Rear Axle Seal / Bearing Question

[oldspwr]

I have the axles out of my 155W and have a question about the axle bearings. I originally packed these bearings with synthetic grease, but do they get oil from the differential also? The rubber end seals/nuts are new but some oil came out as well. Do the seals keep oil out and the grease in???

[Huskiedrive2]

Tom - theoretically they seal the oil out of the bearing, but I have never seen one that hadn't had a little grease dilution from the gear oil. As long as the amount of oil has not caused the wheel seal to leak at the inboard side of the hub, all is well. If you have retrofitted your wheel seals to the more modern lip style seal instead of the old cork seal, you can eliminate the axle flange seal and allow the wheel bearings to be lubed with gear oil. This would be the recommended upgrade.

[oldspwr]

Great, thanks for the info Stan, I appreciate it!

Tom