Swivel hub breathers - any one done it?

**windsock** · 6th June 2009, 07:55 AM

Hi all,

I do a lot of river work and am constantly having water ingress into my swivel hubs. I don't have oil leaks and all the gaskets appear in good condition. Some points of note:

This is an early model 110 running standard diff gear as best I can tell. I run diff breathers up through to the firewall and into the dash/console area inside the cab.
Swivel hub chrome surface is free of pitting, worn lines or any other obvious 'leaks' causing issues.
Hub oil seals are good and do not leak oil under normal hot or cold running conditions. I run 90EP oil.
All swivel pin gaskets appear sound and likewise do not appear to leak oil anywhere.
Oil levels between each hub and the diff remain as I fill them so the seal between each is sound I am assuming.
Wheel bearings are oil washed set up and this constant water contamination is therefore additionally concerning, however, everytime I have checked the wheel bearings the water has not contaminated this end yet as I catch the crap oil before it gets to the bearings (yes, I change the oil often - too often by necessity!). I am thinking of going back to greaseable wheel bearings. But I will still be left with water getting into the hubs.

I am thinking that the water is being drawn into the hubs via the large hub seals due to the pressure difference induced by the temperature change as I cross the rivers. I was wondering if anyone had put breathers on their swivel hubs either separately up through to the firewall, or connected to the diff in some way?

I am thinking about two options: connecting the swivel hub to the axle housing at the rear and well above the oil-line of each using a reinforced brake tube of suitable length to allow free movement.

I would propose to drill and tap into the housing of each and screw in a suitable fitting etc. This would I hope equalise the pressure of each hub to diff/axle housing pressure and would I hope lead to less water ingress due to the existing hypothetical pressure issues.

Second idea would be to just drill and tap into the hub assembly as shown above and while leaving a 'loop' of hose to allow swivel movement, run a breather from there and 'tee' into the existing diff breather.

Anyone else have any ideas? I would definatly prefer to keep all oil seals in place to keep each oil resevoir (left bearings/left hub/diff/right hub/right bearings) intact incase of contaimination etc and the cost of oil.

Cheers,

Phil

mike 90 RR · 6th June 2009, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by windsock

Hi all,

Phil ... You don't mind doing it the hard way

Top of the swivel hub, is the Bung plug, for filling up the oil into the swivel hub.
Remove it and drill a hole through the center ... Install a copper tube nipple into this hole .... The bung now has a breather tube extension
Then install a flexible hose to the copper tube and worm it high up into the motor bay

Mike

**350RRC** · 6th June 2009, 10:55 AM

Hi,

Pretty sure an auto accessories place will have brass plugs with the correct (tapered?) thread and an integral barbed breather tube............ even easier.

cheers, DL

**windsock** · 6th June 2009, 12:09 PM

Thanks guys, yes, I musta been still in sleep-in mode when I figured all that out. Cheers, yes, making a hole in the bung or getting a new tapered bung would solve a couple of problems. Thread is getting tatty on the existing ones so replacing them with new ones with breather holes would be good.

Only one issue I see with doing that though (and I am sure I could mitigate) is that the breather would be exposed to damage from driving through scrub and other tight driving conditions. I know in the diagram I have the tube on the front but thats the only diagram I could lift out of the manual to show the concept.

Maybe a solid pipe like brake tubing and put a fitting on there to undo it from the bung when I replace the oils etc?

Cheers,

Phil

**jackz** · 6th June 2009, 12:52 PM

I have used this set-up for 10 years on this vehicle with no problems.
They are standard, qiuck release, pneumatic fittings and I have not damaged one yet. DSC00324.jpg

**discowhite** · 6th June 2009, 05:06 PM

why dont you kill 2 birds with 1 stone?
take the axle seal out and run oil filled wheel bearings that way the diff breather does the lot??

cheers (the original)phil

**windsock** · 6th June 2009, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by discowhite

why dont you kill 2 birds with 1 stone?
take the axle seal out and run oil filled wheel bearings that way the diff breather does the lot??

cheers (the original)phil

G'day Phil,

If I did that I would be worried about a small oil/water contamination problem becoming a big problem. As sure as eggs, water is still going to be a problem from time to time and I am looking at minimising the chances by breathers, and miinimising the impact by retaining all the seals. By keeping all seals in their specified place and working well, any water ingress is confined to a small volume of oil.

Cheers,

Phil (kiwi representative of the label)

**Blknight.aus** · 6th June 2009, 06:49 PM

Im backing disco white, drop out the seal at each end of the housing then fit a low pressure feed to the diff housing (do them all)

I use one of those air matress pumps that draws air from somewhere safe and then bung the hoses into the outlet of the pump. gives about 1psi

**discowhite** · 7th June 2009, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by windsock

G'day Phil,

If I did that I would be worried about a small oil/water contamination problem becoming a big problem. As sure as eggs, water is still going to be a problem from time to time and I am looking at minimising the chances by breathers, and miinimising the impact by retaining all the seals. By keeping all seals in their specified place and working well, any water ingress is confined to a small volume of oil.

Cheers,

Phil (kiwi representative of the label)

it wont be a problem if all the other seals and gaskets are up to scratch. ive had 3 landies to date and all have been converted to oil fed bearings, as i described, none of them have ever had water contamination.
the easiest place in the front to let water in is the rubber end cap, i just run a bit of sillicon around the inside b4 i put it back on.

cheers phil

**Dougal** · 7th June 2009, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

Im backing disco white, drop out the seal at each end of the housing then fit a low pressure feed to the diff housing (do them all)

I use one of those air matress pumps that draws air from somewhere safe and then bung the hoses into the outlet of the pump. gives about 1psi

Pressure fed breathers are a good idea (up to about 2psi anyway).
But one reason I've never felt comfortable pulling the inner seals is the ability to then lose a whole diff full of oil through a dead hub or swivel seal.

Keeping them in three seperate segments does minimise damage in that unlikely event.

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Swivel hub breathers - any one done it?

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