W22 Front Oil Seal National 370150A
An old thread in this forum mentions a member not being able to use the National 370150A seal on his W22 chassis as it was “too tight” on the spindle. I had a problem with Stemco seals leaking oil and just replaced them with the National seal, which I found to fit perfectly on the spindle. I really don’t care for the Stemco design as the sealing surface which rides on a wear sleeve is less that half the thickness of the National seal which rides directly on the spindle, and the wear sleeve provides an additional point of potential leakage. The National seal has sealing grooves built-in as part of its design and I found it seats higher in the hub providing more of a sealing surface.
It is important to use emery cloth to polish out any little dings and high points on the spindle and hub especially on the leading edge of the spindle lip. Mine had small chisel marks which were probably contributing to the leakage by not letting the wear sleeve sit perfectly concentrically on the spindle.
The other benefit of the National seal is that it was in stock at my local O’Reilly store along with brake pads (which were oil contaminated) so I was able to get back on the road without waiting for mail order parts.
|