THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

I've been using my truck more and after fixing my battery problem something else has cropped up.

I parked the truck after another 200 mile drive and the next morning I noticed my garage smelled a little funny. Gear oil. Looking under the truck, I am guessing it is my Knuckle wipe seal, see pics. I was hauling a heavy enough load, off road, and 200 miles of pavement, but have never seen this. I understand sometime these can act as a pressure relief for the hub?

#1) I am going to get under the truck with a good de-greaser and clean everything up.
#2) Check fluids in hubs and diffs.
#3) Top up fluids as needed (honestly, time to change out fluids anyways)

What's the consensus? Has anyone replaced these seals? They are cheap enough at SAV. I generally don't like leaks and would like to replace the seals if it's something I could do. I am assuming there will be some dis-assembly of the front wheels, hoping it's a relatively easy fix (ie, I don't have to remove front axles or springs or diffs). I will be reading up in the manual over the weekend to get some more knowledge, but always appreciate hearing from those that have done this before.

Thanks in advance!

I seem to recall that a few years back someone on here replaced the seal ring by cutting the new seal with a 45 degree diagonal slit so it could be replaced without any major disassembly. Of course the scraper would need to be loosened but not removed. If the seal is rubber it can be glued together at the slit with Locktite as used on the axle boots.

I've found that over time the bolts holding the scraper in place loosen up. I re-torque them every 6 months or so.

Paul

The replacement of the seal is a simple fix ... some 6mm Allen screws ... but:

either cut the new seal and re-glue it with the right glue in place

or

pull the halve-axle after removing shock and spring (you need the right spring compressor for the front!!!) with re-glueing the halveaxle in place (the loctite 75 needs hardening of 7 hours)

the first is a 15 min job, the second takes about 2 hours, if you have done it before.

Greetings from the Alps ... Simon

Locktite 414

I was able to clean up that knuckle joint and I did check the oil in the hub.

I would say, the hub was down somewhere between 1-2 oz of oil. Thankfully, it did not seem like it was a large failure and may have been more of a blow off event. I was able to tighten up those small bolts that hold the scraper ring on, probably about a 1/4 turn each, was not able to find a torque recommendation for those, so just went with "a little tighter" but not gorilla tight or anything. We'll see if that helps.

I am leaning towards just watching this and seeing if it returns with regular street driving or if it is something that primarily comes about when on the trail. Like I said, I am not one to suffer oil leaks on their machines, but I dug into the repair manuals over the weekend and like Hatz you're looking at removing the front axles just to get to those seals. I can see why some people have done the cut and glue route. That's a major job and those springs seem daunting. Watching for now, will update if and when I swap those out!