D-18 Rebuild Oops

I just finished rebuilding the D-18 transfer case in my 56 CJ5 and noticed that I had two small round gaskets left. The rebuild kit came from Novak (great kit by the way). I went back and did a little research and figured out that they go behind the output shaft seals. Seams a little odd to put a paper gasket behind a seal.

Since there is no way that I can pull the seals out without damaging them, the question is - how important are these gaskets? I always use permatex on the outside of seals when installing them. I understand the purpose of the felt seals outside the rubber seal. I just can't imagine the paper gaskets doing anything.

The gaskets are #26 in the image.

 

The paper gaskets and felt "seals" are a vestige of the leather seals originally used in the early versions of these transfer cases. I don't use them. If the seal surfaces are in good shape and you follow the suggestions posted on this site you should have few issues. The purpose of the paper gasket was to seal the metal ring to the housing and the felt rings were to help hold some oil against the leather seal to keep them from drying out. In this day and age of good sealing materials and good sealers they really don't do much except to make it more difficult to set output shaft/bearing endplay.

 

Thanks for the response - That makes perfect sense.

 

Remove your rearyolk and add sealant to the splines then reinstall it. this helps with seepage.