Y61 leaking half shaft oil seal

[Graham]

Currently having a problem with what appears to be a leaking oil seal on the front right half shaft of my Patrol.

First noticed it in May when it started dripping oil on my driveway!

Guy who services my truck (Paul of PRS Autos, mobile mechanic) diagnosed it had to be the inner oil seal as it was diff oil that was leaking. Outer seal was also worn so we decided to replace the lot which was done on 26th May.

NOTE: there is an issue with the outer seal as the surface it mates to is pitted/rough. At the moment that's not my primary concern as it's diff oil that's leaking and we need to stop that first. Mind you, if anybody can suggest a way to smooth it out so it doesn't wear the seal I'd be most grateful

Anyway, all was fine until last week when I noticed oil leaking again

Paul was round today to have a look and we couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the inner oil seal. Felt perfectly smooth when you ran your finger round as well. Looked at the half shaft and you can see the 2 polished "rings" from the oil seal but when you run your finger/nail over there's no groove(s) which might prevent the seal from working properly.

We also checked the breather pipe from the diff and that was clear. Thinking there was, if that was blocked then the oil being churned would build up pressure which would/could blow the oil past the seal. Bit of a long shot but it's one possible cause eliminated.

It could be that the oil seal that's in there is "faulty" so the current plan is to replace the inner oil seal again and see what happens.

If that doesn't work there is something we can try but it's what you might describe as "naughty". You remove the spring from the oil seal, cut off about 2-3mm and put it back on. Idea is this will make the seal grip tighter and hopefully stop the leak. Apparently this is a known fix for other models of 4x4!

If the "naughty" fix doesn't work then it's serious head scratching time!

One possible cause we came up with is excess float on the half shaft! - I promise you we weren't drinking or smoking anything In theory this could cause the half shaft to not run true about its centre and so effectively "wobble". This "wobble" would mean the seal might not be 100% and so let oil through. Only downside I can see to this theory is I'd have expected to see the oil leak earlier rather than nearly 4 months later!

And that's where I'm at today!!

Might be a long shot but I'm hoping someone out there might have some ideas/suggestions or even recommend a specialist I can speak to etc.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice

Cheers.

Graham.

 

[lammy426]

oil seal

Currently having a problem with what appears to be a leaking oil seal on the front right half shaft of my Patrol.

First noticed it in May when it started dripping oil on my driveway!

Guy who services my truck (Paul of PRS Autos, mobile mechanic) diagnosed it had to be the inner oil seal as it was diff oil that was leaking. Outer seal was also worn so we decided to replace the lot which was done on 26th May.

NOTE: there is an issue with the outer seal as the surface it mates to is pitted/rough. At the moment that's not my primary concern as it's diff oil that's leaking and we need to stop that first. Mind you, if anybody can suggest a way to smooth it out so it doesn't wear the seal I'd be most grateful

Anyway, all was fine until last week when I noticed oil leaking again

Paul was round today to have a look and we couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the inner oil seal. Felt perfectly smooth when you ran your finger round as well. Looked at the half shaft and you can see the 2 polished "rings" from the oil seal but when you run your finger/nail over there's no groove(s) which might prevent the seal from working properly.

We also checked the breather pipe from the diff and that was clear. Thinking there was, if that was blocked then the oil being churned would build up pressure which would/could blow the oil past the seal. Bit of a long shot but it's one possible cause eliminated.

It could be that the oil seal that's in there is "faulty" so the current plan is to replace the inner oil seal again and see what happens.

If that doesn't work there is something we can try but it's what you might describe as "naughty". You remove the spring from the oil seal, cut off about 2-3mm and put it back on. Idea is this will make the seal grip tighter and hopefully stop the leak. Apparently this is a known fix for other models of 4x4!

If the "naughty" fix doesn't work then it's serious head scratching time!

