Drive Flanges

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Originally Posted by Xtreme

Summiitt, were/are you running greased or oil lubed wheel bearings?

My guess is greased.

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They were oil lubed while these flanges were on, Ive just changed my 2012 130 to oil lubed as well. We do however, pull the flanges off every 20k and give them some grease and check for wear. Ive been caught out by not checking them and find that a dust cap has cracked or let water into the hub/bearing, which isn't ideal as our Utes are in heavy dust everyday as well as constant river/creek crossings.

East Freo, if your concerned, just order a new set of OEM flanges and put the old ones in your spares box, all my guys carry spare flanges in the toolbox just incase, though you can still get home with the diff locked without an issue

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Originally Posted by Red90

The flanges wear out. They don’t break so do not work as a fuse.

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And they often damage the axles when they do let go so not a good fuse

Buy real ones not cheap ones both axles and flanges

*The original drive flanges on the Defender TDCi (2007 on, puma) are poor quality/soft (as are the axles) and I've consistently seen them with wear and play within 10K.
*I can also believe the Terrafirma ones to be on the cheap cheap side too.
*The Ashcroft (brand name) ones both the axles and drive flanges are harder on the rockwell scale than the originals.
*I have always greased flanges and axle ends, I dont believe oil alone is enough.
*Search AULRO there is a big long winded thread on all this.

The HTE (brand name) I have not tested for hardness and only stopped using them as orders were either through Rovacraft at a ridiculous price or you had to send a fax to a cave somewhere, also I dont like the longer spline and there for deeper drive flange as they dont fit under the standard alloy wheels.

Maxi-Drive, wasnt this the original name then with a change of ownership (or manufacturer) it became HTE (hi-tough), now its back to Maxi-drive?
I got a thing in the mail (you know, old school letterbox thing) saying M R Automotive is the home of Maxi-Drive.

I was told the HTE guy previously worked for Mal so should be similar quality to MDE.

MR bought the MDE designs for the locker but not sure what else. They bought a heap of MDE stock when Mal closed up and retired.

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Originally Posted by rar110

I was told the HTE guy previously worked for Mal so should be similar quality to MDE.

MR bought the MDE designs for the locker but not sure what else. They bought a heap of MDE stock when Mal closed up and retired.

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I don't know Mal or Barry but a very good mate does.
After Mal retired Barry made all the HTE/Maxi Drive axles and flanges from the same materials and using the same heat treaters and machinery just as he did when he worked for Mal and Paula, as well as broaching and cutting the gears and doing the pre-load setup on the low range gearsets, etc.
Barry retired six months (or more?) ago and MR have taken all the Maxi production in house.