Planetary gear leak?

[thedoeges]

I am noticing oil streaks running down the inside of the front right tire. When tracing it down, I can see that it is coming form somewhere between the wheel and where it mounts onto the planetary gear. Looking at the explosion drawings, I can't really see how may seals/gaskets there are. Does/did anybody have the same issues?

Thanks.

Marcus

[roobar_and_custard]

Hi Marcus,
The outer seal is the notorius "Stefa" seal. It is a dust/grease seal as the outer bearing is greased.
The next seal is on the portal gear and prevents the oil getting from the gear side/inner bearing to the outer bearing. The nut on the shaft has an O-ring seal to prevent oil leaking through the splines.
If I could work out how to attach files I have a pdf which shows this...
Ian.

[thedoeges]

Thanks

[edzz]

Hi Marcus,
The outer seal is the notorius "Stefa" seal. It is a dust/grease seal as the outer bearing is greased.
The next seal is on the portal gear and prevents the oil getting from the gear side/inner bearing to the outer bearing. The nut on the shaft has an O-ring seal to prevent oil leaking through the splines.
If I could work out how to attach files I have a pdf which shows this...
Ian.

The way I post pieces of pdf's is to bring up the pdf in question on screen, do a "ctrl and prt/sc" to copy the displayed screen to the clipboard than open an image editing program, create a new blank image and past the contents of the clipboard into it, crop or modify as needed, save as a jpg file and upload that file.

or e-mail me the pdf and I'll see if i can post a picture of it.

[thedoeges]

Thanks again. Maybe you can email me at thedoeges@comcast.net

[roobar_and_custard]

Hopefully this worked.

Hub section was extracted from one of the Volvo manuals (can't remember which one). The red circles show the three seals.

And a picture of my hub dismantled...

[thedoeges]

Awesome. Thank you. Any idea on where I can get the seals ordered from?

[roobar_and_custard]

Two places I know of are:-
http://www.tatanka.nu/ - they have all the C303 parts available.
and http://www.flyingspanners.net/ - who do a hub seal conversion.

I need to resolve the same issue myself and will be visiting one of the local bearing suppliers to see if I can get matched seals. I imagine I'll be making up a conversion for the "stefa", but we'll see...

Good luck.
Ian.

[Hoss]

If theres oil on the wheel its almost always the CV boot.
Easy to check that before you dismantle the hub.

[thedoeges]

All right, I finally had some time to take the front right wheel off to trouble shoot. The first picture is an overview, the second shows a close up and there is a drop of oil forming on the top. I thought that whatever is below the cv boot, is grease lubricated, not oil. Any ideas? I am about to pull the planetary gear assembly off to get to look at the boot, but it involves disconnecting the brake lines etc. before I do that, I'd like to make sure it's what I am looking for.

[Hoss]

I'm pretty sure its the CV boot. Feel around it a look for a split in one of the valleys.

[thedoeges]

Thank you, I will. If it is, I assume I will have to take the whole thing of to replace it, or is there a shortcut?

[Hoss]

You can dismount the whole portal in one piece and withdraw the drive shaft.
- Basically disconnect brake lines and breathers
- undo the bolts holing the swivel body to the axle (catch the oil)
- withdraw the portal and drive shaft (I made a custom support for my trolley jack to help, its heavy)

I think you can replace the boot without removing the portal box from the swivel.
Although what i did was to fit the kingpin conversion bearings kit from Hofs at the same time.