Thread: Wheel Bearings

If you use double lip seals designed for oil lube then you shouldn't get water into your front swivels and hubs. To check remove drain plug in the bottom of the swivel hub and see what comes out. Grease with water will usually be a light brown/caramel colour or some water may come out, I have oil lubed front hubs with double lipped seals and haven't had any water problems for years now, not sure but I thing seal part # is RTC3511, If I'm wrong someone will surely correct me, though most LR parts sellers know what you mean if you ask for double lip oil seals, Regards Frank.

RTC3511 is correct. I agree, the seals, particularly RTC3511 should generally be OK to keep water out.

On the front there is always the possibility of water getting through the dust cap. Are the dust caps in good order, or old and cracked?

Not hard to check. You could just remove dust caps for a start, but to take a closer look, you need to remove the circlip and undo the (5?) bolts on the drive flange. Pull the drive flange off and you should have a pretty good idea if there is any significant amount of water in there. If you want to repack the bearings you need a hub nut spanner (52mm). Simple procedure to follow in the workshop manual.

RTC3511 is the hub seal but the double lip seal required is for the swivel housing.

Hi all,
I rebuilt my front and rear axle assys. a while back after a small (read bloody deep) creek crossing destroyed my wheel bearings.
This was done using new parts from paddocks in UK.
My issue is ever since I can't get the front wheel bearings to stay adjusted. IE I get pad knock and low brake pedal.

Pull apart, adjust to remove slack in bearing, put back together and drive and the wheel bearings seem to work loose .

This is driving me insane. At the time of installation I noticed that the new stub axles weren't machined to spec and had them machined locally so I could assemble the wheels. I am assuming that something is still not in spec to cause the above issue.

I think I will just have to buy another set of stubs and see if that fixes the problem. Can anyone advise a reputable source for stub axles that are going to work? anyone know the correct part # for a 97 disco?

I also dont understand the pre and post VIN thing for parts ie (up to VIN: JA032850).

My VIN is SALLJGMF7VA743383 is it the last 8 alphanumeric items that determine this?

Any advice appreciated.

usually cause by 3 things.

1. stretched threads on the stub or the nuts
2. bearing shells not seated properly
3. not doingthe lock tab and preload thing properly..

you can occasionally get it if the stubs not machined correctly and the nut is bottoming out on the thread OR if theres a step been cut by a spun bearing.

a strip down and inspection of the stub is the only way to pick the last one.