Wooden Wheel Grease Seal Ideas Needed

[hddennis]

This is a picture of my 1917 Maxwell front wheel hub. The original seal was felt with a tin cup that sat on that tiny little ledge just above the outer race, bet it fell off before delivery!

The problem is , there is almost no recess at all. I just sat my smallest drill bit 1/16 on the lip sideways and about a third of the bit is above the recess. The race is fully seated and I can't cut the top of the race off or the ball bearing snap ring won't have a groove to lock into. The hub can't be machined any deeper because immediately after the ledge the race seats on it necks down to the spindle size and any machining in that area would blow through the hub wall. Other than casting and machining new deeper hubs I don't see any other way to hold a seal in.

What do you car guys think of my idea to take a modern seal that fits the inner cone and grind away the outer part of the seal till it just sits on that tiny ledge and silicone it to the hub? I think once it sets the silicone should hold it in.

Howard Dennis

Edited September 8, 2013 by hddennis (see edit history)

[Chris Coon]

I tried a similar maneuver a couple years ago, so far it has held up, not a lot of miles tthough good luck

[Friartuck]

Howard, McMaster-Car has a line of leather washers that maybe able to fit with some light sanding. On my seal problem, I took several of them and glued them together to build up the thickness and used a rotary drum sander to fit the ID and OD for my application. Would think one or two together that has its ID custom fit to the outer race and OD to just inside the beveled edge. Instead of that retaining ring, consider a precision thrust washer used in taking up the backlash on a lathe's cross feed table. Travers Tool in Long Island NY or Manhattan Supply Company (MSC) are two suppliers that I have used.