Thread: Help needed - replacing Defender wheel bearings

Originally Posted by PAT303

Christ you blokes make it complicated.Just pre-pack with grease and set up as per Land Rovers procedure. Pat

Not often...but agree with you with you on this one Pat

My previous 110 did 250 000 plus while I had it on and didn't replace a wheel bearing....fully greased and adjusted correctly they should never wear out. I did remove the rear axle seals as I fitted maxidrive axle.

Hi pat & weeds,

250 k and never been apart to change the grease? thats exceptionally good going.

Grease didn't work for me because i got water in the hubs and the bearing rollers rusted a little track across the cup when the car wasn't used for a week or two.

when i drove off the bearing would sound like a siren, every roller had a little flat spot of rust as well. If I think there's water in the hub, I can drain a little oil off the bottom to check and then top up. Can change the oil in 15 minutes, without even removing the wheel. It used to take ages to remove the hubs and wash them out and change the grease if it was a bit milky. but each to his own it works for me and the bearings and seal seem to last very well, for such a simple DYI mod' It seems good value. If your removing the drive flange to adjust the bearings, it only takes 30 mins to drill & tap a hole in it. I do carry grease with my spare bearings just in case.

My friend recommended I change to oil bath, he was a truck & trailer axle service guy in the pilbara, he said all the truck & trailer axles in their fleet were oil filled, so both ways have their merits.

cheers
simmo

I may be misinterpreting it, but I think Pat was saying to pack with grease even if you are running oil filled, as specified in the Landrover instructions for those hubs that were oil filled from the factory, not suggesting that you don't run oil filled hubs.

Landrover used oil to lubricate wheel bearings (except for the semifloating rear axles in most Series 1) from 1948 to about 1995, and changed from an initial oil fill to initial grease packing in 1963, so they specified this procedure for over thirty years, superseding the earlier initial oil fill procedure.

While later Defenders specified grease lubrication, at no time did they revert to the earlier instructions to initially fill with oil, and if you are reverting to the older oil filled hubs (which I support), why revert back to a procedure that was superseded thirty years earlier? After a few hundred kilometres, the grease will have thoroughly mixed with the oil.

Originally Posted by simmo

Hi pat & weeds,

250 k and never been apart to change the grease? thats exceptionally good going.

Grease didn't work for me because i got water in the hubs and the bearing rollers rusted a little track across the cup when the car wasn't used for a week or two.

when i drove off the bearing would sound like a siren, every roller had a little flat spot of rust as well. If I think there's water in the hub, I can drain a little oil off the bottom to check and then top up. Can change the oil in 15 minutes, without even removing the wheel. It used to take ages to remove the hubs and wash them out and change the grease if it was a bit milky. but each to his own it works for me and the bearings and seal seem to last very well, for such a simple DYI mod' It seems good value. If your removing the drive flange to adjust the bearings, it only takes 30 mins to drill & tap a hole in it. I do carry grease with my spare bearings just in case.

My friend recommended I change to oil bath, he was a truck & trailer axle service guy in the pilbara, he said all the truck & trailer axles in their fleet were oil filled, so both ways have their merits.

cheers
simmo

Opps, still pull the bearings every 12-18 months to inspect and re-grease.

I suspect the bearing s were original at 400k

My oil lubricated 110 bearings have done 620,000km over 31 years and are original. My oil lubricated 2a bearings are original since I have owned it (23 years) and quite possibly factory originals - 47 years old. In fact, thinking about it, in nearly sixty years of driving Landrovers, the only wheel bearing I have ever replaced was a grease lubricated one on the semifloating rear axle of my Series 1 in 1963(?).

I have not seen the need for regular inspections - they get looked at every few years since the hub seals do not last as long as the bearings - replacing them is a semi-regular job.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I may be misinterpreting it, but I think Pat was saying to pack with grease even if you are running oil filled, as specified in the Landrover instructions for those hubs that were oil filled from the factory, not suggesting that you don't run oil filled hubs.

Landrover used oil to lubricate wheel bearings (except for the semifloating rear axles in most Series 1) from 1948 to about 1995, and changed from an initial oil fill to initial grease packing in 1963, so they specified this procedure for over thirty years, superseding the earlier initial oil fill procedure.

While later Defenders specified grease lubrication, at no time did they revert to the earlier instructions to initially fill with oil, and if you are reverting to the older oil filled hubs (which I support), why revert back to a procedure that was superseded thirty years earlier? After a few hundred kilometres, the grease will have thoroughly mixed with the oil.

Hi John..I'm thinking Pat meant just grease, could be wrong.

Either way I have only ever greased

When I pulled the axle seals out of the rear oil only got to one side I.e. Didn't make it out to the drive flange on one side

Originally Posted by weeds

Hi John..I'm thinking Pat meant just grease, could be wrong.

Either way I have only ever greased

When I pulled the axle seals out of the rear oil only got to one side I.e. Didn't make it out to the drive flange on one side

Did you overfill it?

I have only ever run oil filled, its just so much easier than having to strip it down to repack bearings.
Fill and forget.
Plus a lower failure rate from what people have said.

Originally Posted by Vern

Did you overfill it?

I have only ever run oil filled, its just so much easier than having to strip it down to repack bearings.
Fill and forget.
Plus a lower failure rate from what people have said.

Yep over filled it...parked in spoon drains on the drive to birdsville while having smoko

I wouldn't know he failure rate between the two....other than I have never had a failure.

Fill and forget?? Would the in the hub stay as clean as the diff?

Either way this thread is a failure of an oil feed hub

Each to their own, I didn't mind pulling my previous defender down to inspect the bearings.