Good luck!
Stuart
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amulheirn
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Re: MGB rear axle seal

Post by amulheirn »

Thanks Stu - Bought two of them today. Another job for the winter!
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