Thread: Puma Drive Flanges

Originally Posted by PAT303

I changed back to grease lubed hubs because the iron ore dust caused constant leaks.Both my vehicles get a blob of grease under the caps every now and again and both are slack free. Pat

I'm with Pat (again), on this one.

The later model defender owners could follow the lead of the Tdi guys and lubricate the splines. There's dozens of posts on the subject of axles and drive flanges.

My understanding from the forum comments is the dealers aren't paying attention, my advice is accept that and manage the problem yourself.

My car was 5 years old and had a 100,000 ks on it when i bought it. I did the usual checks you do when you buy a second hand car, check the wheel bearings, checking the drive flanges was incidental since i needed to take them off.
Yes they were a bit dry and shiny, I cleaned them with a toothbrush and put them back on with molybdenum disulphide grease, and put a level teaspoon of grease in the rubber hubcap.

I put grease in the rubber hubcaps every 5-6000 kms, it takes me 15 minutes. the problem is managed. Why bother chasing LR and the dealers etc when you can own the problem for a small outlay in time & materials. It probably takes longer than that to phone through to the workshop and make a complaint.

The front drive shafts on my car are OEM at 230,000 kms are like new. I also have excellent condition set of rear axles and flanges that have done 130,000 kms in my spares. ( removed for fitting maxidrive locker )

Agreed if the axle /flange metal characteristics have changed and the more modern ones are softer , we can only solve that problem by replacement with higher quality parts.

But so many times I have read here about the dry, rusty, flogged out LR OEM splines etc, being no good.

No matter what material the axle and drive flange is made from, if a drive spline is not kept clean and lubricated its service life will be greatly diminished.

Is there anyone out there who religiously lubricated the axles and drive flanges with molybdenum disulphide grease, and cleaned the each time them they did a bearing service who's had a drive flange or axle failure ?

cheers simmo

As previously noted somewhere...
*Front axles drive flanges arent subject to the same rotation load as rear.
*The hardness of both axles and drive flanges is way down on the previous model Defender TD5.
*Regardless of lubing the splines or not, you can have a 30 year old Defender (110 County) with very little wear on the splines.
*Yes lubing with oil or grease will prevent the fretted material coming into contact with oxygen thus no oxides are formed.
*Ashcroft axles/drive flanges are better quality and have a screw on cap making lubing with grease far easier.

It’s a funny thing I’ve just cracked 50K Km’s in my 2013 Puma 110 and done some decent 4wding(Cape York,Border ranges,Fraser,Tasmania,Morton Isl etc) fully loaded(family of 5 plus all camping gear,fridge,wooden drawer system,roofrack spare fuel etc). Removed front flanges and no discernible wear. I’ve bought Hi-Tuff flanges to replace but seeing no wear re-greased and put old one back on.
Rear axles were replaced at the same time rear diff was replaced (under warranty).
QC at L.R seems a very hit and miss thing,......

Thought I'd try something different on my Electric Landy , With the strong regen braking I had an idea the rear drive flange splines might cop a flogging.

I'm using Ashcroft HD 24 spline axles & Ashcroft supplied Drive flanges , the flanges just look like regular Series Flanges as the Maxi Style ones don't suit Series.

When I assembled the Axles I generously coated the splines with Loctite 660 retaining compound . Effectively glueing the axle to the drive flange , Like a RRC / D1 / 90 axle . ( The hubs are also oil filled obviously so if the retaining compound comes unstuck they are still lubed. )

Very early days yet but they are still effectively one piece axles . No perceptible backlash , & with the Truetrac the only slop in the whole assembly is the bees dick of crown wheel & pinion lash.

Originally Posted by Rolly

It’s a funny thing I’ve just cracked 50K Km’s in my 2013 Puma 110 and done some decent 4wding(Cape York,Border ranges,Fraser,Tasmania,Morton Isl etc) fully loaded(family of 5 plus all camping gear,fridge,wooden drawer system,roofrack spare fuel etc). Removed front flanges and no discernible wear. I’ve bought Hi-Tuff flanges to replace but seeing no wear re-greased and put old one back on.
Rear axles were replaced at the same time rear diff was replaced (under warranty).
QC at L.R seems a very hit and miss thing,......

Fronts don't flog out, rears just disappear.....

So with the one piece rear axle, do these also wear out an unacceptable rate and if so how do I (what should I be) checking for?

Cheers

Originally Posted by rick130

Fronts don't flog out, rears just disappear.....

Its funny last week I was working on a 300TDI 110 that had done over 600k
The front Maxidrive style flanges were completely stuffed with almost nothing left in the spline area
They had only been in 5 years without lube