Morris Minor Owners Club

The new seals have arrived so I'll be fitting them tonight. It has occurred to me that it might be a good idea to apply some kind of sealant to the outside of the seals before pressing them into the hubs to ensure oil can't leak out between the seal and the hub (it's a metal to metal contact with no gasket).

We've now fitted the second set of new seals. I've used plenty of gasket sealant on everything, and I fitted the seals using a pair of spacers made from thick gasket paper to move them in by about 1/16".

Willie: I think you're right about the gasket and the O ring being meant to overlap. There isn't really enough space to cut out the middle bit of the gasket without breaking into the small screw holes, and there's a diagram in the workshop manual that if you look closely appears to show the two overlapping.

Time will tell if this has cured the problem. I certainly hope so because I don't know what else I can try and I don't have time to rebuild them again before the LEO run.

To add insult to injury the electric garage door dropped a metal pin on Fenchurch's roof, chipping the paint, and then the motor refused to raise it and I had to spent twenty minutes winding it up by hand.

Oh dear - not a big chip I hope.

Isn't it bad news when the mechanical appliances turn against you?

My Cooker, Dishwasher, Washing machine and now the Shower have turned against me in the last couple of weeks. I've tried talking to them, but no good they still hate me. I saw a film once where the telephone system started to electrocute people it didn't like. Our days are numbered.

i cannot imagine that you would have thought that a gasket would be supplied which would then have to be cut back. Fingers crossed that you are now leak proof.

I have posted on this topic before. If you insert the half shaft into the hub and axle WITHOUT gaskets you will find a gap of approx 10 thou between the back of the half shaft and the mating surface. There are at least two types of gasket thickness available, thin grey ones and thicker brown ones. The thin ones are bl useless if used in singles as they won't fill the gap. I used one thick and one thin and should have used two thick cos still weeps a bit on mine. Haynes manual says use gasket thickness a minimum of .2mm which seems too thin. It also says to pack the wheel bearings with HMP grease on reassembly, easy to forget.

The paper gasket does overlap the rubber 'o' ring and I have seen variations in thickness of these too. There are two sources of leakage, 1) through the oil seal gap in the hub, and 2) from the flange joint

Moving the oil seal onto new surface is a good ruse but I am not convinced the shroud spring is strong enough on pattern parts, it's shame there isn't quite enough room for two seals!

Other possibilities include minor distortion of the half shaft flange which could occur if the axle is assembled using the incorrect thickness gaskets and also if the rear wheel has a buckle.

I have still to completely solve our flange leak - even with the breather clear I still think there is too much pressure in the casing, how else can the oil get forced through the flange gasket joints that are very tight when the wheels go on? Good luck with it!