Type 9 Rear Oil Seal

[Guest Battery Bill]

Oh

Ours looked new, just presumed it was

Mind you ours does not have the rippled finish like Ants

[Guest TerryBarry]

The propshaft supplied with my 2B was a new item.

No way did it appear to be re-manufactured from a Sierra one.

[Guest Ant]

I think mine was new. It certainly looked new, and I don't remember seeing the groove. On closer inspection there's light scoring around the groove which isn't a machine finish.

 

I'm pretty convinced by the "worn rear bush" theory. Not sure why it should be worn though. the gearbox has only done 65000 miles and I have recorded mileage from new for the donor.

 

I'm going to hunt out the tool I made up to fit the rear seal, and work out whether putting the seal in as far as I did meant I hit the tool onto the end of the spline at all. If I did then i guess that would explain the damaged bearing. If not then who knows. I'm happy to get the new bits and re-con the gearbox (or get another) but I don't want the same thing to happen again in a few thousand miles time!

 

Oh, another question. I seem to remember RHE saying something about not being allowed to sell prop shafts, but only allowed to give them away with a chassis? Anyone else heard about this?

 

Ant

[Guest Great Scott!!]

Hi ant

 

Can you remember what condition the doner prop was like when you took it off?

did it also have scoring on it? I have read elsewhere you said you had problems fitting it and was tight on your intial build up.

 

I think its worth a phone call to richard to see if he will sell you a new prop, i have always found him helpful, if thats a no go then theres a company in nottingham called wilsons driveshafts they recondition them and balance them if you need their number i'll dig it out on monday its in the works phonebook.

 

Also if you wish to keep your gearbox I have almost certainly have a tail housing for a type nine with a good bush, so if you get your gearbox out I can change the housing in about 10 mins while you wait if your interested let me know.

 

regards

scott

[swan]

Ant

 

you are correect about the prop shaft

 

Rh did sat they would give the prop shaft for free and would not sell them as they had an agreement with a manufacturer .

 

While our car was at jigtec it had a new prop shaft fitted and I believe the cost of the part was about £100

 

swan

[Guest Ant]

Club to the rescue! Thanks for all the help with this guys. It's a bit of a wierd one I guess, and the answers I'm getting on here are excellent!

 

I don't remember any scoring on the donor prop. I remember splitting the gearbox shaft from the rest of it and keeping it until I got the kit just to make sure the new one was the right size. I recon I'd have noticed if it had a big grove in it like this one now has. Is it reasonable that in fitting the new seal I managed to damage the rear bearing? the oil leak was there pretty much from first getting the 2B on the road, and it's got worse as I clocked up miles.

 

My plan of action is this. first off I'm going to take the propshaft to work and show it to our head technician and see what he thinks of it all. We have prop shafts made up for test rigs at work so I'll find out who does them. It's probably wilsons in Nottingham so I can get either 1 or 2 quotes depending on if its them or not. I'll also phone RHSC.

 

I then need to get the gearbox off.

 

Scott - your offer of an extension housing sounds a good'un. Can you pm me (or put on here) what sort of money we're talking. I'll do a bit more research on what's inside the box too, but if you're in Nottingham and can do it that quickly then the job is probably going to be yours!

 

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Ant

[Guest Great Scott!!]

Hi ant

 

you have a pm

[Guest Ant]

Not done the phoning around yet, but I had another look at the back of the gearbox last night. There is a small amount of play in the rear spline of the box, but not very much at all, and I'm finding it difficult to believe that there is enough play to cause the shaft to wobble enough to create the 1mm groove in it.

 

How much play is there normally in a "servicable" gearbox?

 

Ant

[Bob Tucker]

Ant,

the fit between the propshaft and the splined drive out of the gearbox should be pretty tight. It should slide in & out, but not wobble up & down.

If the propshaft on your donor sierra was knackered it could have worn the gearbox output splines. Even with the brand new propshaft in the 2B kit, that could account for the excess play.

HTH Bob.

[Big Jim]

Ant, you can get a groove worn into a propshaft due to there being lack of lubricant to the seal, but wouldn't expect this from such a short time that it's been in use.

[Guest Ant]

there was plenty of lubricant on the seal - gearbox oil has been flooding out of it recently!

 

The donor prop was fine - I'm 99% sure I would have noticed a groove in that one when I removed it. It was the first thing I noticed when I took this one off.

 

Current plan is to re-fit the prop and have a look at the clearance between it and the metal surround of the oil seal. It could be that Ford gave me the wrong seal to put in there, with an I/D which is too small, so the prop folded the rubber into itself out of the way, and has been rubbing on the metal seal casing for the last 8000 miles.

 

More when I get chance to get under the car again - probably Wednesday night.

 

Ant

[Guest daveg]

Ant

 

I am sure you haven't damaged any bearing by tapping a silly little seal into place...

 

Bearings are made of hardened steel and so you would have to have used an bloody big hammer or 50 ton press!

 

I think you might have damaged the seal though, I would remove seal, fit new one very carefully (use a wooden drift) and replace prop shaft...do 500-1000 miles then check shaft.

 

My 2p

 

Dave

[swan]

ant

 

Rather than refitting prop to check clearance etc just fit a new seal and refit prop

the groove in the prop will not effect the new oil seal, as you rightly said you had fitted the original seal in too far so when the new seal is level with the front face of the housing the damage will be behind the seal

 

my thoughts , for what they are worth

 

swan

[Big Jim]

I agree with Pete (Swan) that's what I would do, but make sure that the seal is wet with oil when you put the propshaft in.

[Guest Great Scott!!]

Hi Ant

If you do decide to fit a new seal with the old prop, once you have levered the old seal out see if you can get a line of sight to see the bush use a bright torch and see if it looks scored or chewed.

 

The mainshaft(splined bit) isnt supported at the propshaft end other than the bush just behind the seal so when the prop is removed you will get alot of up & down side to side play this is standard.

 

One last thing if you do try the old prop I would lightly emery scored part to take the roughness off, might give the new seal a chance.

 

regards

scott