jeromio Posted February 26, 2001 Share Posted February 26, 2001 Hopefully Terry or someone can clear this up for me: I'm finally assembling my car. I am using the 240Z Stub Axles, 82 ZX Turbo CX shafts and companion flanges and I bought 2 R200 pinion seals. I started by shaving off most all the rubber from the outside of the pinion seal with a block plane. But I could not get it anywhere close to going in. So then I started ->grinding the outer diameter of the seal. - beveling the outer lip. - cleaning it. - greasing it. - trying to insert it. <- repeat. I did this about 5 or 6 times. The thing was getting pretty beat up from trying to hammer it in (I used a large socket and the dust shield that I had knocked off the ZX flange). Finally I just tried tightening down the dust seal, a large washer with the stub nut. That caused about 70% of the seal to go in, the other 30% got pinched out (don't know my own strength ). I kind of spooged it inthere by hammering the offending part of the seal with a 1/4 socket extension and then put my flange on and tightened it all down. Anyway, this seal does appear to fit around the inserted end of the companion flange very nicely, but I ground a whole lot off the outer circumference and it just wasn't enough. Did I get the wrong seal? Are my (240z) axle housings somehow strange? I'm considering tearing this apart and trying the pipe/bushing trick. ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted February 26, 2001 Share Posted February 26, 2001 That's the right seal, if it's an R200 pinion seal. I'm guessing your housing is at teh low side of the build tolerance. Was it cleaned out well where the seal goes in? If the seal is in there and parallel to the face of the opening, and it doesn't ride on a rough part of the companion flange, or interfere with it, it should be o.k.. But I know I'd be concerned as well. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted February 26, 2001 Author Share Posted February 26, 2001 I didn't use any abrasives or anything on the insides, but they were very clean. No gunk or anything that I could see or feel. Hopefully the ZX seal will fit with the pipe/bushing..... ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73BOTIZ Posted February 26, 2001 Share Posted February 26, 2001 I just finished my cv halfshaft upgrade. I made aluminum 'spud' and used a press to install my r200 seals. It was a tight fit but they did go in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted February 26, 2001 Share Posted February 26, 2001 I did notice when I was doing this mod on my street Z (second one done) that the pinion seal from another manufacturer was slight larger than the first one I used. I went back and got a duplicate of the first one (orginal parts house), and it went in better. It appeared after looking at it that more rubber was on one vs the other. With the tight fit that these use, just a couple of thousanths (metal or rubber) can make a big difference. Cleanliness is also very important as Pete pointed out. Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted February 27, 2001 Share Posted February 27, 2001 If anyone is interested here's how I did it? Ground the rubber off the outer seal with a wire wheel. Used the hub from a trash truck with a perfect sized bearing race in it and chamfered my seals with a bearing installation tool. Dabbed a bit of silicone around the outside edge and some white grease on the seal and installed with a bearing installation tool. First one went in to far and rubbed the bearing. Didn't install the second so deep. When I went to install the inner axle flange the 73 Z dust shield rubbed the seal so bad that you could barely turn the hub. So I just removed the previously installed shields and run without them. The seal's a dust seal anyway. Next time I would make a tool to set the depth so I could run the shields. Here's a bit of trivia you might not know? 1981 Nissan Maxima(bolt on rear brake bracket model) inner/outer axle flanges are the same 25 splines as 240 Z's. Zzzzz, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted February 27, 2001 Author Share Posted February 27, 2001 Well, I bought a set of ZX seals. The parts counter guy said there was only one rear bearing seal listed for both turbo and non. Anyway, I then went to HomeDepot to get some 3" PVC pipe to make my Oxandale bushing. While I was there I went thru the whole plumbing sectionwith my seal and my calipers and tried pretty much everything out. I ended up finding a shower drain that had a big rubber grommet on it. Fairly stiff rubber, the ZX seal was a tight fit inside. The OD was slightly too small. So I bought a roll of that black rubber "fix a leak" tape stuff. You stretch it out, wrap it around something and it shrinks back. 2 layers of that around the rubber part and the OD was perfect - made for a tight, snug fit. So, I cut this thing exactly in half which gave me 2 pieces the same width as the ZX seal. Put the seal in the shower drain grommet and pressed the whole thing into the carrier. It looks like it will work beautifully. I would've taken pictures but I'm on a tight timeline and on my very last set of rubber gloves (none to put back on if I removed the dirty ones to use the digicam). (BTW Jeff, the dust shield from the 240 flanges can be used on the ZX flanges. Just grind off the 2 welds holding it on, then slip it on the ZX flange after its shield has been knocked off.) ------------------ 240Z.jeromio.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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