Red, wine and blue.

I haven’t had a chance to do much recently and today only had limited time too. I did manage to make progress on the front axle.

I started with the pinion seal. I hadn’t looked at this closely before, but when I did I realised it wasn’t the rubber effort I was expecting.

Knowing that this seal was closer to a sieve than anything else I set about removing it. It was not easy.

I assume that this was the original seal, and to a design of years gone by. It was a shame to destroy it but if I am to cut 05 KD 28’s oil habit….

One are that might need some more work is the driving member which is a little pitted in the sealing surface.

The new seal is an all rubber number – genuine parts – and I set in in place with a little RTV sealant between it and the casing. I found that a hub nut socket was a perfect drift!

With the seal in place I continued to wire brush the axle casing, degrease it and prepare it for painting. It came up quite well after all of that – just a shame that the differential had clearly hit something very hard in the past. Once cleaned it was time to prime it – red oxide for this job. It’ll be black chassis paint next.

After a evening with a grinder and paint brush I moved on to an aptly named wine.

Tomorrow I hope to get the axle painted and start on the head cutting / reaming.

Wait! I promised blue and so blue there will be.

I must say that the oil filter housing on a series 3 is a real design gem (niche I admit). It is also an environmentally sound idea to only have to replace an element rather than a whole can.