Rover Diff Pinion Seal Question

Hello. Another day....another question : ). 1969 2A 88" Rover diff pinion oil seal. I ordered PLE187 which is the Rovers North Pro Line part. The seal has a ring spring on both sides. Which side faces in? My assumption is the side with the step goes to the inside. See pictures below. Whichever side faces out will be enclosed by the drive flange mud shield. Would it make sense to pack this space with some bearing grease?

Also the new seal is nothing like the one that was a real pain to extract. What I assume is the original seal was a metal case packed with leather. Well after 52 years the leather is more like crumbled bits. FYI. Anyone having to remove this I found that a few old stub axle oil seal collars are perfect to use to extract the seal in a vice (I have just recently done all 4 of these). Tried quite a few alternate methods with no success. Thanks in advance on the oil seal orientation question and grease or not. Cheers, Tom

Attachment 13848Attachment 13849Attachment 13850

Looking at the outer edge corners of the seal in your third photo I'd infer that the seal goes in to the right, away from your hand. I just received the same seal, pinion flange, and mud shield from our host, so I'll soon be doing this same job. I would not pack the space behind the mud shield with grease. It'd probably get thrown out when the axle starts spinning, with whatever remains attracting dirt and dust.

Hi Erik. I actually called RN this morning and they confirmed that your orientation is correct. My assumption was wrong. The seal would insert into the differential as I am holding it in my picture (hand side facing out). Good point on the grease possibly flinging out and then becoming a dirt magnet. That area is quite sealed with the mud shield sitting into that collar assembly on the housing that retains the oil seal.

BTW. Anyone doing axle work I found the following YouTube video really helpful. Watching his content actually gave me confidence that a series axle rebuild is not that difficult. Especially the front : ). The same guy has other content for Series work he has done and is very good (and quite funny at times). He has a really good 2 part series on axle rebuild on his series truck. He also has a really good blog with most of the same information. Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlcGeO-PXUw&t=1s

https://www.geoffslandroverblog.com/

Hello. Update on having installed the oil seal. I guess this is for Erik who mentioned he will be doing this job soon but it can benefit anyone I guess. If you have the PLE187 seal a couple of suggestions.

The seal seats into the diff nose housing. This is a aluminum assembly that attaches to the differential with 6 bolts and 3 lock tabs. All my work was done with the differential out of the car but this can also be done with the differential in the truck still. Maybe a bit more difficult? Installing the seal in the diff nose housing I found that heating the seal with a hair dryer and then I was able to push it into the housing using my thumbs. I also applied a small amount of Hylomar sealant to help lubricate. Because of the outer stepped edge I could not use my seal install tool set and I did not have a socket large enough. I tried using the flange assembly but it can only get the seal so far because of the mud shield. Anyhow heating it up and then just thumb pressure worked.

Second suggestion. I installed the diff nose housing with the seal to the differential. Next I expected to simply push on the drive flange through the oil seal. Well that outer stepped edge on the seal with the second spring ring kept rolling under slightly and pop the spring would come off and sit on the drive flange. No matter how careful I pushed or rotated or applied a bit of oil the spring would jump out of the groove on the seal. The mud shield makes it extra difficult that you cannot see back there. I had to take off the diff nose housing again and then I was able to carefully get the drive flange to seat into the seal and I was able to still get a small screwdriver in behind the mud shield to get the spring back in the groove. The reason it helped to take the housing back off is that you can again heat the seal with a hairdryer a bit which helps. And you can now also tilt and rotate the drive flange just a bit more and which is enough to at least not roll the seal in so much that the groove does not pop back open when you pull slightly back. Anyhow if you do this job do not apply Hylomar sealant until you have the drive flange seated. It was quite a mess to handle the assembly that I had applied sealant too already. Well hope this helps someone else in the future. Cheers, Tom.

Thanks for the heads-up Poppy1969. I'll be on the lookout for that seal installation problem. I'd replaced this same seal a few years ago but don't recall that one having this extra lip. Maybe that's why it's leaking again so soon.