Leaky Hub?

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Joined
Mar 3, 2005
Threads
24
Messages
149
Location
Ventura County
Did some wheeling over the weekend and realized (over and over again) that the front passenger tire was not spinning. I have a detriot locker in the rear and a lock-rite in the front so I was concerned. Got home and pulled the hub and bingo, rust and grimy looking grease. Short story, we re-built the hub and pulled the wheel off and cleaned it up and re-packed with grease and etc. After taking the hub apart to rebuild, looking at the lock & free knob, it looked fine and turned nicely and even clicked into the free and locked position. Basically it was not showing signs of rust around it at all. Although I did notice one of the studs on the wheel where the hub body bolts to was bit loose and was not totally tight and seated into the wheel like the others (should of tightened up once we put it all back together anyway). My question is where or how did the water get in???? We rebuilt these last year around this time during a dakar lift install so the PO is not to blame. I do not, and have not done any water crossings with it (so far), and only been in minimal snow so far. We're still scratching are heads about where and how the leak happened. And wow, if we had not of rebuilt all this last year, I would have thought this was a situation that had been going on for many years based upon the rust and grim built up in there, ouch, it looked bad. So for now, I'll run it and pull it at the end of summer and see how it's looking. Man, I never thought rain could works its way inside a hub, but so far, I can't see how else it happened. Is it possible that the slightly, very slightly loose stud could be the problem? The rust and grimy grease was only in the hub and not really anywhere else in the wheel. Anyone ?
 
LOL! Well I guess everyone's hubs "leak out", not in (at least according to the results of a basic search). Oh well, I was never one to follow the herd. The most interesting problem so far. It's all back together and ready to climb like the tank it is. We going wheeling this weekend? We got some great shake down trails for your rig, and who knows, maybe we can find something to fix on yours. :doh:
 
The contamination was from the hub engagement spring and clutch through to the first wheel bearing. Everything after was fine from the second wheel bearing to the knuckle. The 2 hub seals were intact and did not show signs of any leak, rust or water marks. The rust was so bad that the hub clutch would not move when the selector was turned from FREE to LOCK. Everything inside was rusted and had pitting. First and only guess was water entered through the selector knob seal but upon further examination that seal is working fine.

A reminder to do the brake line upgrade from the axle to the caliper, that would have made the rebuild a bit easier and quicker. For those that don't know about it: It is a straight shot from the axle to the caliper which eliminates the junction block and hard line that are currenly used. By using the one line you can unbolt your caliper and move it aside without have to bleed your brakes. NAPA part #38878.
 
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