Front hub grease port mod

[Cptsideways]

Found a neat way to stop the hubs filling with water so readily when wading & or keeping them nicely greased up.

On the inside front of each hub knuckle is a square threaded bung, simply remove, drill & tap them & screw in some grease port zirks. Might take a good few squirts to get them full but it seems to work well on mine.

Its the No 81 part on the diagram

 

[Chris]

One of the best ways to keep the water out is to grease the knuckle whilst it's off the axle. If you replace the wiper seals, it's a good time to coat the cannon balls first and then pack the gap during assembly. Then once bolted on, pack the cavity as per the manual.

I rather have a feeling that putting grease in through the top port will lead to it just piling up in one place. It probably won't work its way around the inside of the hub that much. Now if you can pump so much in that the hub is literally packed then it might work. But then you could end up with grease migrating into the axle and then you're in trouble.

 

[Towpack]

One of these...http://www.wilko.com/cake-decorating/wilko-icing-syringe-set/invt/0140132 makes light work of filling the hubs with grease if you need to after unscrewing the bung. The FSM stipulates packing the hubs 3/4 full with grease so filling them completely might not be such a good idea, possibly forcing grease past the oil seal into the axle/diff housing maybe?


Edit....You beat me to it Chris.

 

[Cptsideways]

After a few drives & re-squirts it simply oozes from the wiper seals, I think its just a case of some slight positive pressure is enough to leak past the wiper seals as opposed into the axle.

Hopefully

 

[Chris]

One of the down sides to the design is the way that water can sit in the bottom of the joint, in the bottom bearing. Really, if you are a regular off roader the only remedy is regular strip-downs and re greasing. The top and bottom joints do suffer a bit but as nothing compared to the wheel bearings I'm afraid. Couple of outings in the wet stuff and they can be toast. If the vehicle is used in between say as a daily drive then things get warmed up and dried out a bit more. But used every month in mud and then left, it's a constant battle.

 

[Dave2000]

I do use a grease gun but, the head which clips on to grease nipples fits nicely inside the hole where the bung screws in. I do lose from my swivels so pump some in whenever under there. At the moment I am still in limbo about which CV's to fit, and have considered the grease through the centre of the CV option. I too am concerned about the pressure getting passed the axle seal, it seems you can purchase pressure relief nipples that are fitted in the square headed bungs. So I guess you can have a joint full of grease and the pressure managed as well.

EDIT: Land Rover stopped using EP 90 oils in their swivels due to leaks, they now sell something called 'One Shot' grease, comes in a nice squeezable tube, it is moly so I doubt there would be an issue using that?

regards

Dave

 

[stumog]

Been thinking of tapping the axle and adding dome thing like a 2psi of air. This way when you submerge the axles in water the air will bubble out and stop water from entering.

 

[Towpack]

I used the one shot LR lube in my Disco 300Tdi years ago. It's thicker than EP90 but more fluid than the moly grease in tins. The LR swivels were chrome plated and sealed better than the corrosion prone Toyota variants.

 

[Dave2000]

I used the one shot LR lube in my Disco 300Tdi years ago. It's thicker than EP90 but more fluid than the moly grease in tins. The LR swivels were chrome plated and sealed better than the corrosion prone Toyota variants.

Yes it has been around for awhile now. Given it is quite a dynamic version of the tinned moly I thought it might be better than some of the tar like moly I get out of tubes here? The LR versions do seal up better that's for sure.

You can get boots for the entire swivel, also look good but, if you do get a problem with the axle seal the boot hides it.

regards

Dave

 

[Roger]

Been thinking of tapping the axle and adding dome thing like a 2psi of air. This way when you submerge the axles in water the air will bubble out and stop water from entering.

I did this many years ago on my series 1 (v8) Stu - even had positive air going into the dizzy (it was before I found the magic that is megasquirt) - Axles as well - worked well IIRC.

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

One of the first things I did in 97 when I bought my 1st 80 was to install grease nipples to those square top bungs and greased them every 4.5K when I greased the front prop. 16 years and 100K later the steering and swivel bearings were spot on and smooth.
Not everyone thought it was a good idea but it worked for me, when I do a front axle rebuild I always install them but use a grease nipple and adapter from the local hydraulics store and its a minutes job.