1990 w/ 2004 MSM Diff.. Axle dragging hard on inner wheel seal?
 

Got the new-to-me differential installed in my racecar tonight. As I brought the axle nuts up to torque I could feel something "squish". After releasing the e brake I could barely turn the diff with a bar between the wheel studs...

I backed the axle nuts back off and everything was free again. Spun the axle nuts off completely and pushed the axle back through the hubs to find the inner wheel seal lip had been cut off due to no axle to knuckle clearance. I sprayed some extra lube in there, pealed the old seal lip out and retorqued the nuts again to find it was better, but still sticky.

I've found a couple guides but none of them mentioned anything to do with having to make a change there. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

If I understand you right, yes it can happen. There are two different axles, one requires a seal, one doesn't (AIUI). Normally the axle that doesn't require a seal will self-clearance* if you fit a seal - which you appear to have partially preempted by moving it with your efforts with the bar. If you have the car on stands, remove axle, remove remnants of seal, reassemble etc.

The two axles can be identified by a chamfer at that location on one, no chamfer on the other [ETA ... or maybe the chamfer is on the upright? :dunno:]. No idea which is which IRT the seal. This comes from a discussion about this very issue which I read in the last year or so, Hopefully more info on this will be forthcoming here, or y'know, giggle it.

*self clearance = driving off and the rotation of the CV/axle grinds the seal away with a few revolutions. No idea what the implications of this procedure may be, but happy for you to do a long term test and report results. ;)

Thank you very much for the reply, that is the exact info I needed. I will pull the axles and remenants of the seals!

Yeah, they dropped the seals during the NB run sometime. So the MSMs likely don't need them (good reminder since I am putting an MSM rear end in my 90 soon as well)

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7b6700f98b.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...9444c1d3f7.jpg
Done! Really really easy.

hey I’m having this problem too I recently put Mazdaspeed axles and diff on my 99 so would I leave the seal in and just drive for a bit or do I remove the seal?

The correct solution is to pull the seal.

The lazy solution is to drive around and wait for the seal to get destroyed by friction.

Since you didn't bother to comprehend the contents of this thread even though they are quite straightforward, let me tell you exactly what steps to take:

1) potato.

my fault OG





thank u

Gents,

I remember reading this thread a while back, and another I can't relocate.

I'm installing a Rock Auto GSP CV axle to get me back on track this weekend. I'll deal with rebuilding the OEM axle later. If this replacement axle is good for "select 1995-05" Miatas, can I/should I leave the wheel seal off?

Thanks,