Rear axle grease retainer

[PaulS]

I've already admitted to not taking enough pictures during disassembly--I was counting too much on the diagrams in the books.

Those diagrams all seem to show the grease retainer being outboard of the brake backing plate.  Is that right?  It seemed to me it should be inboard of it.

But the protector doesn't fit in the hole in the brake plate, so it has to go outboard, and if the protector goes immediately adjacent to the retainer, then they're both outboard.  Right?

Thanks,

-Paul

[1955CJ-5]

Right!

[Carls_jeep]

To the best of my memory, there is an inner seal that has to be driven in place with a seal driver to get it straight in the bore. That keeps the axle oil in the center housing.

Then you have the axle bearing and grease and then the seal plate and then the brake backing plate. The wheel bearing grease is trapped between the two seals.

Before you do any assembly clean out the weep hole in the wheel bearing area. You should hand pack the wheel bearings before installing and then you can pump some grease into the zerk after everything is bolted together. Any excess grease over time will come out the weep hole rather than go into the center section gear oil.

EDIT: I made my own seal driver and if your axle has a worn ring on it you will have to move the seal away from that area or it will allow gear oil to get into the wheel bearing grease.

[Carls_jeep]

1955cj5, it looks like your backing plate is on 45 deg wrong. The wheel cylinder should be on top, not 45 deg to the rear.

[1955CJ-5]

1955cj5, it looks like your backing plate is on 45 deg wrong. The wheel cylinder should be on top, not 45 deg to the rear.

The axle is loose and sitting on jack stands in that picture....

[PaulS]

Thanks guys!  Now I can go finish assembling this axle!

(The inner seal is already driven in place.  I have a couple of different seal/bearing driver sets.  Not cheap, but definitely worth having.)

-Paul

[PaulS]

I was talking (on Facebook) today with the previous owner (actually his son, who did most of the driving of the Jeep).  He said that when they bought the Jeep, three of the four wheels had the brakes packed with grease.

When I assembled my rear axle the other day, I did it such that the extra hole in the retainer plate, all the shims, the brake backer plate, and the grease retainer all lined up.  The "grease protector" doesn't have the extra hole, but it has that hump in it.  I figured the purpose of the protector is to help direct any grease coming out through the seal to go down the hump and out through that extra hole.  (Whether that thick grease would do that instead of going onto the brakes is a different question.)  Did I figure right? 

If so, one must presume that whoever owned it before the guys I bought it from must have had something assembled wrong, and/or were waaaaay to aggressive with the grease gun!

-Paul