One possible cause we came up with is excess float on the half shaft! - I promise you we weren't drinking or smoking anything In theory this could cause the half shaft to not run true about its centre and so effectively "wobble". This "wobble" would mean the seal might not be 100% and so let oil through. Only downside I can see to this theory is I'd have expected to see the oil leak earlier rather than nearly 4 months later!

And that's where I'm at today!!

Might be a long shot but I'm hoping someone out there might have some ideas/suggestions or even recommend a specialist I can speak to etc.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice

Cheers.

Graham.

hello mate,i'm on my 6th patrol over 25 ish years and the only time those inner seals have leaked is when the kingpin bearings are worn out/play in them,it allows the shaft to go up and down therefore wrecking the inner deal,its worth a look jack the car up with the wheel 2" of the ground then get a bar underneath to lift the wheel up and down with somebody watching the space between the big swivel ball and hub housing

 

[rustic]

hello mate,i'm on my 6th patrol over 25 ish years and the only time those inner seals have leaked is when the kingpin bearings are worn out/play in them,it allows the shaft to go up and down therefore wrecking the inner deal,its worth a look jack the car up with the wheel 2" of the ground then get a bar underneath to lift the wheel up and down with somebody watching the space between the big swivel ball and hub housing

This was always an issue on my Dad's LR.. He couldn't stop all the leaks even with new seals, so he bought what appeared to be a Leather gater, that fitted over the swivel hub, it contained the oil and kept the dirt off the whole lot.
It was able to pass the MOT on that part anyway.


Kept my drive clear of drips when he visited, well that area anyway, I still had to go out with the detergent in 5 or 6 other patches. :doh :doh
Greater leaks than the Gulf....

 

[Graham]

Thanks for the ideas guys.

Paul's round tomorrow to hopefully fit the new seal I'll pass your ideas on and we can probably check out the king pin.

Cheers.

 

[Graham]

hello mate,i'm on my 6th patrol over 25 ish years and the only time those inner seals have leaked is when the kingpin bearings are worn out/play in them,it allows the shaft to go up and down therefore wrecking the inner deal,its worth a look jack the car up with the wheel 2" of the ground then get a bar underneath to lift the wheel up and down with somebody watching the space between the big swivel ball and hub housing

Sorry for the delay in replying but my computer died 2 days after I joined this site! It's taken me until a couple of days ago to rebuild the thing!!

Anyway, showed your reply to Paul and he mentioned that I don't have a kingpin as such. There are some top and bottom bearings and there is a tiny amount of play in the bottom bearing. We contemplated repairing the bearings but it would have meant my truck being off the road for at least another week as he's booked up solid!

So, what we decided on was to replace the inner seal but to shorten the spring by a couple of mil so it grips a bit tighter. Cleaned the oil off everything, including wheel and tyre, and will keep an eye on it. If it starts to leak again the we'll replace the top and bottom bearings and the inner seal (again). If that doesn't work then it'll be time for some serious head scratching!

Paul did do some phoning around and one thing that everybody he spoke to said was to check that the breather pipe was clear. We'd done that and when we thought about it, it's possible that it may be the cause. The first time he tried his airline he thought he hadn't got a good seal. It wqsn't until about the 3rd or 4th blast that you could here it was clear - it makes one heck of a weird sound somewhere.

So fingers crossed we might have sorted it!

Cheers.

 

[patroljock]

Currently having a problem with what appears to be a leaking oil seal on the front right half shaft of my Patrol.

First noticed it in May when it started dripping oil on my driveway!

Guy who services my truck (Paul of PRS Autos, mobile mechanic) diagnosed it had to be the inner oil seal as it was diff oil that was leaking. Outer seal was also worn so we decided to replace the lot which was done on 26th May.

NOTE: there is an issue with the outer seal as the surface it mates to is pitted/rough. At the moment that's not my primary concern as it's diff oil that's leaking and we need to stop that first. Mind you, if anybody can suggest a way to smooth it out so it doesn't wear the seal I'd be most grateful

Anyway, all was fine until last week when I noticed oil leaking again

Paul was round today to have a look and we couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the inner oil seal. Felt perfectly smooth when you ran your finger round as well. Looked at the half shaft and you can see the 2 polished "rings" from the oil seal but when you run your finger/nail over there's no groove(s) which might prevent the seal from working properly.

