I started this project to build a 1967 8-inch rear axle for a six cylinder to eight conversion. I had most of the parts in my inventory, but they were not all from the same car. Yesterday I started to put the axles in the housing and discovered they lacked about 1/8 of an inch of going in all the way. when I pulled them out, I found that the axle bearing retainer was tight against the seal. I have built a number of these and never had a problem. I decided to bring another of our cars to the shop and pull the axel to check it. I was surprised to find that the oil seal sets almost a 1/2 inch deeper in the housing. I am not sure how to fix this, whether to try to cut down the seal thickness or have the axle bearing retainer cut thinner. Oh, one more anomaly I forgot to mention the RH and LH oil seal seats are different dimeters. One is 2 1/4 inches and the other is 2 5/15 inches.
The seals I used were National oil seal #9161 and 9569S, the Ford number for that one is C7W- 1177-1. Both of these seals are 7/16 inches thick. I will have to check if there are any thinner seals in these dimeters available. I will post pictures of both housing and axels from both cars. BTW I tried the axle with the original bearing, and it did not work either. I cannot understand Ford making something like this.
