Thread: Removing Free-wheeling Hubs

I don't have my books with me but go on the parts book/manual - but note that the washers are slightly different on the 24 and 10 spline setups. It was quite common for the washer setup to be changed when free wheel hubs were fitted.

The swivel/hub of Series 3 Landrovers was intended to be filled with oil (EP90). Many users consider that the semi-liquid grease introduced during Defender production is acceptable as an alternative. The use of ordinary grease is definitely not acceptable. The critical point is lubrication of the upper swivel bearing and the universal. Ordinary grease is just pushed out of the way by the rotating axle/U-joint and after that neither of theses are lubricated at all. However, note that the assembly of the wheel bearings calls for the use of grease for initial lubrication, until oil from the swivel penetrates along the shaft, and this grease will take a while to wash out of the bearing, and you may be seeing a recent disassembly of the hub - or you may have one swivel grease and the other oil.

John

G'day DiscoDave

Going by the the look of those hubs and the age of your Series 3 I would say that you have standard 10 spline axles, in that case your freewheel hubs would use the F2E nut,F3E plain washer,F4E felt,if it is a "Selectro" type freewheel hub, they have a large thin "O"ring in them and I think that it is now unavailable in Aust., so most people use a bead of silicone sealant, I have AVM's so I am not totally familiar with Selectros "O"ring setup. hope that helps

cheers

Thanks for your reply JD and UncleHo.
I tried the silicon bead trick on my Selectro hub but it had little effect - the rim was continually streaked with oil/grease which combined with the road dirt to make a thoroughly disgusting mess. So I have replaced the Selectros with standard drive flanges. The shafts are 24 spline.
The Selectros are basically three parts - an inner splined sleeve which is held in place on the stub shaft by the castellated nut; an outer sleeve which is bolted to the hub; and a cap which can lock the two sleeves together. A bearing maintains the relative positions of the two sleeves.
In removing the Selectro I undid the castellated nut and replaced the Selectro inner sleeve with the standard drive flange (which of course bolts directly to the hub) and reinstalled the castellated nut and it's split pin. I'm just checking that by doing this I have not changed the positioning of the uni-joints or done anything that would cause unnecessary wear or breakage. There were no seals, spacers or washers under the Selectro sleeve or the castellated nut but I'm not clear if there should be when a drive flange is fitted. My other Series III also has Selectro hubs so that doesn't help me.

I don't have the 4wds catalogue with me to cross reference but I'll try clarifying the diagram without it. Please bear with me...
All 24spline fwhs and drive members should have a spring ring in a groove in the female splines. Between this and the castellated nut is a spacer washer which holds the halfshaft at the right distance from the bearing at the back of the swivel housing, just like the step on the old 10spline axle did. On my AVM hubs the spacer washer has been replaced with a felt sealing washer. The O'ring that Four Wheel Drives shows is fitted to the outer groove of the drive member and seals inside the pressmetal cap that covers the castellated nut.
I hope I haven't just confused the issue further. Good luck with it.

What is wrong with free wheeling hubs - I have had them on all of my series landies and found them great - particularly for removing some vibration out of the drive train and arguably slightly better fuel consumption.

However like all systems you do know how to use then correctly - and in this aspect it has to do with maintaining the overall front drive system. This means not leaving them unlocked forever and forgetting about them until you need four wheel drive. There are aspects of the front axle system that do need a splash of oil from time to time and as such the hubs should be locked regularly and the vehicle driven for short distances - this will help keep a coveing of oil on components and stops others from gumming up.

There is no reason why not to have fwhs if you have them - I have never had a problem with the hubs themselves.

Garry

dave
just a suggestion have you tried the bearing suppliers, they can usually replace any sort of O ring.
I have had luck in the past with them on non standard ones.

john