Mikel Levy
Aluminum
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2009
- Location
- Seattle
My Colchester Chipmaster lathe is leaking significant amounts of oil from the headstock onto the components of the clutch shaft. There are two oil seals in this assembly. Upon disassembling the whole mess, I find that the smaller, most outboard seal is indeed chewed up, but surprisingly the larger, most inboard seal looks to be in excellent condition. However, I would swear that the seal is in backwards. The attached photo shows the side of the oil seal that faces into the headstock oil reservoir. Note that the conical lip of the seal points away from the oil to be contained. A search of the internet revealed a lot of very confusing opinions about this. This is my first experience with oil seals, but it seems to me that the conical lip of the seal should be pointing towards the fluid to be contained, so that any pressure from the fluid will cause the lip to close down more tightly onto the shaft it is supposed to seal (although the garter spring around the periphery of the seal also provides some clamping force, I guess).
I just want to be sure about this before I remove the original seal and install a new one facing the opposite direction. Thanks and happy new year.
Mike
I just want to be sure about this before I remove the original seal and install a new one facing the opposite direction. Thanks and happy new year.
Mike