yea that would make complete sense to me. I have the opposite, the mud-shield driving the seal into the cir-clip or ring and not getting quite to the spacer. i either have: the wrong seal, which i confirmed many times through land rover dealer and Atlantic British, but who knows ;
the wrong cir-clip or ring in from the previous owner since I found rtv sealant all over the ring and only bits of a smaller seal ;
or the sleeve and bearing are worn.

 

99 t-case front output shaft seal dilemma.
can anyone verify if the inside of the flange ( side facing into t-case) actually makes contact against the bearring and sleeve) ???
if not then the mudgaurd would have to be compressing the seal against the circlip ring in front of the bearing which makes no sense since it would be handling all of the torque not allowing the flange to tighten once cranked to spec. also anyone who has done the bearing did u remove it with a cir-clip tool and pull out? i don't seem to have any holes in the metal ring guarding the bearing so am wondering if someone tapped in some type of large washer and then rtv'd the space since I found it all over the inside ring and only a very small seal remnant remaining. the one I bought ftc4939 is as wide as a pinion seal and looks very similar but not as indented on the spring side.
Thanks!!!

 

Here's another exploded shot of the TC internals.

 

Maybe this will help: How to Remove/Renew Transfer Case Front Output Shaft Bearing

Now, some have found the technique used to remove the bearing didn't work for them. So don't expect it to be this easy (in case you're wanting to remove the bearing). Also, some of the info in that article I don't agree with (packing the bearing with grease, using a blunt screwdriver to drive the seal in, etc.) but it gives you something to refer to and hopefully helps you figure out what's going on with your setup.

 

Hey thanks! Yea I can tell u right now from looking at this I do not have a cir-clip in. looks like they forced in a big metal washer into the indent the cir-clip would fit in. mine looks twice as wide too with no holes for a cir-clip tool. WTF can't believe some of the Jimmy Riggs on this vehicle. The guy who re-did his drive shaft must have been too lazy to replace the bearings and seal and filled the void with a big washer and rtv sealant on top of some old seal. Did u ever see my post on the cluster being filled with duct tape to hide the 3 amigos? I'd like to take the guy who sold this too me and shove it up his asssss.

 

when u have some time I can take a buzz up to aurora and maybe u can look her over for me? Thanks, Bob....

 

OH! I did see the wadded up duct tape in the gauge cluster. Didn't remember that was your thread. That is disturbing. The t-case issue is even more disturbing.

This week and weekend is horrible for me, unless you're available during the day on Friday.

I don't have spare parts for the transfer case either. That'd require a trip to the junkyard and hope to find a case already laying on the ground (I don't see that very often). I'd be concerned that the housing has been modified/damaged beyond use.

Haven't seen any affordable ones on CL recently either (watch out for ones which are not capable of CDL, like 2002 and 2003).

 

Yea no biggie, I have other vehicles to drive. Maybe we can hook up next week? I bought this one to fix up and pull a bigger boat. I just got rid of my small 14 aluminum and bought a 19 ft glass wake-board boat. I thought I would get something a little more powerful than the Isuzu rodeo I was pulling it with. Now there's a nice little ride that keeps on going. We have had 3 of those and they are great little vehicles! I think this Rover has potential, just got to iron out all the little ( and big) bs over the winter. I don't mind spending the dough to get it back into very usable condition. Hey do you know off hand if it's worth doing anything to the tranny cooler ( do we have one?) or put in a separate one for towing? They seem pretty cheap to get.
Thanks!