Front hub bearing seal - concerns?

[ToySnakePMC]

Hibernation project this weekend consists of front brake refurb and replacing the bearings, races, and seals while I’m in there. Only having owned this ‘76 912E for less than a year, I want to verify suspension and brakes are up to the task prior to having any issues.

So the question at hand is that the NAPA front hub seal is not the same seal that I removed earlier in the day. The old seal is “double-sided” if you will as there’s a smooth solid, wide face that faces the inner wheel bearing while the new seal is not that sophisticated. I’m worried that by not having a “face” for that bearing to rest up against would allow that bearing to have some play and not be seated on the race.

Maybe this assembled photo will illustrate my concern. Should I remove this new seal and install proper ones from our host? Bottom pic shows the back side of both seals.

(As a side note, all my brake parts arrived yesterday from our host - I just didn’t think about ordering bearings and such before placing that order.)

[brp914]

The seal is not related to bearing play. One thing to be aware of is that the strut spindle should have a spacer ring on the inboard side. The OD of this ring should match the ID of the seal. I say this because I've bought 2 911, both of which had strut replacements. In both cases the spacer ring was not installed. In one case as I recall a seal was installed that matched the native spindle OD. But in the most recent case, A porsche seal was installed. But w/o the spacer ring, the seal wasn't sealing anything which allowed garbage into bearing. I almost couldn't get the hub off the spindle due to all the accumulated crud.

Regarding bearings, it always seems nice to do. But it is a fairly miserable job. And I have a 911 with 350,000 miles and as far as I know has the originals still.

[ToySnakePMC]

BRP, Thank you very much. I do have the smooth, machined spacer ring, and I did do a fast and loose measurement of the ID of the seal and the OD of that spacer, and they matched up around 44mm. So I can see how that is the determining factor. I am beginning to feel better - as I would otherwise have to wait perhaps a while on coast to coast shipping in these unique times for the new seals! And in front of the spacer ring is a small, thin O ring that apparently gets squeezed in there as well.
So, I was going to leave it all alone when I first popped off the grease cap as the green grease looked so fresh. But I thought what the heck, let’s look inside. Pulled hub off and the small outer bearing was still covered in old dirty looking grease. Wiped it off and it also appeared to have been dropped or something since it was flattened on about 3 roller bearing width. Somebody just slathered new grease in the hub and at the grease cap. Hope it was a previous amateur attempt...

[ToySnakePMC]

All is well. Hub went on just fine. LH done. RH side next... Just have to clean the the whole inner fender area first - and it’s wrapped up with undercoating versus the LH side that had just a small amount at the top where fender attaches to the tub.

[Flojo]

as I see in your wheel well: at some point your tire must have had contact to the inner fender.
that shouldn't happen.
check clearance.