oil leak on outer front wheel

[Rovernaut]

Parked the Disco and noticed a drip of oil coming from the rubber cover on the front wheel hub nut. I touched the cover and now it leaks more noticably.
So I presume a seal has let go. There doesn't appear to be any oil leaking from the inner hub.
Is this an easy fix?
Help please

[DEFENDERZOOK]

<span style="color:green">does it smell like diff oil....?</span>

[barney]

just get yourself another rubber cover, that is the seal. in the older defenders, with the oil-filled hubs, these are the only seal required.
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.

[Rovernaut]

Didn't have time to check it fully, but it's thinner than diff oil, more like swivel housing oil. But that was when it was hot.
I dont think my diff breather is blocked forcing diff oil out

[barney]

swivel housing oil is diff oil. the oil will dribble out whether your breather is blocked or not. been there-done that
a lot of guys remove the inner axle seal that effectively separates the oil in the diff from the grease in the swivel housing. this will oil feed the swivel and bearings. it is very rare that oil fed bearings in landys will die, they tend to go on forever where-as greased ones often dry up and chew out.

[Rovernaut]

Originally posted by barney
just get yourself another rubber cover, that is the seal. in the older defenders, with the oil-filled hubs, these are the only seal required.
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.
Is it that simple, replace the cover.
I thought that the diffs had their own oil supply, the swivels had their own oil supply, seperated by oil seals and the wheel bearing were greased.
If the cover is infact an oil seal then in heavy offroading the rubber caps could get damaged.

[walker]

Just put in thicker oil. :wink: Works for me. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif

[JDNSW]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"Rovernaut\")</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"barney\")</div><div class='quotemain'>just get yourself another rubber cover, that is the seal. in the older defenders, with the oil-filled hubs, these are the only seal required.
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.[/b][/quote]
Is it that simple, replace the cover.
I thought that the diffs had their own oil supply, the swivels had their own oil supply, seperated by oil seals and the wheel bearing were greased.
If the cover is infact an oil seal then in heavy offroading the rubber caps could get damaged.[/b][/quote]

It is that simple - about 30 seconds work. Never damaged one, but they don't last very long.

Early 90/110 & Defenders have a seal between the diff oil and swivel (which often does not seal and doesn't matter much) but the bearings share the same oil as the swivel, although they are greased on initial assembly, so they run in oil, and last virtually forever, unlike the later ones that rely only on grease. But the later ones don't leak!

[JDNSW]

Originally posted by barney
(snip)
they do perish after about 10 yrs and need replacing, one of mine is ready to go soon.
they are pretty cheap.

How do you get yours to last that long? Mine only seem to last three or four.

Oh! Just checked - you live on the coast, less sunlight.

[barney]

probably more moisture in the air.
the only problem with oil fed bearings is that not only do you need to keep the outer hub seal in good condition, but you have to keep the swivel seal in good condition also.
these will start leaking if you look at them the wrong way. changing them can be easy or hard, depending which way you do it.
one way is to attack it from the outside. wheel, bearings, hub, rotor, stub axle, c.v. joint and finally swivel. the other way is to go at it from where the swivel housing bolts on to the axle housing via 6 torx head bolts. your whole axle will come out of the diff housing this way, but it's a lot quicker and easier. i did one of mine in macdonnel ranges caravan park in alice springs in about an hour and a half.
these usually go in 5 yr intervals. depends what sort of 4wding you do i guess.

[JDNSW]

Originally posted by barney
probably more moisture in the air.
(snip)

Probably less UV, I think.
On that subject, Some years ago I had to replace the lenses on the blinker repeaters because they had faded and cracked. The replacements I got came off an Austin 1800 that had been derelict and sitting in the sun for thirty years or more. They were unfaded and uncracked. It seems that the durability of the plastic used in some (Lucas) parts decreased between the 1960s and the 1980s.

[barney]

i had to do the same thing with my blinker lenses. the top faded to white.
if you take them off and turn them upside down, you get a few more years out of them.
but if you really want to replace them, they are less than $10 each depending where and how you get them.

[JDNSW]

Yes, but they don't last any better than the originals - unlike the ones forty years old!