Old Leafsprung Land Rovers

Hello,

I'm new on here and have a question. I have a 109 S3 and an issue with the rear hub leaking oil. Is this the hub seal failed and if so how urgent is it to fix? Will a couple of weeks (or approx 50 miles) do or is it an urgent job?




Thanks

Bill

First thing I'd check would be the axle breather to make sure it's not blocked (unscrew it and give it a shake, you should be able to hear the ball bearing, if not wash it in a solvent of your choice), if it is blocked then when the diff warms the increase in internal pressure can blow the oil past the seal. Mine weeps very very slowly, nowhere near as bad as yours, maybe a teaspoon of oil gets out every 4-6 months but the hub cap traps it.  As a temporary fix you could try pulling off the hub cap (it may be filled with oil so be prepared to catch it!), cleaning it up and then run a bead of hylomar instant gasket stuff round the edge when you refit it.  If you have blown a seal there I'd also check inside the brake drum just to make sure you're not leaking onto the brake shoes too.

Its an easy job and the parts are cheap, get it done as soon as you can, bearings and diffs are alot more coin and hassle.

First thing I'd do is to tighten up the drive flange bolts and see if it stops leaking

^^^This. Also if that's a very late SIII with the plastic hub caps like the boingy ones I'd check to see if it hasn't perished and ****.

It's definately a plastic cap on the hub- so check that first.

For dating, decent photos of the inside and out will help us give a pretty good stab at the date.

They look like 2a studs/wheel nuts

Thanks for the advice again. i will get at it I hope this week and see whats going on. 

Following on from my query as to the actual age of my S3 and the offer to id it from photos, here they are.

I assume its a mid 70's model but it's a wild guess based on nothing.











Hope you can age it from these, it's on a 1962 S2a V5 I assume to avoid VED (it was already like that when I bought it).

Thanks

Bill

I bought it from a friend about a year ago who bought it from a guy in Leeds off ebay about 3 years ago. That guy said it might be ex-MOD and the springs are so F***ing hard! Unlike anything I've experienced before, my old 88 inch S2a was like a jag compared to this so could that be another pointer towards MOD?