Thread: Fitting upgraded Axles, CVs and converting to oil lubed hubs

Originally Posted by rick130

My front rubber caps aren't leaking (yet) with just a smear of grease around the cap lip, but the caps are pretty new too.

I had a terrible time with them before I tried the zip-tie. Lots of silicon and on about the 3rd clean and re-seal they'd stop leaking.

Like Dougal said I'll be using the upgraded drive flanges with the bolt on end cap so shouldn't have any issues with regard to leaking there. Having got a bit burnt with a some 'HD drive flanges', sold locally to me as Ashcroft, but when mine turned up from the UK bore no resemblance to the real deal - in both materials and engineering , I have to get a couple more. Luckily enough I'll be in the UK soon so might go and pick them up myself.

Thanks for the zip tie suggestions though but god knows there are enough cable ties on the vehicle as it is without having one per wheel to boot!

So, at the moment, I'm thinking that I'm gonna keep things simple and run it all as one compartment. That is, up the front remove the seal between the swivel and the diff housing, upgrade the outer seal to RTC3511 and bastardise, sorry, modify the inner seal to allow the oil through. And similar at the back too. It's not the most elegant solution - I'd rather have drains in the swivels but alas.

Sitec, regarding the spacer on the front half shafts. Thanks for the info. it had slipped my mind that my shafts will be wider and that I can't re-use the old one. But... I'm wondering what the spacer actually does? Is it nesesary? There is no mention of this on the Ashcroft website despite the mention of larger (swivel to diff) oil seals being required to prevent oil transfere. If the spacer is required I'm not sure if a replacement stock (23 spline) spacer will actually fit the Ashcroft shaft diameter or be of the correct dimentions (although I'm pretty sure it should be of the right length as the CV's are of identical size acording to the website). Anyone any thoughts or experience of this? Drover what did you do here?

RE: Drilling the stub axle - yes that sounds like a reasonable idea but is it nesesary? I'd appreciate anyone elses opinion as I have one for and one against this.

If I do drill them... Sitec, what constetutes a 'small' hole in your book? And to save time measuring up and working it all out when the stuff is in peices, does anyone know if the diagrams in the workshop manual are to scale? (I know thats easily worked out, I'm being really lazy there so don't answer that last question).

By the time I get to doing this I will probably have rehearsed every operation in my mind a thousand times. Still, if I can borrow someone elses experience (and their happy to lend it) then I'm very appreciative.

Anything else anyone would like to add then feel free - all advise and opinions gladlt received.

Thanks again for all the responses,

Ian.

I would keep the diff as a seperate compartment as any water from water crossings will most likely be thru the swivel housings

Hey Ian,

The more I read the more I doubt my own install, but it was 3 years ago, once across the Simpson and trip to the cape without any problem I think I'm safe....

By no problems I mean, no water in either diff ever (after the Cape happy to say no water is ever getting in ) original wheel bearings all round without any further adjustment and nil oil leaks.

Back to the subject, I followed the advice from Englich Auto Servicing. So I removed all the factory seal.

The only ones to go back in were the seals that fit in behind the dsk rotors and run against the stub axels.

The diff oil is free to move from one end to the other, only stopped by the Ashcroft HD flanges with the screw on caps and those newly replaced oil seals.

Hope that helps.

Grant

Agreed here too.. Keep the diff separate. Re the spacer, I had some old Range Rover front shafts here.... and the spacer fitted fine. When looking up the snap rings I checked the compatibility. All the same! Have more here if you r stuck! Yes, the spacer is needed, as it holds the shaft in the right place within the CV IMO. Without it, there is nothing to stop the shaft sliding 10mm further into the diff or CV (floating). Some say this is not a prob, others say if its there its needed (kinda like the 5 nuts that hold each wheel on.. 3 will do but 5 are needed!!). Re the hole in the stub axle, I drilled mine at 3mm. You wont need to do any measuring, as the bearings leave two marks where they run. just go in the middle of that, and make sure its at the bottom when fitted. It was suggested to me on here.. I like the idea and ran with it.

Originally Posted by mools

RE: Drilling the stub axle - yes that sounds like a reasonable idea but is it nesesary? I'd appreciate anyone elses opinion as I have one for and one against this.


Ian.

I never bothered, the idea of introducing a stress raiser there freaks me out and I've never lunched a wheel bearing as a consequence of not having a drilling in 230,000km/ten years.

Never had water in an axle/diff in that time either and for six years I drove through a river at least twice a day just to get in and out of home, let alone multiple creek crossings and one memorable flooded river crossing where a fully loaded 130 was taken two/three car widths sideways downstream just trying to get into and then out of a job

I realise all it takes is a broken/split breather tube so maybe I've been lucky, but the RTC3511 hub seals are good, as are the pinion seals and the old rule of thumb was if you came upon a deep river crossing and your compartments were warm/hot, just take fifteen minutes to boil the billy before crossing

With regards to draining the swivel housing.
Not sure yours is the same as my 1995, but I can undo one of the lower swivel bearing retaining pin bolts to drop the oil.

I also run extra oil.
Maybe close to 2 litres extra.
I fill via the diff breather hole, then use a plastic straw as a dipstick until there is 12-15mm coverage on the axle tube.
I've replace the breather fitting with a "push in to connect air fitting" for easy access.

My diff runs as 1 compartment.
The + side to this is swivels are now vented to atmosphere via the diff breather.

There in lies the problem putting a 130 in a river .What are you trying to do
Dam it I used to run a air horn compressor bolted io the rollbar and piped to
diffs- GB-TC and distributor worked extremely well No induced stressraisers in my stub axles

AM