One-piece oil seal and boot seal

Claim 1

Apparatus comprising: (a) a housing having a bore, (b) a shaft extending through said bore and adapted for relative movement with respect to said housing; (c) a seal mounted in said bore for sealing the annular space between said bore and shaft, said seal comprising; (1) an oil seal portion and a boot sleeve portion integral with said oil seal portion and extending axially outwardly from said oil seal portion; (2) said oil seal portion including a mounting portion and a sealing element, said mounting portion including an annular metal shell and said sealing element including an elastomeric body portion bonded to said metal shell, said sealing element also including an annular sealing lip in sealing contact with said shaft; (3) said boot sleeve portion including an elongated, shaft-encircling, elastomeric, tubular sleeve extending axially outwardly from said oil seal portion, said elastomeric sleeve being part of an annular, one-piece, elastomeric body which also includes said elastomeric body portion of said sealing element; (4) said sleeve having a distal end portion, and said sleeve tapering axially outwardly and radially inwardly toward said distal end portion; said sleeve being flexible and being axially collapsible such that said distal end portion can move axially inwardly by flexing of said sleeve; said distal end portion having an I.D. greater than the I.D. of said shaft such that said distal end portion is spaced away from and out of contact with said distal end portion including the entire end portion of said sleeve including all sleeve surfaces and edges where said surfaces meet and including both the radially outwardly and the radially inwardly facing surfaces thereof; (5) said seal also including an annular, elastomeric, intermediate dust lip integral with said elastomeric body and extending radially inwardly and axially outwardly from a radially inner surface of said elastomeric body, said intermediate dust lip being separate from said distal end portion and being located axially inwardly therefrom, and the lip of said intermediate dust lip being located closer to the distal end of said distal end portion than to said sealing lip, said intermediate dust lip being in contact with said shaft; and (6) said elastomeric body also including an annular groove directly radially outwardly of said intermediate dust lip in the radially inner surface of said elastomeric body, said groove extending radially outwardly and axially inwardly up into said elastomeric body, whereby said intermediate dust lip can flex radially outwardly into said groove.