Swivel hub seals

[Christian Nevett]

Hi all. Have a 96 C130 and went to get a swivel /ball joint seal kit from British off road in the Sunshine Coast the other day and was asked if they were oil fed or grease packed? This is the first defender I’ve owned and have no idea which it is. The bloke said I’d have to pull it apart to see. My question is, is there any way to tell without disassembling? Cheers

[W&KO]

CV, if it flows freely it’s oil and oooz’s out than it’ll be one shot grease.

Hubs, you’ll have to remove the hub….

I think I have it right, hopefully an eggspert will pop in and confirm

[gromit]

Hi all. Have a 96 C130 and went to get a swivel /ball joint seal kit from British off road in the Sunshine Coast the other day and was asked if they were oil fed or grease packed? This is the first defender I’ve owned and have no idea which it is. The bloke said I’d have to pull it apart to see. My question is, is there any way to tell without disassembling? Cheers

As standard they were oil filled but often they get filled with a semi liquid grease.
It was a LR fix instead of replacing the seals but has become a common solution.

Undo the drain plug and see what comes out.....
Mind you, I'm not sure how it makes a difference to the seal kit unless one is supplied with a sachet of semi-liquid grease. Maybe ask what the difference is.

Colin

[TonyC]

I believe the later ones that had one shot grease from the factory, don't have drain plugs.
I don't know how you change it, maybe it's "seald for life"

Tony

[V8Ian]

As standard they were oil filled but often they get filled with a semi liquid grease.
It was a LR fix instead of replacing the seals but has become a common solution.

Undo the drain plug and see what comes out.....
Mind you, I'm not sure how it makes a difference to the seal kit unless one is supplied with a sachet of semi-liquid grease. Maybe ask what the difference is.

Colin

Grease and oil seals are not interchangeable, at least not in heavy vehicle applications.

[gromit]

I believe the later ones that had one shot grease from the factory, don't have drain plugs.
I don't know how you change it, maybe it's "seald for life"

My '95 had one shot installed/added by a dealer at some point, there are underbonnet stickers with a part number highlighting the change. I've only ever topped up with EP90 (the swivels don't leak). Not sure if/when they went semi-liquid grease with no drain plug.

Grease and oil seals are not interchangeable, at least not in heavy vehicle applications.

I'm sure oil seals can be used for grease but maybe grease seals can't be used for oil.
Grease seals don't always use a garter spring. The SKF site uses the term "seals for less demanding grease lubricated applications"

Interested to hear if different kits are offered and if so what's different (apart from a sachet of semi-liquid grease).

Colin

[Old Farang]

The main difference between grease and oil seals is that grease seals are more designed to be used where the sealing surface is stationary, rather than oil seals where at least part of the assembly is rotating.

As a swivel housing is stationary, the area of a seal in contact with that surface only needs a grease type seal. However, as originally the housing used oil, then there is also probably a second part of the seal designed to seal internally, albeit only against low splash pressure.

TBH I cannot recall just what type of construction the original seals had, but as the supplier has asked, it maybe that when Land Rover started using the one-shot grease lubrication, they changed the construction of the seals to a grease only type.

[gromit]

TBH I cannot recall just what type of construction the original seals had, but as the supplier has asked, it maybe that when Land Rover started using the one-shot grease lubrication, they changed the construction of the seals to a grease only type.

The originals are a double lip seal.
Inner with garter spring to keep the oil in and an outer without garter spring to try & keep the water & dirt out.
I'd be surprised if they changed the seal but knowing the cost saving measures that get introduced like removing drain plugs, maybe they did get lower cost seals.

Colin

[JDNSW]

When did they change from chromed to teflon coating of the ball, and did this correspond to a change in the seal and from oil to semi-liquid grease?

[ninchi]

When did they change

This guy says about 1999.

Mine's a 2001 and has un-pitted shiny swivels, so either I've been very lucky or there's a stainless option available as well.