Thread: Oil lubed front wheel bearings

thats about right...

oil was in the perenties to start with but was phased out with the defenders roll onto the production line (more or less)

when doing the conversion I pull every seal out of the system, replace the ones in the diff housing and freshen up everything, most often the swivel ball seal will want replacing and if theres any sign of damage to the stub axles seal face I'll replace or speedy sleeve the stub axle.

Pack the wheel bearings in light duty grease for initial lubrication ( you can use a heavy duty one but I find I get a few calls when the grease migrates to the swiv housing and contaminates the oil) and fill the rubber cap with high density rubber grease or turntable grease to seal that up. Better than that is replacing the drive flanges with maxidrive flanges and then using an O ring or a smear of loctite 567 on the cover nut.

Dave, have you noticed as I have on occasion, that whilst the rear drive flanges on grease lubed Defenders dry out and frett away the splines, the front ones in many instances seem to stay wet and generally in better condition?
I put it down to either a slight conflict in the pivot geometry between the swivel housing and cv joint causing the inner stub axle seal to distort during steering, thus allowing a bit of oil from the swivel housing to migrate into the hub. Or possibly it's a build up of pressure in the unvented swivels forcing oil past the seals.
Wagoo.

Bill, I've often pondered the same thing.

I've been running oil lubed hubs on the rear for about eight or nine years yet never got around to the front because;

a) I'm lazy
b) the splines and drive flanges are still OK ?

(but I still use the good seals )

I'd go with the unvented swivels blowing oil into the hubs (as it does to my diff) except I've never found discoloured grease in the front bearings ?

It's still the same bright red grease it was when I packed them and lubed the splines at the same time.

My 85 rangie had oil lubed front wheel bearings. Still does but it's got later axles under it now.

Hi Dave and Dougal,

How was the oil lube achieved in the early Perenties and the 85 RR.
Did they just not have the seal between the swivel and the hub?

I'm sure my 85 County had the same grease lubed wheel bearings that the 95 Defender has. IE: seals between the hub and swivel and between the swivel and axle housing.

FWIW I have one swivel leaking into the hub and out past the hub seal straight onto the disk

Tony

Just no stub seal in the RRC, can't even see a place to put one. So the oil was free to migrate between stub and swivel.

Originally Posted by TonyC

Hi Dave and Dougal,

How was the oil lube achieved in the early Perenties and the 85 RR.
Did they just not have the seal between the swivel and the hub?

I'm sure my 85 County had the same grease lubed wheel bearings that the 95 Defender has. IE: seals between the hub and swivel and between the swivel and axle housing.

FWIW I have one swivel leaking into the hub and out past the hub seal straight onto the disk

Tony

G/Day Tony , I have the same trouble with the oil comming from the swivel into the Hub and then it pushes out on to the Disk on my 96 Deefer One side only, have replaced the inner axle seal or actually all seals i can find to no avail, Might just drain both swivels and use that grease designed for swivel hubs, not sure if its any good,might not leak as fast?

Cheers Sumo

Originally Posted by sumo

G/Day Tony , I have the same trouble with the oil comming from the swivel into the Hub and then it pushes out on to the Disk on my 96 Deefer One side only, have replaced the inner axle seal or actually all seals i can find to no avail, Might just drain both swivels and use that grease designed for swivel hubs, not sure if its any good,might not leak as fast?

Cheers Sumo

Oil is good stuff. But not necessarily on discs and brake pads.You should just replace the std grease seal with a proper double lipped, double spring oil seal as used on earlier oil lubed Counties and Rangerovers.
Wagoo.