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Dana 60 outer seal

Mastiff

Mastiff

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Tearing apart my 60 I was surprised to see that there is no outer seal. The axle shafts and tube are dirty and rusty. It seems like the tube would be prone to filling up with filth, especially if you do a lot of mud. What are peoples' opinion/experience with this? It looks like aftermarket seals are available, any opinions on that?

Also, the little rubber pseudo-seal thing on the axle shaft itself, what is that called? Mine are cracked, so I'd like to replace them if nothing else.
 
There is no outer seal. I took my shop vac and taped a smaller rubber hose to clean out all the dirt.
 
Mastiff said:
Here's an example of an aftermarket thing:

http://mad4wd.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=9&products_id=162

The factory thing I'm talking about is the rubber part on the outside of the CV on the axle itself. Sort of a half hearted seal for the knuckle from the back side I guess. I don't know what to search for to get a replacement.
Click to expand...

You are needing an SBK3 kit. This kit gives you the spindle bearing, spindle seal, and a new thrust washer. The kit can be had at your local auto parts store for around $11 per side.
 
See the little rubber flare and steel disk on the outer section of each axle?

20130917_204516.jpg


I don't think that's a spindle seal, is it? Or maybe it's totally optional since I never see it on any pictures of axles.

Is it called a "slinger" for some reason? Saw that on a D44 rebuild writeup.
 
That's the spindle seal, it seals between the stub shaft and the spindle. It's definitely not optional.

I have seen what you're talking about, though mostly on Jeep Dana 30's. It's one of these that go on the inner axle shafts.

In my opinion they don't really do anything, and they never came on Dana 60's to my knowledge. If you want an outer axle seal, go with the Mad4WD ones.
 
Like Chris says, that is the spindle seal. It helps, and you need it, but its not as good a seal as you find in other places.

In my '79 150, I used to drive through a lot of water. The hub was sealed well, but water would come in through that spindle seal, contaminating the spindle bearings and causing me to have to repack the wheel bearings also.

I experimented with rigging a spring to keep tension on the axle to keep the seal pulled tight against the rear of the spindle, but it did not help, and caused other problems.
The one thing I found that did help and almost totally stopped the water I found almost by accident.

I don't know what front end I had, Dana 44 maybe? But they sold a hollow steel tube with a grease fitting on one end, which was closed.
It was called a spindle greaser.
The other end was threaded internally to fit the thread on the end of the spindle tube and had an O ring seal.

You took the hub off, screwed this greasing adapter onto the end of the spindle with the axle going up inside it.
Then you pumped grease around the axle, through the spindle, and out the back seal.
This greased the spindle bearings and pushed out any water or dirt without having to tear the whole thing down.

As a byproduct, it also filled the spindle tube with grease.
That grease did not really have anywhere to go, so it stayed in there forming a dam that blocked the water from the wheel bearings.

I went from repacking my wheel bearings after every weekend during hunting season, to about once a year.

Don't know if they make anything like that for a 60, or if it would do any good, but something to think about.
 
Thanks for the help. I understand now that I look closer. I set the spindle aside and didn't even notice the little needle bearings in there. A few things: How do you get the bearing out of the spindle? Do you just get a long screwdriver and try to tap it out from the other side?

Also, anyone know a part # for a complete spindle bearing/seal kit including the slinger? I could salvage mine, but it's tweaked and rusty.
 
Mastiff said:
See the little rubber flare and steel disk on the outer section of each axle?

20130917_204516.jpg


I don't think that's a spindle seal, is it? Or maybe it's totally optional since I never see it on any pictures of axles.

Is it called a "slinger" for some reason? Saw that on a D44 rebuild writeup.
Click to expand...


When you are in this far; is it important to clean the inner axle shafts to a pristine shine with a wire brush or is it not worth the time?
 
jcmorris said:
When you are in this far; is it important to clean the inner axle shafts to a pristine shine with a wire brush or is it not worth the time?
Click to expand...

The factory oil seals are inboard by the diff leaving the majority of the shaft exposed (note the shiny spot on the inner axle close to the splines) so there's no need to go overboard cleaning the shaft itself. Clean out the axle tubes really good and it would be good to clean the shafts and maybe paint them but no need to do a lot to them.
 
I did as stated above. Wire brushed the shafts, cleaned out the tubes, replaced the joints with spicers (one was seized with steering at full lock), and painted the important parts.

2013-07-27 22.30.44.jpg

2013-09-09 17.07.21.jpg
 
Yeah, I wire wheeled the shafts and painted them most of the way down and did my best to vacuum out the tubes.
 
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