Thread: Selectro Heavy Duty Frewheeling Hubs

Not familiar with that particular hub, but it is almost certainly just a seal problem - and may in fact be a blocked breather finding the easiest way out. Some of the free wheeling hubs are not very well sealed at the best of times - I don't think any were designed specifically for Landrovers, so the original design would have envisaged grease lubricated bearings, not oil!

John

I had the same problem with my landy when i replaced the free wheeling hubs, i don't think many of them are able to hold back the oil too well. I ended up putting a film of silicone sealant around the surface that the o-ring mated against. has made it pretty tight to turn the selector, but it has definatly stoped the oil leaks

had Selectro's on my CJ over twenty years ago and from memory (very rusty ) they only used an O ring to seal.

G'day DiscoDave

To undo frozen wheel nuts, put a 2 foot piece of water pipe over the wheel spanner and then try, also on the top of the axle housing is the axle breather, it is not like the later coil sprung vehicles, but has a little ball bearing in it, it often gets blocked, and is easily cleaned by washing in petrol,(it unscrews out of the axlecase) then shake it until you hear the ball bearing rattle, you can also poke up it with a piece of wire to unblock it,
if the breather is blocked, it will make the oil under pressure leak out of the axle ends.

cheers

Wheel nuts: Lots of WD40 or Inox and let it take time...

UncleHo is right about a lever, the handle of a hilift jack is a very handy device for this purpose.

If that is too much, go to a local tyre place and get them to use a rattle gun.

When the nuts are loose, but not off the thread, drive back and forward to get the rims (wheels?) to break off their bind.

Had a little experience the fwhubs, they're actually very simple things, if leaking, maybe too much lubricant in there?

GQ

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone:

UncleHo - I removed and cleaned the axle breather though didn't see a ball bearing. It has some sort of brass tube around the outside which is free to move up and down by about 5mm, I couldn't really work out how it worked.

Wheel nuts - sprayed nuts with penetrating oil. Attempted removal with Disco wheelbrace fitted with 2metre pipe for extra leverage. Result - twisted Disco wheelbrace. Attempted removal with 1.25 inch socket on a 600mm breaker bar. Jumping up and down on the bar was able to free the rear wheel nuts. Tried the problem front wheel nuts. Result - shattered socket. A trip to the tyre shop might be next.




I examined the Selectro hub and figured out the cap was removed by undoing the three cross-head screws nearest the rim. The cap contains the locking collar and retraction mechanism. Inside is a castellated nut retained with a split pin. Except it's not a hex nut, it's round which makes it difficult to undo. the Series III workshop manual mentions this in relation to freewheeling hubs and says there is a LR special tool to undo them. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I could see there was a groove for an O-ring like Rick130 said but there was no sign of the O-ring. I've temporarily sealed the hub with silicone like Paulthepilot suggested and will see how it goes.
With the wheel in the air it was very stiff to rotate (with or without connection to the axles) but not being able to remove the wheel I couldn't investigate further. Could it be the brakes binding? Or the wheel bearings?
Are the (front) wheel bearings greased or oiled in the Series III?

Those old selectros are not the strongest, they have a habit of cracking the casing if used offroad a lot. I pulled mine off and fitted drive flanges - didn't notice a difference in fuel consumption.

Most likely the brakes making the wheel hard to turn.

Wheel bearings should be oiled IRC.

try borrowing a 3/4" or 1" drive breaker bar to remove the wheel nuts.

A pair of multigrips is how I tighten the castelated nut on mine.

The wheel bearings are greasted on instillation, but I can't remember if oil feeds into them or not.