sureseal

Sure seal replacement

Thanks to Paul Thicke of LaCrosse, WI, for sending these pics of his seal replacement experience. His tractor already had sure seals on the inboard side of the bearing and these were removed, as he felt that modern seals only, on the outboard side of the bearing, would be sufficient.

The sequence of pictures here shows both the removal of the sure seals, and the installation of new "regular" seals, on the outboard side of the bearing.

The sure seal has an offset, such that the sealing surface is not in the same plane as the seating area. This is to accommodate the shrunk-on collar, seen below.

After a hole was punched in the seal, some leverage was applied as shown to pop it out.

With the seal out, the retaining collar can be seen. It is fitted by heating and dropping in place, where it cools and shrinks to a very tight fit. Removal involves destroying the collar and replacing with a new one.

The standard approach is to start by drilling a hole in the collar, and follow up by cracking it with a cold chisel. This necessitates flushing out the bearing, but once in this deep it is well worth it to remove the bearing for inspection and possible replacement anyway.

Here you can see where the collar has been split and removed from the thicker part of the axle.

The axle is being pushed through the bearing which is still in the hub.

And here we have the axle with the hub and bearing removed.

The bearing and new collar are sitting on a work lamp so that they will expand a bit, to facilitate sliding them back on the axle.

The bearing on its way home.

The new outboard seal in position. It takes removal of the collar and bearing just to replace this seal, so many people use the sure seals and skip much of the work..

Here the new shrunk-on collar is in place on the axle. If a seal is used on both sides of the bearing, the bearing must be well-packed with fresh grease before the second seal is fitted.

Axle with hub reinstalled on axle trumpet.