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MG MGB Technical - Stub axle oil seal

Which way around does the inner oil seal go on the front hub? There appears to be conflicting advice in manuals and books on this. This seal is the one with the exposed spring..I'm of the opinion that the lip should face towards the outside of the car or in other words towards the centre of the hub.
Gary Lock

Lip facing center of hub is correct.

Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Indeed, the groove and spring face the 'clean' side, in all cases i.e. front hubs, rear axle bearing covers, gearbox and pinion shafts. This cropped up earlier this year, neither the Workshop Manual nor Haynes describes it, and only the Workshop Manual has a drawing showing the correct way round. I'm told Porter's 'mgb restoration Manual' specifies the *wrong* way round, the earlier edition ('Guide to Purchase and DIY Restoration of the MGB') doesn't cover what is inside the hub at all.
Paul Hunt

Clicked the wrong button, meant to add this drawing from the Leyland manual.


Paul Hunt

Paul,

Porters earlier book is correct inasmuch as it shows on p179 "oil seal fitted to the hub with the lip facing inwards'. Although he does go on to say that you should pack the 'grease retainer cap' with grease - which is not correct.

Neil
Neil

Paul has linked to a pic. But it's always "spring towards the oil or grease" as far as I know, or closed side out. Out = clean side, but after a bit of use, it's always cleaner on the inside, geez, this is getting messy. Is grease clean? My wife sure don't think so..
Tom

The lip faces the lubricant you're trying to contain. Therefor any "Pressure" on the seal caused by lubricant trying to escape only makes the seal better. Before anybody corrects my use of the word "pressure", I use it causiously. There should not be any pressure in an axle, gearbox or hub, that's what breathers combat, and hence why you DON'T "pack" the bearing cap with grease.
Allan

Neil - you must have a different issue to me. Mine is the 1989 version, page 179 is the start of Modifications and detoxing North American cars. Like I say mine doesn't mention or show what is inside the hub at all.

You shouldn't pack the space between the bearings with grease either, just the bearings themselves and the space between the oil-seal and the inner bearing. The bearings must be packed from one side only, until it bulges out the other side. Don't be tempted to save time by packing from both sides or you will get air trapped in the middle and premature failure.
Paul Hunt

Paul,

Mine's a 1992 edition. I've just re-read the section carefully and it says "fitted to the hub with the lip facing inwards or uppermost in this shot"... and 'the shot' shows the seal facing OUTWARDS, which is indeed uppermost in his picture! So he says it right and shows it wrong. You're better off with your 1989 edition!!!

Last time I did the bearings I realised that it was better to set the endfloat (ie work out how many shims I needed) BEFORE I greased everything up. Turns a messy, annoyingly painful job into a clean, annoyingly painful job.

Neil
:-)
Neil

This thread was discussed between 04/10/2008 and 06/10/2008

MG MGB Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.