How do I Jam New Oil Seal on Front Axle of L3710?

[Suburban Plowboy]

I got around to replacing the oil seal on my L3710's front axle today. It's not a bad job, EXCEPT for removing the metal part of the old seal and installing the new one. The metal ring is extremely tight on the axle, and it has rubber inside it to make the friction worse.

A guy on the web said to heat it for 30 seconds to 1 minute with a torch to make it slip off. This works, except it takes longer than he said.

Now I have the old part off. I am cleaning the axle to make sure no burned rubber messes up the new seal.

What is the best way to jam the new seal on there? The rubber part is no problem, but the part with a metal ring is very hard to push on. A Youtube dude says lube doesn't help.

I pushed it on a short distance just to see what it's like, but I am not willing to continue until I have better information, because getting it out if I screw it up will not be fun.

I'm thinking I should try to find a piece of pipe that fits the ring and use it to push the ring on the hydraulic press. I would think even PVC would work.

It turned out the inner bearing was wiped out. The cage was broken. Two new bearings will go in as soon as the seal is on.

 

[big bubba]

try putting in it freezer for an hour, lube rubber seal & tamp in maybe w/deep socket slightly smaller diameter than housing

 

[CliffordK]

This was posted in another thread about brake seals. But perhaps it would be similar.

I don't know how your steel collar impacts it.

If you replace the seal without removing the back plate, here's a tip when installing new seal without inverting the seal lip on the splined shaft.

Wrap the shaft with electrical tape starting on the smooth part just outside where the seal rides and wrap outward the full length of the shaft and leave a 1" tail beyond the shaft. Oil the tape, then slide the seal over it, turning it slightly as you push it on, sorta like following threads on a bolt the same direction the tape is wrapped. Being the tape is wrapped from the inside out there are no sharp edges for the seal lip to catch on, it rather jumps over the edges of the tape. When the seal is in place, grab the tail of the tape at the end of the shaft and spiral it off. I've used this method numerous times and have never rolled a lip on a seal. I learned this method 20 years ago from an old Massey-Ferguson mechanic either here on this forum, or another I frequent often. So simple, not sure why I didn't think of it at the time.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Thanks.

I was able to bop the seal onto the hub using a short PVC fitting to push it, so that's finished.

Now I'm confused about the torque on the screws and nuts on the axle cover. Kubota calls its parts certain things in its catalog and completely different things in the WSM.

The WSM says to torque the axle flange mounting screws and nuts to 17.4 to 20.2 Ft.lbs. It says to torque the axle flange mounting stud bolt (singular) to 8.7 to 11.5. Everything looks like M8.

There are two nuts mounted on studs, and the rest of the fasteners are screws. I don't see any "mounting stud bolt," and I don't see any fastener that is only used once. I guess Kubota had its usual translation problems.

I'm going to put 20 ft.lbs. on the screws (which don't have nuts) and 11 on the studs (which are not bolts, either). If it leaks, I'll start over.

 

[DJ54]

When in doubt, I always look up a standard torque chart image for size bolts and hardness doing a Google search. Check a couple to make sure they are the same. Then print off and take the chart to the shop for reference. 99% of mine are SAE, but really handy when putting these old tractors back together.