D44 brake upgrade

I've been looking through the tech pages at the various pieces on 11" brake upgrades and full floater upgrades, etc., but haven't found an answer to a problem that I've encountered. I'm doing an 11" brake upgrade on my rear Dana 44. I've got the old brakes completely off and, with the existing tapered axle, there is no seal on the axle. The bearing is in place and then there's a "wipe" kind of thing with a "cup" kind of thing outboard of that. It's apparent that Jeep was making provision to trap hot grease as it seeped out from the bearing, but made no attempt to seal the bearing from outside water, etc. I really don't want to put everything back together with this setup. Do I have an option to install a seal? Can I buy a seal that will fit the axle diameter and use some kind of aftermarket carrier to hold the seal in place to the flange? What are my options?

 

Yes. I have that. That's what I'm calling the "wiper". The inner diameter of this part is far far larger than the diameter of the axle. There's a good 1/2" of clearance between the wiper ring and the axle. No way this will seal anything out. All that I can see that this does is to kind of slow down the migration of grease away from the bearing.

 

Well...I'm an idiot. I just realized that when I put the hub back on the rear of the hub will make up the difference in clearance...and create a positive seal. Nevermind.

 

should be an inner seal in the tube as well.

 

jpflat2a is referring to item 23 in the above diagram.

 

There are actually 3 different seals. There are two outside ones that are different. The one Patrick showed is the style seal that actually rides on the hub. The earlier style is the cup with a seal that rides on the flanged hub itself. There is an updated style that is a flat piece of sheet metal with an oil seal in the middle that rides on the axle shaft itself. This bolts to the housing end and rides on the shaft behind the hub. There is an inner seal which was mentioned that rides on the axle shaft inside of the bearing. In other words you have to slide the shaft through it when you install the shaft. It presses into the tube of the housing. It's # 23 in the parts breakdown shown.

 

I've got the earlier style with a seal that rides on the flanged hub itself. That's what confused me with the axle being a much smaller diameter than the seal, but when you put the hub on the axle, the seal that rides on the hub is an appropriate size. I am going to replace the seal surface, which is currently felt, with a more modern rubber seal. Thanks for everybody's advice.