Hi all,

Anyone had any experience with rear wheel bearings in the 4X4 diff. I had a bit of a play when I fitted new ones in my SH 4X4. Instead of packing them with grease I left the inner seals out so that they could run in oil (I jacked the RH side up when I filled the diff to slightly overfill it to make sure bearings got oil). It worked well for about 20,00km's then one of the outer seals started to leak oil onto the brake pads. Decided that outer seals weren't designed for that application and refitted inner seal on that side and packed bearings with grease. Did another 12,000km's and the bearing in question started grinding. The one on the other side was still running happily in oil. Fitted new bearing bought heavy duty outer seal, shimmed it extra carefully and ran it in oil. Has now done 23,000 km's. Pulled brake drum off yesterday cos brakes where grabbing to discover oil seal has started leaking a little again.

My conclusion is that it's probably better to fit the bearings with grease and inner and outer seals as they wear originally designed to do. However one side of my van has run in oil happily now for nearly 60,000k's, if the leak problem hadn't occurred the other side would have done so to, I feel.

There are two types of retaining collars for wheel bearings in the 4X4 diff, interference press fit collars (which I have) and threaded collars (which I wish I had). Has anyone had any experience with the threaded ones. Are they significantly easier to fit?

Anyone else played with rear wheel bearings?