Finally getting started

I tore into the right side wheel Thursday after meeting the counter guys at my local Valley Truck Parts. They can source parts for my Wagner brakes, he didn't have the broken spring kit in stock, but had what seemed a reasonable price for it. I came home to find even better deals on Amazon, though.

The right side upper and lower cylinders

Worse rust damage than the other side

Backer plate with shoe anchor holders

I decided to pull the bearings, race and seals from the right side wheel hub after finding some "burn" evidence on the axle, as if a bearing was bad at some point. The bearings came out packed with grease- the previous mechanic did not recognize that these are lubed with gear lube from the rear end and do not need to be packed. No real harm, I guess the grease could contaminate the lube, but not really.

I get the distinct impression that this inner bearing race may be original equipment- there are five different brands of bearing parts so far...

Original equipment?

The online store shows replacement cylinders for as low as $17 each. I priced out new seals, bearings, and races online, approximately $136 for both sides. Today I emailed numbers to my local bearing house, he quoted me $505.50!! Ouch.

Ouch is right , How many bearings is that for ? There are seals involved with the choice to use grease or not , the old seals were felt for my truck , its a KB , and leaked , maybe others can be more informative . Are the bearings bad ?

Many axles of the vintage and weight class were greased bearings. They had an inner seal on the outer bearing nut that pressed on the inside of the axle to keep oil out of the bearings.
Before assuming you can run oil in them, you need to look at the outer seal to see if an oil seal or only a grease seal is available.
An oil seal will be either a 2 piece (Stemco type) or a unitized seal, where the sealing surface is replaced every time the seal is changed. a grease seal will be a simple lip seal that runs on the inside of the spindle.
Some greased wheel bearings can be converted to oil and some can not, as there is no oil seal made to fit.
Grease is preferable on vehicles that sit or might be used in fording streams and rivers, so don't assume the mechanic got it wrong.

Waiting on the repair manual I bought to arrive to answer some of these questions (I hope). When I took it apart, no seal from the outer bearing nut, however, it does have a slot machined in it. The driver's side bearings were not greased- race and bearing in outer end of the hub, race and bearing and seal in inner area of hub. The seal is two pieces of metal with rubber inside, as I understand an oil seal. So the lube from the differential runs down the axle tubes and out the end, filling the hub to a low level with the bearings riding inside. The axle and outer plate have a gasket to keep the lube in- in this case they were Permatexed, which did not hold up well. I cut a paper gasket for the one side when I took it apart initially, may make some thicker ones before all is done. By the time I pulled the right side apart, I had drained the differential due to the appearance of the lube. That axle, too, had black caulk-like seal that had migrated out of place and the same components, but greased bearings. Total of ten pieces to replace, only the seals I am sure need replacement, leaning towards reusing the bearings/races.

Sounds like a unitized oil seal. The nut sounds like it was originally set up for greased bearings. Either is ok, as long as you can keep the lube in.
When I put an axle together that has oil lubed bearings, I grease the bearings with a fair amount of grease, but don't "pack" them. to provide initial lube until the diff oil works its way out the tubes. Other methods are to jack up one side for a few miniutes then jack up the other side to allow the oil to flow out to the bearings.
Oil dissolves the grease so no real problem with it finding its way back into the diff.
The rotation of the ring gear/ differential displaces the oil and cause it to flow out the tubes in operation.
I buy axle flange gaskets 25 at a time, so I always have them on hand for my axles. IHC used a lot of 3/4" studs in their axles, but some other use taper wedges behind the axle nuts, and if someone uses RTV it tend to find its way into the taper locks and can make it a royal pain in the rear to get the locks out.
A truck parts house should be able to supply axle flange gaskets, they need to know the bolt circle diameter, size and number of studs.

As usual, things around here progress in spurts and fits. A couple weeks of working nights on the holidays and family in town slowed progress to a crawl. I found an IHC manual for the Loadstar trucks on eBay and bought it out of Idaho, shipped here to Michigan for $10, such a deal. Of course, not quite updated enough for some of my truck systems. I was able to locate some of the stuff posted on the box app and download and print some of the pages of the updates.

From one section about the truck VIN, I think mine should actually be a 1974 model year, build date was 10/3/1973 and the chassis number is DCA10785- also designating it was built in Canada, I believe.

From what I read, the main question I now have is whether the rear axle bearings should be grease-packed or lubed by the axle fluid. The apparent answer for an RA-187/14187 aka Eaton E15201, is determined by the type of hub nuts/holders. The type I have is the bend-over tang locking ring, not the doweled nut/ring combo. Mine should then have the outer nut with integrated axle seal (52 753 HA) to hold the lube in the axle tube and not allow it to the bearings, thus I need to pack my bearings. Of course, neither of my outer nuts has this seal, nor can I find one, so maybe I'd be better to leave it open and lubed. Crap.

I had my neighbor stop over, a retired county Road Commission driver/mechanic, he ran quite a few similar plow trucks and worked on them, he says I can reuse the bearings I have, they hardly look used, get new oil seals for the inner hub and pack the bearings, not to worry about any lube coming out. I'm leaning toward this. I also saw a post about forming new seals onto my outer axle nuts with appropriate tube product, not sure about that.

So today I made it over to Valley Truck parts to retrieve the brake parts I ordered- the pack of all eight rear return springs, a pack of four hold-down bolts, nuts and washers, and a four pack of new adjuster star wheels, in my hand for $68.57.

Cleaned up brake shoe for 16X5 rear brakes 04210

New Euclid brake hardware

Back side of backer plate installing cleaned cylinders

front side

All the goodies return

Kinda finished product

I bought and ran new brake lines from the tee at the rear axle, at least ran one to the right side wheel. I was in process of putting the left side shoes and springs on when the backer plate decided to fall out of the bench vice, and I decided to try to break the fall by putting my foot under it. Caught the brunt of the blow just above my ankle, duh. But, when I crawled under to bolt it in and realized I needed to jack it up and move the jack stands around for clearance, I decided I had had enough for tonight.

I need to get two new inner oil seals ordered tomorrow and figure our what to do about the outer axle nut. Then, I can think about beginning to explore the front brakes and the hydro boost unit, where the real problems may lie...


Oh yeah! What lube do I use in the rear? My glove box doesn't spell it out, sure looked thicker than 10W coming out.

Any mild gear lube (80-90) should be fine. The only thing that takes SAE 10 on a rear axle is the 2 spd shifter.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that model is a 2 spd axle?
As long as you can get oil seals to seal the hub to the spindle, I wouldn't worry about the seals on the outer nuts. You can't make them from something in a tube. They are stationary and ride on the inside of the axle flange which rotates, so need to be able to take the friction.
I think I have a similar axle in my junk pile but is air braked and would likely take a different hub seal

My rear takes a CR 48000 (if my notes are correct) oil seal. Pull up the dimensions for that seal and check against you hub/spindle. It isn't a common seal used today but was still available when I needed one.

http://www.skfextranet.com/catalogs/457 ... sp?s=48000

Thanks for the 80/90 confirmation- I had seen a glove box cover that Nikkinutshop offered to Jared and the sign on it said something about 10W oil. It seemed way too thin for this application, and way thinner than what I drained. Perhaps it was for the two-speed, which mine is, as well.

The Valley Truck guys had an Eaton parts book open for the E-15201 axle and it did not show a sealed nut- I think I'll pack the bearings really well and let the lube find them if they do, if not, the grease should be sufficient.

Thank you again to all who have provided information, this truck needs to move by Monday, feed needs grinding!

I looked up the National 415437 seal, OD 4.751; iD 3.5; w0.5, will verify sizes with the old ones