I noticed when I last washed the car there was a black grease around the wheel hub and lug nuts. Today I took a long drive and noticed more grease some splashed around the wheel. Appears to be from the hub.

I stopped by my local garage. He says it probably a seal or one other thing, he has the parts and its about 5 minutes to replace.

I went through the Haynes and Bentley manual looking the parts. Checked here too for old treads.

Are these parts standard or do the need to be ordered? Is it a DIY project? Can I drive it safely?

Before you pick up the phone an order a seal, I would suggest you first check to see if the Brake on that wheel is binding. This would melt the grease and cause this problem. I think a seal would leak on the inside of the hub and you would not see it on your wheel nuts.

Thanks,

That sounds possible. The rear brakes locked on me during a hard braking and I just had them adjusted when I got the car. Also, I had a grease job at the same time. Thinking they may have over filled it.

 

Just found the possible cause of the grease running out.

Rainy day here and only had a 1/2 day of work. So I thought lets look. Removed the road wheels, drum and flange. Way too easy. The keyway area on the axle was chewed up. Small metal pieces started to wash on the floor as I cleaned with brake cleaner. The key was there in OK condition. The flange was a little rough, but the axle was chewed up good.

Called Nigel at Spitbits. New Axle shaft and used flange on there way. A bearing kit I had already ordered and is here.

Now to look for the easiest way to remove axle shaft on TTN.

Any hints would be appreciated. Have new pullers and bearing press.

 

If the hub is already off the axle, the hard work is done.
Else you would need a hub puller.
Sounds like it has been off before, and bollixed up by DPO.
(replacing the axle grease seal is normally *NOT* a 5 minute job)

The rest can be accomplished with hand tools (hammer, drifts, patience).

Online help, or one of the aftermarket manuals reveal all.

Good thing you found it now, best of luck,

Carter

Thanks Carter,

It good I didn't let it wait. I finished taking the axle shaft off Friday night. Then cleaned everything with brake cleaner. Today I bought new nylock nuts for everything I removed to date. Then it was boat day. Painted the bottom last week, today I washed the hull. Remove the old Vinyl name for one side and put on the new Vinyl. Very interesting process.

If you heat too much the vinyl becomes a gooey mess. Acetone what a useful substance. It took of the out painted outline. The new name "Second Wind" in honor of my girlfriend of the last 2 years looks great.

Back to car guy Sunday night.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-22-03 AT 09:16 AM (PST)
 
I've started taking my rear axle shaft apart in order to replace my axle shaft.

Do I need a special tool to remove the bearing from the hub bearing housing (Bentley refers to S4221a -14). Is there another way to remove the bearing (a inexpensive tool?).

Also, what's the best why to remove the 2 plastic rear trunnion bushings without damaging them? Do you need to remove trunnion to separate the axle shaft? It implies that in bentleys (Haynes is vague).

PS. Happy Easter everyone

Here is a picture of my damaged axle shaft. You can see some damage to the flange as well. You can see some of the metal that fell out while cleaning.

More question: Can you use the new Synthetic Type Axle Grease or do you need to use the old standard type?

The Bentley or Haynes states to use White Lithium grease on the rear trunnion bushings when installing. Is that right versus axle grease?

Just to say I had a problem with my woodruff (I have no idea if that is spelt correctly). I had just fitted a new race gearbox and I got 1/2 mile before I lost all drive. Towed home and check under neath and the axel was just spinning. Got it fixed, although my axel and hub are probably dead, the repair guy is also an engineer and made necessary fixes to both. Ran for about 4000 miles like that now. May dismantle when I do the body off rebuild in a couple of years. As an aside, the keys that were removed have been cleaned and are now stuck to a little (2" * 3" picture frame, they look interesting, and remind me of how 2 small things can cause so much agro!

As for something other than a proper hub puller for removing hubs, don't even think it is my advice. Some of the bearings can be in there so hard that cheap hub pullers can explode with the stress (so I've heard from others that brought cheap ones). Also, if you use the wrong ones you can bend flanges and all sorts.

Stu

Stu,

Thanks for advice. I did take the Axle to a garage and they removed the Trunnion housing from the axle. I removed the remaining bearings and oil seals.

