More Work Needed!

LG199714 said:

In theory, the flange and end cap should have some type of sealant on it. Most dont such as myself because I never go wading but occasionally.

I believe those early years used oil for the whole axle. Just use some sealant to seal the hub up. Call it a day.

Radius arm, plenty of youtube videos. Can you forward a photo of the radius arm bushes to get a forum vote whether you should change or not?

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I put some sealant on, I have now changed to the metal Series end caps with some blue Hylomar to seal it.

Landlover99 said:

Someone's already carved out an access flap of about 8x8" under the rear floor carpet just above the diff by the look of it - and then pop-riveted it back into place. Funny thing to do: cutting a hole in the floor! I wonder if they've had this problem before.....
So which is the biggest PITA to deal with here (in terms of expense and time)? The radius arm bushes or the leaking end caps? And what if it's the "outer hub seals" as per the report? Is that worse than leaking end caps?

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The cover is probably over the fuel tank pump, possibly as I don’t know where the tank is on that year.

J

Landlover99 said:

Someone's already carved out an access flap of about 8x8" under the rear floor carpet just above the diff by the look of it - and then pop-riveted it back into place. Funny thing to do: cutting a hole in the floor! I wonder if they've had this problem before.....
So which is the biggest PITA to deal with here (in terms of expense and time)? The radius arm bushes or the leaking end caps? And what if it's the "outer hub seals" as per the report? Is that worse than leaking end caps?

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Honestly, neither are a big job. Radius arm bushes are the bigger of the two, if you are doing it yourself without a press then you should opt for poly bushes. Your axle shouldn’t have outer hub seals, the caps act as the outer seal and it’s a dead easy job.

As someone who's spent a good bit of time this weekend doing my own radius arm bushes, nothing to be scared of! I was putting it off but its not too bad a job, the biggest issue I've had was getting the offside arm off. I had to cut the front bolt and the big nut needed a lot of back and forth with a breaker bar to get off. After that I was going for method of drilling out the rubber/centre, cut the outer with a recip saw and chisel out. Then fitted poly bushes. Putting them back on I still have one to do tomorrow morning but I didn't even jack anything up, just using a ratchet strap to move the axle to get the first arm back on, and ill do that for the other too.

As for the hub seals, as previous comments say depends what is actually leaking oil. I've had a couple of drive flanges leaking oil, just stuck a new gasket on and made sure the axle breather was clear to make sure there's no excess pressure forcing oil out.

LG199714 said:

In theory, the flange and end cap should have some type of sealant on it. Most dont such as myself because I never go wading but occasionally.

I believe those early years used oil for the whole axle. Just use some sealant to seal the hub up. Call it a day.

Radius arm, plenty of youtube videos. Can you forward a photo of the radius arm bushes to get a forum vote whether you should change or not?

Click to expand...

I could upload a some pix if it would help, but since you can only feel wear in these things, I'm not sure how valuable a photo would be. I'm also wondering what these radius arms do on the front? I did a couple on a Jag a while ago but they were on the rear, to stop the axle tramping IIRC. I can't imagine why LR would have put them on the front.

Landlover99 said:

I could upload a some pix if it would help, but since you can only feel wear in these things, I'm not sure how valuable a photo would be. I'm also wondering what these radius arms do on the front? I did a couple on a Jag a while ago but they were on the rear, to stop the axle tramping IIRC. I can't imagine why LR would have put them on the front.

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The radius arms literally connect the axle to the chassis, they're the big chunky things that bolt underneath. As far as I'm aware the radius arms connect and keep the axle in position, stopping it moving back/forth and then the panhard rod is there to keep the axle centralised and prevent movement side to side. I didn't even know how the whole thing worked until watching a recent David Freiburger video where he's explaining the system on a Ford F150 (I think)