Belt Pulley Shaft Seal - '50 M

[Tom in OR]

Belt pulley unit is all apart now. Replacing oil seal on the outer end of the pulley shaft. Question is, which way should the seal lip point? Manual says lip toward the pulley, and that's how the original leather seal was installed. Seems to me, however, that maybe the lip should point toward the oil wet side for greater oil control. Anybody have a definitive explanation before I begin to reassemble the unit? This has always been a wonderment to me, as which way a seal lip should be installed. Seems that directions in this regard are somewhat inconsistent. Thanks for any advice!
PS: Also discovered that the felt 'dust' seal retained rain water over the years and caused considerable pitting of the shaft in the contact area.
Tom

 

[rustred]

the lip goes to the oil side in seals. even pack the inside with grease, on the oil side is a good thing to do. the outside of the seal is flat just for your reference.

 

[fastfarmall]

Yeah i just done mine too, the new seal look cheap/flimsy compared to the old one, to me it did anyway, but what caused my bearing to be bad, was the weep hole was full of crude,moisture got in threw the shims, before i got it,it sat out side!

 

[SinkholeRoad]

Tom,
I have two 1950 Farmall Ms. I changed that flat belt pulley on both of them. I too didn t feel that confident in the seal I got, so I put two seals in there. One on the usual surface where the original one was and another behind it on the next surface. I had to order it specially because the outside dimension was different, and it needed to be fitted to the surface a bit. But I felt better about it. I agree with the other posts here, a little grease and oil on the lip facing toward the oil is a good idea.

 

[Roger46]

Sorry about the rant, but putting two seals on the shaft is my pet peeve. All modern machinery only has one of the lip seals you are talking about. I have only put one seal on all my PTO shafts and never had a leak. Those old leather seals dried out and then leaked. They were made that thick to accommodate the seal parts for a leather lip seal. However, they were a great improvement over the felt seals or the grooved shaft seals.

 

[SinkholeRoad]

(quoted from post at 15:48:38 03/07/23) Sorry about the rant, but putting two seals on the shaft is my pet peeve. All modern machinery only has one of the lip seals you are talking about. I have only put one seal on all my PTO shafts and never had a leak. Those old leather seals dried out and then leaked. They were made that thick to accommodate the seal parts for a leather lip seal. However, they were a great improvement over the felt seals or the grooved shaft seals.

I used to feel that putting two lip seals into a part made no sense. I don t put two in there just because there is room for two, I do it because I have had too many leak even though I just put in a new seal. The old leather seals left a worn surface that often leaked even with a new seal. I have found it much easier to just buy and install two seals than to try figuring out a speedy sleeve for all the different shafts.