allright, so i was noticing on my 9" that the main oil seals are inside the wheel bearing. so what do you guys to to keep that bearing happy and oiled?

i was thinking of just giving them a nice healthy coating of oil before installing them, but they dont appear to get the constant oiling like on a 7.5/8.8.

is there a proper procedure or just a rule of thumb?

I think I am a little confused. So, you are saying that if you look at the axle shaft and start at the spline end you see spline->seal->wheel bearings->mounting flange? On my 9" that I have been slowly tearing apart I have splines->bearings->seal->mounting flange. So the bearing get their oil from the diff fluid running down the axle tube. If I'm wrong please correct me so I don't screw up my 9" when I put it back together.

Earlier 9" have spline-seal-bearing-retaining plate. these use a ball bearing design. the bearing is sealed and requires no extra lubrication.
I'm not sure if 1980 was the first year for it but around that time Ford went to a (timken?)tapperd roller bearing that needed oil from the diff to lube it; spline-bearing-seal-retaining plate. This is NOT a C-clip rear end. Unlike the 8.8 which uses a non-tapperd roller-bearing.

The memory fades with age but that's as close as I remember it.





Eric

Originally posted by Alpo23
I'm not sure if 1980 was the first year for it but around that time Ford went to a (timken?)tapperd roller bearing that needed oil from the diff to lube it; spline-bearing-seal-retaining plate.

Eric

My axle is from an '81 F100 and it uses the tapered bearings with the seal between the bearing and the retaining plate.

yeah, and i have the style like alpo said, with a seal mounted in the end of the tube. i have the timken set of bearings with the outer seal sort of built into them. allright though, i think that explains it, no extra lubrication. i'll just lube them up so the spin good and stick them in.

thanks

Yeah. Lube it up and stick it in. That usually works best for me.
:angel: