Top Roller Replacement or Just Replace Seal?

[bulletpruf]

Working on a '67 350 Straight. I greased all the rollers with a low-pressure grease gun (used JD corn head grease) and oil spewed out of the back of one of the top rollers, so I figured I needed a new roller or at least a new seal.





I ordered a new roller from Broken Tractor and the website said I needed a new seal to go with the roller, so I ordered one as well (seal was $140!). Probably should have done some research before I fired the parts cannon because now that I'm looking at it and looking at the parts and service manual, I'm thinking I can just pull the top roller off, disassemble it, replace the seal, and reinstall the old roller on the old shaft with a new seal. Am I right here?

Here's the new one; comes with a seal:



And here's the $140 seal:





A few questions -

-Will I need to remove the entire assembly, including the L shaped support bracket that the shaft is pressed into? Or can I just disassemble the roller while installed and simply slide the roller off the shaft and replace the seal without having to remove the L shaped support bracket?

-Is there any trick to getting the old seal out and the new one in?

Thanks,

Scott

[LeonardL]

Well... yes you can take the roller off and replace the seal without pulling the bracket off. But... your roller is junk dude! When a roller is worn down to the outside diameter of the cap then it is due for replacement. You can just replace the seal but you're still going to have a worn out upper roller.

To replace the shaft and everything then you do have to remove the bracket and then press the old shaft out and press the new one in. You have everything you need so that is what I would do.

[bulletpruf]

Ok, I'll replace the entire roller. Thanks for the details!

Scott

[dabear3428]

if you need help with a press i have a few here you can use

[bulletpruf]

if you need help with a press i have a few here you can use

I appreciate the offer, but my HF press did fine.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Excellent!

By HF, I presume you are referring to Hobo Freight.

Stan

[bulletpruf]

Hi,

Excellent!

By HF, I presume you are referring to Hobo Freight.

Stan

The one and only!

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

We have one in the next town, only 4 miles away. So, we hit the Big Time. A McD's, *two* Dollar Generals and now a Hobo Freight!

My take on HF is, yeah, buy those tools and then when I bust one, go get a Mac or snap-On to replace it,

I, too, have an El Cheapo bottle jack press. Have had it sine 1997 or so. I have yet to find I need something better.

Stan

[bulletpruf]

Hi,

We have one in the next town, only 4 miles away. So, we hit the Big Time. A McD's, *two* Dollar Generals and now a Hobo Freight!

My take on HF is, yeah, buy those tools and then when I bust one, go get a Mac or snap-On to replace it,

I, too, have an El Cheapo bottle jack press. Have had it sine 1997 or so. I have yet to find I need something better.

Stan

I grew up using Craftsman stuff; these days I have some SnapOn, Matco, Blue Point, Williams, etc, but since I'm just a weekend warrior, it's difficult to justify the cost most of the time.

With HF, I generally like their stuff that's made in Taiwan (their fine-tooth ratchets, for example). For stuff made in China, I rely heavily on their online reviews.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

I have been buying from HF since the days when they had only one location and paper catalogs and you had to order over the landline telephone. I was young then and trying to build up a decent set of tools so I wouldn't have to always use Dad's. But, I had little money, hence buying from HF.

It always seemed that the tools I used a lot busted. So, off to Sears for Craftsman. But they did not have everything I was able to source from HF. For those tools which busted, I had a Mac tool truck guy who lived only a mile away. Later on, when I had some money, I went racing and there was always a guy with a Snap On truck who was there as well. Handy, that.

I just had to buy a new large snap ring tool a few days ago because I busted the medium size one I was trying to make do with. Now, that was a HF tool but it was my own fault why it broke. So, off to the local HF to get a replacement plus the larger ones I ought to have gone and bought in the first place.

Stan

[bulletpruf]

Not a big fan of tool trucks. My next door neighbor at my shop is a Matco tool truck guy. I made the mistake of buying a Milwaukee M18 grease gun from him one weekend; I figured he would give me a decent deal on it, but he charged me $100 more than I would have paid at Amazon. Really chaps my *** because I've given him a lot of free stuff over the past few years. He'll get no more free stuff and no more of my business.

Regarding racing, what flavor? Quarter mile? Here's one of my old cars.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Road racing mostly. Sports and formula cars mostly. Lotus mostly. And then some dirt and paved oval racing with the Legends Cars,but still mostly road courses.

In my book, anything over 1500 pounds is Large and Slow and can't steer. But quarter mile doesn't need steering much and horsepower is key. I never got into that.

As far as the tools went, mostly small stuff but I did need three sets. English, Metric and Whitworth. Can't buy Whitworth at Hobo Freight.

Stan

[bulletpruf]

Hi,

Road racing mostly. Sports and formula cars mostly. Lotus mostly. And then some dirt and paved oval racing with the Legends Cars,but still mostly road courses.

In my book, anything over 1500 pounds is Large and Slow and can't steer. But quarter mile doesn't need steering much and horsepower is key. I never got into that.

As far as the tools went, mostly small stuff but I did need three sets. English, Metric and Whitworth. Can't buy Whitworth at Hobo Freight.

Stan

Interesting. I'm getting into road racing now. I'm building an ugly '72 AMC Javelin for the 24 Hours of Lemons. I'm finishing up the mild 360 (moderate hydraulic cam, minor port work, aluminum intake, road race oil pan, etc), built a close ratio T-10 for it, stock'ish rear suspension, Wilwoods front and rear, full cage, subframe connectors, etc, etc, etc, etc. If you're interested in this type of racing, we have room for another driver...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3JW4Z0J4Po&t=2857s

[bulletpruf]

So, I figured out that my upper roller wasn't worn out; the OD was only about .2" smaller than my new roller. And about .1" smaller than the top roller on the other side.

So I disassembled and cleaned the old roller, harvested the $140 seal from the new roller and installed it in the old roller, verified that it doesn't leak grease, and put it all back together. Works great.

The new roller is now sitting on the shelf as a spare.