Pop Quiz! Rear Hub Seal Orientation?

[Dan Sarandrea (Phila)]

I checked the shop manuals in the Wiki but none of the exploded diagrams are detailed enough to answer this question. And I apologize if the sought info is provided in a previous thread on the topic, if it has, I was not able to unearth it after 1 min of searching.

Sooo, the question is: What is the correct orientation of the rear hub seals?

This way?

Or this way?

For a conventional oil seal for example, the rule of thumb is the lip goes toward the oil, but this one gives me pause.

 

[Ics19]

There's an excellent write up by @lookforjoe here:

Rear (and Front) Wheel Bearing Replacement (5spd).

Picking up from this thread. Rear Bearings are 37x37x72mm. You can use Fiat 500 front wheel bearings for the rear. I had to redo one rear wheel bearing from 2015, and replace the other side original (137K miles) Fiat diagram. Plate (#5) is actually between 1 & 2, since it installs from the...

xwebforums.com

The seal lip always goes towards the bearing, but it actually presses against either the back shield/plate (#5 in the pic) or the retaining lock ring nut. The body part of the seal sits onto a shoulder of the respective drive shaft and hub.

 

[Dan Sarandrea (Phila)]

There's an excellent write up by @lookforjoe here:

Rear (and Front) Wheel Bearing Replacement (5spd).

Picking up from this thread. Rear Bearings are 37x37x72mm. You can use Fiat 500 front wheel bearings for the rear. I had to redo one rear wheel bearing from 2015, and replace the other side original (137K miles) Fiat diagram. Plate (#5) is actually between 1 & 2, since it installs from the...

xwebforums.com

The seal lip always goes towards the bearing, but it actually presses against either the back shield/plate (#5 in the pic) or the retaining lock ring nut. The body part of the seal sits onto a shoulder of the respective drive shaft and hub.

Thanks! Now I remember Hussein's write-up. Standard search wasn't giving me much, I should have tried the enhanced Google search tool that Jim has enabled for us!

 

[Dr.Jeff]

Hey Dan, I'm curious if those are OEM / Fiat seals or aftermarket? I ask because they appear a little different from the used original factory (Fiat) ones I recently removed. In your pics the "lip" appears thinner than the ones I had. But the pics might be deceiving. Makes no difference, I'm just wondering.

 

[Dan Sarandrea (Phila)]

Hey Dan, I'm curious if those are OEM / Fiat seals or aftermarket? I ask because they appear a little different from the used original factory (Fiat) ones I recently removed. In your pics the "lip" appears thinner than the ones I had. But the pics might be deceiving. Makes no difference, I'm just wondering.

I sourced them from Eurosport UK a couple of weeks ago. I'm pretty sure they are aftermarket as they came in a clear ziplock with Eurosport's internal stock number on them, as opposed to some sort of NOS FIAT packaging. They have a manufacturer part number on them, if you want I can either take a pic of it or just update this post with the textual info.

I normally strongly prefer using OEM but when it comes to parts/assemblies that contain perishable stuff like seals, in such case I think "fresh" aftermarket is (hopefully) better than ancient OEM.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

I normally strongly prefer using OEM

That's why I asked about them. Knowing that you typically use OEM parts. But these appeared slightly different so I was curious. No need for further info, thanks.

 

[Rod Midkiff]

Also, keep in mind once you start pushing the wheel bearing in. it's a one-way trip. if you try to remove them you will destroy them.