I Wonder Why My Wheel Seal Blew?

What a mess. How could somebody not know that was cross threaded?

Answer: Just don't care. It'll be somebody else's problem.

Just sad.

That sucks large.

 

Probably not cross threaded , threads were riding on the spinning axle shaft and wore them down. That is if the threads on the axle tube are intact. Probably just not tightened enough.

 

It was leaking for a long time, It depends on if you can get a repair sleeve on the stiffed up axle where the seal rides on it, but you must order one if you cannot find one?

 

That blows. It’s a simple job to change the seal, not sure what the torque procedure is but on mine you go to like 250ftlbs, loosen then retighten to 75ftlb. When I take the nuts loose they never feel tight. I guess cause it’s such a large nut. I can see why they make the locking ring with detente on it now!

 

The inner nut should always be hand loose when disassembling. They must have left the outer lock nut loose, lock washer was bad, or failed, maybe the threads were bad when they put it on. How would threads get damaged just from coming loose? No telling, would be good to know exactly how the lock nut threads got stripped.

 

300 ftlb is about right to lock the nuts together just make sure that your not over preloading the bearings when you do it. Usually there’s enough play in the threads that this can be a problem. I would tighten slowly while rotating the hub until it’s got a pretty good drag and then back off until the nut is finger tight. pay attention to how much seal drag there is then back off 1/4 turn put the locking device on and tighten the outer nut to 300 ftlb then make sure your not putting a lot of drag on the bearings ( why you paid attention to the seal drag on the step before). Depending on your threads that might be to much or not enough. possibly going to take a couple trys to get a very slight amount of preload or at least no flop in things after the outer nut is tight. Are there provisions to mechanically lock the outer nut as well. If not I would slip a lock ring in between it and the ring that locks the inner nut to the shaft. I have never liked when the outer nut is just jammed and not mechanically locked.