We also checked the breather pipe from the diff and that was clear. Thinking there was, if that was blocked then the oil being churned would build up pressure which would/could blow the oil past the seal. Bit of a long shot but it's one possible cause eliminated.

It could be that the oil seal that's in there is "faulty" so the current plan is to replace the inner oil seal again and see what happens.

If that doesn't work there is something we can try but it's what you might describe as "naughty". You remove the spring from the oil seal, cut off about 2-3mm and put it back on. Idea is this will make the seal grip tighter and hopefully stop the leak. Apparently this is a known fix for other models of 4x4!

If the "naughty" fix doesn't work then it's serious head scratching time!

One possible cause we came up with is excess float on the half shaft! - I promise you we weren't drinking or smoking anything In theory this could cause the half shaft to not run true about its centre and so effectively "wobble". This "wobble" would mean the seal might not be 100% and so let oil through. Only downside I can see to this theory is I'd have expected to see the oil leak earlier rather than nearly 4 months later!

And that's where I'm at today!!

Might be a long shot but I'm hoping someone out there might have some ideas/suggestions or even recommend a specialist I can speak to etc.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice

Cheers.

Graham.

Hi I have had this problem with both of my patrols including the pitted ball joint - on both counts I replaced the top & bottom bearings along with the seals to cure the problem - make sure you order some extra shims with the bearings so that you can adjust the play
good luck

 

[Graham]

Hi I have had this problem with both of my patrols including the pitted ball joint - on both counts I replaced the top & bottom bearings along with the seals to cure the problem - make sure you order some extra shims with the bearings so that you can adjust the play
good luck

So far so good. Did around 300 miles weekend of 22/23 October ferrying my son and his drumkit to practice and a gig and no sign of oil If it does leak again then the plan is to do what you suggest - replace the seal and the bearings. Thanks for pointing out the shims though, I wouldn't have thought of that!!

Cheers.

 

[rustic]

If the vent is blocked then when it all gets warm, the warm expanded air then puts pressure on the seals forcing the oil out.

 

[patroljock]

Hi Graham - I notice you are in Wiltshire - I am just the other side of the Old Severn Bridge - if ever you need advice or comparisons give me a shout - I also have many second hand spares for these trucks as I bought a job lot from a breaker in the Summer who was packing up and heading for Australia - have also had quite a few challenges with my LWB Y61 ZD30 engine and running gear so the knowledge base is increasing - happy driving

 

[Flying Torquewrench]

Patroljock, that breaker was he based in Redhill? If so, then we have used the same breaker. Nice guy with good service.

Back on topic!

My nearside rear axle shaft is leaking oil. Initially at the MOT station they failed it on leaking brake fluid but after taking the brake unit apart there is no sign of this leaking.

However the brake disc was filled with oil and were the axle hub meets the axle housing it is very greasy and wet. So I suspect that the oil seal is leaking.

fortunately I need to take the axle apart anyway as the axle housing and hub need painting so I will change both the oil seal and the 'O'-ring while I have the axle apart.

 

[patroljock]

Patroljock, that breaker was he based in Redhill? If so, then we have used the same breaker. Nice guy with good service.

Back on topic!

My nearside rear axle shaft is leaking oil. Initially at the MOT station they failed it on leaking brake fluid but after taking the brake unit apart there is no sign of this leaking.

However the brake disc was filled with oil and were the axle hub meets the axle housing it is very greasy and wet. So I suspect that the oil seal is leaking.

fortunately I need to take the axle apart anyway as the axle housing and hub need painting so I will change both the oil seal and the 'O'-ring while I have the axle apart.

yes he was in Redhill - I only went down to pick up a few bits and luckily I had my big Ifor Williams trailer hooked up - came back fully loaded with all sorts of parts including lots of doors and body panels