D35 Spindle Seal Variations

[AlaskanRider]

Hey,
I just bought another ranger! Its a 97 4x4 4.0 supercab. I'm in the process of replacing the front oil seal on the pumpkin, and am having trouble sorting out the spindle seals as I put it back together. Im pretty confused, because the right spindle doesn't match the left spindle.

Does anyone know how many variations there were to the spindles over the years? The left spindle has a seal pressed into it, where as the right spindle does not. The seal is pressed onto the axleshaft instead.

There also seems to be a couple extraneous seals, they say "Forsheda 50492" on them. The fit is alot better on the left side than on the right, but both sides are too loose to seal the axleshaft against the spindle.

Are these supposed to be assymetrical? Im guessing that I have a couple different years worth of spindles, and that whoever replaced it didn't do a good job of keeping the parts straight. They also neglected to replace the splined thrust washers and clips on the axleshafts.

Anyone have any guess as to what years I have on my truck? I got frustrated and just slammed it together the way it was when I took it apart, but I'm not confident that I have all the right seals in there. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[4x4junkie]

I believe the change in seals was for the '93 model year, however there seems to be some overlap (my '94 for some reason had the earlier design seals on it).

IMO, the earlier design seems more durable.

Seals on a '92 shaft:

 

[AlaskanRider]

Thanks much, that clears up some confusion.

Unfortuneately it looks like I will be redoing the seal job. I made it about 5 miles and the seal blew again, gear oil all over the place. Looks like the mechanic that installed the spindle also neglected to install a passenger side axle shaft bearing when he/she redid the seal. It looked like there was supposed to be another part in there. D'oh!

Hopefully this person didn't have to do any more work on the truck other than the front axles. Probably the kind of person who should be supervised while topping off a radiator.

 

[SenorNoob]

That came with the Timken spindle bearing and seal kit SBK4. It's got everything to do it right.

The ?factory? seal on my spindles was a pressed in part kinda like this:

You need the dust cover with either one IMO.