Bob's Studebaker Resource Website



1955 Studebaker Pinion Seal Replacement



1st picture - This is the flange dust cover that the shop manual says to “Take off the dust cover and remove the oil seal and gasket”. My second mistake of the project created quite the “oops” moment. The manual said to “Center punch the companion flange and the pinion shaft spline so that the original alignment can be preserved on reassembly”. Well, not knowing for sure what it was talking about, I center punched the rear end housing itself near the flange and the dust cover (not knowing at the time that it was going to be coming off). About two and a half seconds after taking the dust cover off the flange the “oops” set in. I think I was able to save the day by looking at a photo of the rear end before I started the replacement and was able to reinstall the flange in the same relative position as it had been. Since the dust cover was re-used with the new flange it was reseated on the flange. A 1 ½” 12-point socket worked perfect for driving it back on the flange. The flange came off the splines very easy with a simple puller that I had.


2nd picture - This is the magic leather pinion seal that I took out. My first mistake of the project was using a cold chisel too close to the outside of the old seal to cut it out. It seats, as does the new one, on a shoulder in the pinion bore that is about 1/8” wide. I nicked that shoulder with the cold chisel which forced me to use a sanding attachment on my dremel tool to clean up the burr before putting the new seal in. The old seal also had a very hard, almost like a Bakelite material, gasket between it and that shoulder. I used some permatex on the outer part of the new seal where it seats against the shoulder to try to make up for the non-use of a new gasket. Dan Miller of Atlanta, GA had recommended that to a gentleman awhile back on the forum. I hope it will work.


3rd picture - I got very lucky when looking for something to drive the new seal in with. I had some old thin-wall oil field pipe left over from making corner posts for my pasture. It fit perfectly into the recessed area of the new seal and the ball peen tapping on the back of it drove the seal in to the shoulder. My own, free J-2037 driver.


4th picture - A piece of 1” black pipe reinstalled the flange. Once again, my own free J-2204-B pusher set.


5th picture - The flat washer and nut was reinstalled. I had to hold the flange with an 18” pipe wrench while tightening the nut to the 150 ft. lbs. I once again used Dan’s recommendation to put some RTV (I used permatex) on the back side of the flat washer in case some differential fluid tried to follow the splines out of the rear end. I slapped it on the nut side as well. Now to fill the rear end up and hope for the best. It will be some time before the car will be driven as it is currently off the frame. Part of the project involved cleaning and painting the flange while I had it off.

Charlie D.