I have a new axle, woodruff key and a used flange. The flange came in all rusted. It looked worse than the original. Good thing I took both to the garage. They saw the wear and scoring on the original. I cleaned up the used flange. It looks pretty good. Last step before reassembly is to remove the cj joint grease caps to separate from the axle flange. I could not get them off last night. Soaked in WD40 overnight. There must be a trick I'm missing.

 

To pull the hub off the axle you definitely need a special hub puller, but to remove the trunnion housing from the shaft, and all the bearings therein depends on how much you are replacing. When I did it I was replacing the halfshaft and all the bearings and seals, so I just banged the trunnion housing down the shaft using a suitable drift on each corner in sequence; you only have to get it a little way down the taper after all.

I couldn't find any easy way to remove the trunnion bushings from the housing with or without damaging them, but as they are relatively inexpensive to replace with poly, and I had the new ones on hand anyway, I just hacked them out with an assortment of knives, little screwdrivers, and a hammer and drift to bang out the metal tube in there.

LAST EDITED ON Apr-25-03 AT 07:58 PM (PST)
 
Robin,

Thanks for the feedback. I took the axle shaft and with the trunnion housing to a local garage. With the aid of heat they pressed the Trunnion housing off the shaft as you suggested. When I got it back last night I drifted (took hammer, socket and piece of wood) out the large bearing. Then I drifted out the small roller bearing and seal. Next the trunnion bushing were easy to pull out with large pliers. They are a one use part. The new kit has all I need.

Today I went after the ujoint. 2 sockets one small/one large worked on moving the grease cups almost out. But that was it. I took it to Steve at Tuffy's. He used a torch to cut off one of the cups. the shaft is toast so I only cared about the flange to the diff. Just for grins I tried the other half of the ujoint. Conclusion, forget it, take to a pro.

Cleaned and painted everything (high temp engine paint 1200D), smoothed bearing races with emery cloth and my dremel buffer (found a use for it finally). Reundercoated the rear wheel arch. It was fine, but since I bought a can...

The GPO (great previous owner) had replaced most parts with new, but the ujoints must have been on for some time (made in Japan) so I assume not original.

The ujoint I bought had no grease fitting. In the parts collection that came with the car was one with a fitting and the circlips to hold them in. I'll use it.

Well I better get started. This is fun.

Not sure if I made a mistake. I added some grease to the ujoint cups. They were tough pressing on. Could damage be caused by overfilling the ujoint cups?

Ah the ujoint, what fun! Don't know if its still out of the archives here, but you might well be able to find my tale of woe with mine to give you some guidance.

The synopsis is: To take off the bearing cups, use a nut and/or corresponding bolt as a drift, and with a hammer drive one side through until the cap protrudes enough to shut it in your vice rock-hard while you hang off the shaft and twist/wiggle/pull, its not too hard. Repeat in reverse, driving against the ujoint spider.

As for pressing on the new ones, I couldn't gather fully from your post whether the ujoint spider you used in the end had a grease hole, but in my case pressing the caps on with the grease aperture unsealed was quite easy, using the same nut as before, only this time applying pressure with a vice. The only time one of the caps did not slide on easily this way was when one of the needles had come loose and wedged between the cap and the spider, do be careful of this, however if you have put so much grease in that you are worried you've overfilled then I doubt this could have happened.

Robin,

I think without an exit route I was fighting the excess grease pressure as it look for a way past the seals. I was concerned that as it did I may have boggled the seals.

Bob

Guys,

As I have given up for the day and head for a drink with my "Second Wind" maybe someone can help.

Reinstalling the rear axle I cannot get the trunnions to fit in the vertical link. I replaced them with a new kit. I could not get the outer plate with rubber washer to fit without falling off. So we tried to hold them in place as we fitted the trunnion to the vertical link. It was so tight we could not do it without deforming the plates.

The old ones look in good shape so they must have fit ok.

What am I missing?

Try using a block of wood or something to force the Top of the vertical link apart a bit. Those rubber bands are a pain in the Butt, they are just there as a dust seal, Silicon works better. Make sure the trunnion and bolt is well greased up not just to save wear, it makes getting the bolt out easier next time. With a Triumph, it seems there is always a 'next time'