Greetings. First post here.

My wife's daily driver is an '86 SDL and it has developed a rather nasty leak on the front of the engine. It appears to be from the front oil seal. I'm gearing up to replace the seal, but don't want to do that without replacing the hub as well. The part numbers I have for these parts are:

Hub: 104-030-00-08
Hub Seal: 023-997-84-47

I have no issue with finding the seal, but the the hub is listed as NLA. Anyone have an alternate part for the hub on this fine car?

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Why would you replace the hub if it's not bad. It's just a dampener.

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Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

Doesn't the seal run against the hub, and if it is worn (like it might be after 225,000 miles) the seal will continue to leak?

You may have just a vacuum pump seal leak. My sdl sure looked like a front main seal leak. Till I found that it was actually the pump seal. 440k miles and the crank seal still holding.

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1986 300SDL 440,xxx

I'm about 99.99% sure your hub isn't worn if it isn't vibrating the engine all over the place. I've had many high mileage OM60x motors and the hub didn't have to replaced. I've also done 3 crank seals on a 603, 602, & 617. My 431k om606 has the original hub and front crank seal.

If you have a front crank seal leak, it will spit oil everywhere all over the front of the motor. It's because of higher crankcase pressure in a diesel and especially when the motor breaks in aka blowby will make it more apparent. A vacuum pump leak as well can look similar.

__________________
Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

I have a febi motor seal kit complete for your motor ,Here in conroe area north of houston.Alot of extras in the package ,never opened. If your interested pm me .

Perhaps you should clean the engine before you start ordering parts.

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84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic

I thought that even if there were a seal wear area evident on the balancer . It can be worked around on these engines. Without using a speed sleeve. Might be wrong.

Good tip. I'm having a bit of oil loss as well. I'll look at that.

The leak that worries me is what I think is the front tranny seal. Work.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I've been down this path on my '87 wagon (same OM603 motor).

The seal is inserted into the timing case, and runs on the hub.

My hub was worn, so I simply seated the seal a little deeper into the timing case, so that it runs on a "fresh" part of the hub.

The next best solution is a sleeve over the hub, which will work with the same factory seal.

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Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC

This may be a simplistic comment but I thought that the seals are stationary. If so, seems unlikely that it would wear the hub down significantly.

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The outside of the seal is stationary. The hub turns in it though. Over time it can wear metal. Generally they usually last a long time.


Yet sometimes early failure is also known. May be several things that make that occur.

Once the seal fails and starts to leak, the oil collects dust and dirt, and that speeds up the process.

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC