Thread: Wheel bearings beware.......

It always pays to give the wheel bearings some additional attention, grease and TLC. Likewise, a defunct inner hub oil seal will allow for some oil flow from the axle/diff, improving lubrication. Hence no need to replace the seal, just make sure the little rubber caps are in place.

Thanks for that. I have been hearing noises from the back, like bearings running a little dry... could be my imagination... hold on, your story holds true.

So need to check these this weekend (if it doesnt rain!)

This is one reason why I pull the Front/Rear hubs off and take a look from time-time to ensure there is no water ingress and no major wear on the bearings. Pull the bearings off clean in Kero , repack with HTB and put it all back togther , I'm absoluetly anal about Jobs like this and this will ensure the extended life of bearings

just done my front wheel bearing.....lost of squeeling and then lots of clanging yes the wheel bearing had let go.

I had splits on my end caps though and had forgotten about them as I was waiting for some heavy duty drive flanges on back order. and I went though a lot of water on my last off road trip...well you can guess how the story ended. basically the water had taken all the grease out and it was bone dry in there.

still bearing changed....all surfaces with surface rust cleaned new bearings put in and I now have some heavy duty flanges like the maxi one I have on the rear to put on (which I got from another source)

Originally Posted by goldey

Howdy all

It's been a while since I've submitted a thread, but just wanted to relay on a warning about checking your wheel bearings on a regular basis.

I've just got my "beloved" Disco back from the mechanics with a considerably lighter wallet.

My rear drivers side wheel bearing had been making a bit of a grumble, so I jacked up the drivers side and found that I had a bit of wobble. So I yanked the axle and adjusted the locknuts to get the right tension and rotation, but lazily did not withdraw the hub and repack the bearings or look at their condition. This was two and a half weeks ago just before a weekend camp up top of Barrington Tops.

Fast forward to last Thursday, taking the kids to school and the rumble is back, but a bit louder, then all of a sudden the car jerks as if I had just put the brakes on, oops .

Pulled over and knew immediately what had happened. The bearings had let go and possibly even spun the race on the diff.....Nooooo.....

The friendly NRMA towie got me back home where I thought it would be a simple case of rip the hub off and replace the bearings and seal...sounds easy doesn't it........

4 hours later with my brother, we had finally got the spacer washer off to reveal the absolute destruction of the outer bearing (4 of the needle rollers fell out, what was left of them ). So, into it with the oxy to heat it up and see if we could move the hub. No way was it budging, the inner bearing must have been in a worse state .

Made the decision then to cart it down to my local LR mechanic. Anyway, they ended up having to oxy cut the hub and disc off the diff and I've ended up with a good second hand hub and disc with a fresh set of bearings and seal . Apparently they leant into the hub with their maxi size hydraulic puller with an even greater amount of heat than we had previously applied to no avail and had to take the destruction route.

Moral of the story is if you haven't checked or repacked your wheel bearings lately, don't leave them too long and think "she'll be right, I'll replace them when I hear some noise". It may be too late .

Guess what I'm doing this weekend to the other two I haven't looked at since I bought the car 2 years ago?

Cheers

Goldey

Why didnt they just cut the bearing out with the gas, pull the disk off and then remove the remaining bearing. I have cut very small bearings out with the gas and a welding tip by getting it hot and appling extra oxy via the control knob
cheers
blaze

Or if your lucky like me you would find that a previous owner (or his mechanic) had cut the bearing off with a grinder and cut the stub axle in the process but not replaced it. It'll probably appear in Daves' mechanics report from the CCCCC trip. We had this cut stub axle on one side and a slipped bearing on the other, but that wasn't the worst of it - the splines on outer axle (front diff), well they can't really be referrred to as splines anymore, what was left of them

Originally Posted by goldey

Howdy all

It's been a while since I've submitted a thread, but just wanted to relay on a warning about checking your wheel bearings on a regular basis.

I've just got my "beloved" Disco back from the mechanics with a considerably lighter wallet.

My rear drivers side wheel bearing had been making a bit of a grumble, so I jacked up the drivers side and found that I had a bit of wobble. So I yanked the axle and adjusted the locknuts to get the right tension and rotation, but lazily did not withdraw the hub and repack the bearings or look at their condition. This was two and a half weeks ago just before a weekend camp up top of Barrington Tops.

Fast forward to last Thursday, taking the kids to school and the rumble is back, but a bit louder, then all of a sudden the car jerks as if I had just put the brakes on, oops .

Pulled over and knew immediately what had happened. The bearings had let go and possibly even spun the race on the diff.....Nooooo.....

The friendly NRMA towie got me back home where I thought it would be a simple case of rip the hub off and replace the bearings and seal...sounds easy doesn't it........

4 hours later with my brother, we had finally got the spacer washer off to reveal the absolute destruction of the outer bearing (4 of the needle rollers fell out, what was left of them ). So, into it with the oxy to heat it up and see if we could move the hub. No way was it budging, the inner bearing must have been in a worse state .

Made the decision then to cart it down to my local LR mechanic. Anyway, they ended up having to oxy cut the hub and disc off the diff and I've ended up with a good second hand hub and disc with a fresh set of bearings and seal . Apparently they leant into the hub with their maxi size hydraulic puller with an even greater amount of heat than we had previously applied to no avail and had to take the destruction route.

Moral of the story is if you haven't checked or repacked your wheel bearings lately, don't leave them too long and think "she'll be right, I'll replace them when I hear some noise". It may be too late .

Guess what I'm doing this weekend to the other two I haven't looked at since I bought the car 2 years ago?

Cheers

Goldey

This just happened to me a few weeks ago. Heard a noise, so checked for play in the bearings, front pass loose, so I replaced it only to find that it was actually the back drivers side. It had no play, span incredibly smoothly, but as soon as you loaded it, i.e. going around a bend, the inner race moved and the hub hit the back plate of the stub axle. The wheel would actually seize up on the move, but when you lifted it up it felt perfect. Its scary to see where the hub and stub axle have friction welded together and broken again. Took the best part of an hour to get the inner bearing off with a hydraulic puller set. As luck would have it, the only damage was on the back of the hub and stub axle so not in the way of bearings, seals ect. so new set of bearing and away i went. That reminds me; perhaps I should do the other two before it happens again...

Have any of you D1 owners with greased bearings ever considered converting to oil fed?

It seems to save a lot of hassle in the long run, especially if you go through a bit of water.