Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 4/4 Rear Axle Grease Seals

Both the rear axle outer grease seals were leaking on my 1972 4/4 and needed replacing. As usual for this sort of job I booked it in at my mate Bill's unit because he

(a) Has a very full set of tools

(b) Has a four post car lift. Whereas I can still bend down to work on the car, getting up is a different matter nowadays.

(c) Takes cash.

The first side was a doddle. The hub came off easily, the old seal tapped out of its carrier, and the whole thing was done in half an hour. The other side was a different matter: the hub would't come off for love nor money. We didn't have a suitable attachment for the slide hammer and a hydraulic hub-puller wouldn't shift it. Heating it up didn't improve matters and neither did cooling it down again. In the end discretion became the better part of valour. The next attempt will involve adapting an old wheel spinner to fit the slide hammer and trying to get it off that way.

If all else fails we were wondering about removing the hub and the half-shaft together. Does anyone know if the half-shaft is clipped or otherwise secured at the diff end or does it just pull out?

I've got a decent set of photos of the job which I'll post.

Have a look at this link: http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/rearwheelbearing.html
The shaft should just pull out, but would require a large amount of persuasion, it seems!

Hi,

had the same problem on my 1974 4/4 4 seater when I changed the hubs to take wires.

One side went quite smoothly using just a hub puller, but on the stubborn side we had to take out the hub plus half shaft combined (just slides out when freed up from all encumbrences) and then the assembly was somehow supported in a vertically mounted hydraulic press ( my mechanic mate was in charge- I wouldn't have dared!

It eventually separated with a deafening "shot gun blast" at about 25 tons pressure"
I didn't dare watch and was much relieved to see all the pieces intact

Good luck with yours.

Neil.

Thanks for that Neil and Fjemog. I have a feeling that the bench press is the way it's going to go. Interestingly the new seals were identically marked to the old ones. I imagine they've been kicking round in the Morgan stores since the seventies.

I had the same problem. I left the hub puller on for one night and the next afternoon I gave it another hard blow and it came off with that mighty bang - without damage.

BTW I made a short "howto" when I did this job which came in handy when I decided to do something against the whine of the rear axle - which was no success: when the whine was gone the rear axle got alarmingly hot and when it stood cool the whine was there again. I took the axle apart 4 times and then I declared defeat. The axle still whines 60 000 miles on...

In the end we had to take the half shaft out. This was facilitated by drilling a hole the middle of an old hexagonal spinner and bolting a slide-hammer to it. It came out really easily. For the press we needed a couple of pieces of metal small enough to go between the back plate and the hub yet sturdy enough to withstand the force of the press: landrover half shafts proved to be perfect. The hub let go at about ten tons with, as somebody said up thread, the sound of a gun shot.

When You reassemble the hub onto axle, use anti seize, so the next time it will be easier.

Button
Seattle

Also when reassembling the hub to the axle, make sure that the key is installed correctly, otherwise the hub will split!

Arwyn

And how did you learn that one....?

Simon @ SiFab.co.uk