Fourtrak (91 H) Front Axle Leak

Forum: 

I have an oil leak on my nearside front axle, coming from the swivel ball. I have been trying to get hold of a workshop manual for stripping the axle, does anyone have an e-mailable document? or fax? I assume that there is a half-shaft seal that is leaking oil into the hub but I'm not that familar with the system. Can anyone help, I brought the beast about three months ago, its a 1991 H 2.8TD Estate.

Cheers

H

Fourtrak front swivel leak

Very common in old 4WD. In fact if you are leaking oil it probably means the thing is in surprisingly good condition. A lot of old vehicles have a homemade grease/oil mix in the transmission to try and stop the leaking.
The best solution I know of is to forget about replacing the seal, and get some swivel grease from land rover. This is proprietary stuff and once in never needs replacing and doesn't leak. Wash out the swivel with oil, add new the grease. Then you can oil your transmission with the usual cheap heavy transmission oil (lm90? i think). Most old vehicles I know of use this solution.

Replacing the swivel housing

Replacing the swivel housing seals is easy. Look behind the housing, you will see 9 bolts, one of which is the steering stop. Remove all nine bolts, then the two half moon metal plates, then the felt gasket, then the rubber seal. You may have to cut the felt and rubber. The fitting of the new ones is reverse order. You can cut the rubber seal, and the felt gasket to get them on. Make sure you put the cuts to the top, and add a bit of silicone sealer to the cut. Clean the half moon plates up, and reassemble. This does not replace the housing grease, so if you suspect contamination, you must remove the complete hub and swivel housing assembly. Or alternatively, remove everything as stated, then remove the top and bottom kingpins and bearings. The complete hub/swivel housing/CV joint/inner axle will then come out in one piece. You must also do this if you suspect the inner axle oil seal is leaking. Once you have replaced everything, look for the large plug in the top side of the housing. Remove this, drill and tap a thread into the centre of the plug, and install a grease nipple. Now you can pump grease into the swivel housing. This feature was available on older F10 through F50 Daihatsus, but deleted on the F70-85 models. Im not sure if the Sportraks have this plug in the housing.
Hope this helps
Cheers
David
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Half shaft seals

H

If you do decide to change the half shaft seals..rather than going the 'swivel grease'route as suggested..its a fairly straight forward operation..and you can check your front bearings at the same time.
The seals can be bought from Milners (see parts dealers link on this site)for a couple of quid. If you have free wheeling hubs fitted then these have to come off first..then work your way to axle hub which has to come off before you can get at the seals.

I can let you have info and diagrams from manual if you want..but you need to give me an email addy...use the private messaging facility by clicking on my name above and I will sort you out with info.