Grease on an oil seal

[JimInOz]

Hi Guys,
I'm replacing both seals on the Bevel gear in my little Mitsubishi dozer...oil is leaking from bevel housing into steering cases.
The shop manual says I need to "fill up the lip space with grease" before inserting next to bearing.
Any ideas why this would be required,& the type of grease I need to use.?
My bearing supplier was confused,as we figure the bevel oil will be doing the lubricating in there anyway...?
Maybe someone has seen this before.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[DigDug]

I always coat lip with grease . For assyembly purposes and intial lube for first few rotations of shaft until oil in touching seal.

 

[JimInOz]

Thanks DigDug,
I got confused...I thought they meant to fill up the whole seal with grease.
The Japanese translation is a little vague...
My bearing guy said it's common practise to use grease when fitting seal,so I'll go with that.

Jim

 

[daterplant]

Greasing seals

I have found that when fitting some seals the tension spring can pop out, to overcome this I always fill or partial fill the lip space with grease.

 

[GOINGBROKE]

I'm with daterplant, every lip seal I put in I fill with grease. Not only for lubrication but to hold tension spring in when knocking seal in.

 

[SE-Ia Cowman]

Always use greese on oil seals

I worked as a mechanic at a John Deere dealer and this was sop on any seal replacment. most oil seals have 2 lips the outer lip the one away from the oil is the dust seal the one towards the oil is the pressure seal if they work right they should never get any oil get between them therefore they need some kind of lube. you want a good heavy greese that dosent dry out and one that dosent turn into a liquid after a short time I personaly like johndeere green greese but this is not a advertisment so just use good greese. I have been experminting with synthetic but havent noticed any difference yet.

 

[sea_goin_dude]

Always prelube the seals to prevent dry startup. Use the regular grease that will go in the bearing of just dip the bearings in a cup of motor oil.