Hub gasket leak? or bearings?

[KonaCrash]

Hey everyone,

95 disco, 97,000 miles, left hand drive,

I've been getting a leak of grease or oil that has got my front passanger side rim looking black. It almost seems like the leakage may be coming from the lug nuts and spinning outward onto the rim. I don't see any leaks or drips under the car or at the hub assembly looking at the inside of the rim. I haven't taken off the wheel yet, but I picked up a hub gasket thinking maybe I damaged it when I replaced the brakes & rotors a while back (I now know that I should have replaced this with the brake job).

Anyway, I got to thinking and I often hear a jingling or clincking like change in your pocket coming from what sounds like this wheel. Would bad bearings make this noise? I'm just wondering if I should pick up those parts while I'm at it.

This side did need to have oil added to the steering knuckles and front differential not that long ago after hearing the clank clank clank on turning slowly into parking stalls.

Any thoughts or ideas? thanks.

 

[Disco Mike]

With it's age and mileage I would suggest you replace the front seal and wheel bearing, especially if you haven't kept those bearings packed.
I would also suggest that if you haven't kept up with the service you also service the swivels and change the gear oil, also check/pack or replace the rear wheel bearing and seals before they fail.
You can go to Atlantic British and find the bear and seal sets as well as the replacement swivel grease.

 

[joey]

If you put oil in the swivel that may be the issue, they are known to leak and LR changed over to a oil grease mixture for this reason. Personally I would just fill it with grease and be done with it.

 

[KonaCrash]

Okay, I'm somewhat unfamiliar with maintaining this part of the vehicle, so just to be clear:
I should follow 'renew swivel pin housing oil' protocol from the Disco workshop manual using the swivel housing grease available from Atlantic British.

If I add/change the front or rear axle oil, what kind of oil should I use?
Also how do you add the axle oil or the swivel housing grease? do you need to use a syringe or does it come packaged in a way that makes it possible to add it?

Lastly, what kind of grease should be used if I replace the bearings?

I really appreciate the help guys. I'm pretty new to working on my car other than the basic tune ups. Living in a condo in Hawaii makes working on your car difficult. I've literally made all the repairs to my car with nothing more than a screwdriver, hammer, vice gribs, needle nose pliers, and a $15 socket set. I had to buy 2 adjustable wrenches to undo the fuel lines when I replaced my fuel pump last weekend. But that's it. The worst part is I have a full set of tools stored in Wisconsin that I would be using more now than I ever did back there. Oh well, the price of paradise.
Thanks again.

 

[joey]

Front/rear diff oil = 90/120 synthetic IMHO same in Transfer case

Swivel grease = turn the wheel you plan to work on toward the other side i.e. left wheel turn wheel right.

Remove the fill bolt, cut top off of slimy bag, squeeze into hole.

Bearings, I always use a good marine grade grease to prevent water issues.

 

[antichrist]

Kona, make sure your axle breather tubes are clear.
Make sure the stub axle where the hub seal rides is not scored.
If you off-road use the RTC3511 Defender double lip hub seal, not the seal spec'd for the Discovery.
Hub bearings can be bought at your local auto parts store for less. I usually get them at Advance Auto for about $13, so $26 to do one hub.
Timken SET37, SKF BR37 or *** KIT38 are the part numbers you can use.

 

[KonaCrash]

So I finally got around to changing the swivel grease and the hub gasket.

I couldn't pull out the level plug on the swivel housing, I got it loose enough that I was hoping the grease would seep around the threads but that didn't happen so I just put the whole tube of swivel grease in there. Are you supposed to use one tube per side? I thought it was going to be enough for two sides, oh well.

So then I pull of the wheel for the hub gasket and the entire inside of the wheel is caked in oil. I can't overstate how much oil was on the inside of the rim. The hub gasket looked fine - no oil coming out from there. However the area around the drive shaft was soaked in oil.
So I was going to order the bearing rebuild kit from Atlantic British...anything else I should get? Do I need to do both sides, or can I just do the one side and refill the oil to keep costs down?

 

[joey]

the grease tube is for one side only.

Sounds like you have a bad seal, I would check the Center Diff levels if it is empty or low this will cause other issues.

 

[antichrist]

Only order the bearings from AB if you like wasting money. You can get the exact same thing locally. $30 from AB, $13 from your local autoparts store.