Well! I never knew that

[Oilierthanthou]

Series Land Rover's have hub drains . I don't mean the swivel housings, I mean the rotating hubs.

I've been messing about with Land Rovers for well over 30years and I'd never noticed this until today.
I remember, years ago, one bolt on the freewheel hubs of my series 1. would always leak oil but I put that down to the hole having been drilled too deep and letting oil seep out from the hub.

Today I was cleaning old grease out of the hubs of my 1969 2a, and noticed ALL the hubs have a drilled connection with ONE of the driving member bolts. My 1959 S2 seems to be the same. In all cases it's the bolt adjacent to the single countersunk screw retaining the brake drum.

When the earlier Land Rovers had oil filled hubs, it would make sense to be able to drain them too, just turn the hub until the single screw is at the bottom then undo the adjacent driving member bolt and the hub will drain out. But I'm surprised this useful feature survived until at least 1969 and perhaps much later without ever being mentioned. If you've been deep wading, even grease filled hubs can still fill with water, it would be a very sensible thing to check when you get home.

I suppose you're all going to tell me you knew all about this years ago, but it came as a complete revelation to me. I've checked every manual and hand book I've got and can't find any mention of it.

John

[Genocache]

Never heard of them as drain holes, always fill holes/plugs. Might work if you have leaky hubs and go wading.

[biloxi]

They are listed in the 61 parts manual, p/n 276039.
.W.

[Serious Series]

Series Land Rover's have hub drains . I don't mean the swivel housings, I mean the rotating hubs.

I've been messing about with Land Rovers for well over 30years and I'd never noticed this until today.
I remember, years ago, one bolt on the freewheel hubs of my series 1. would always leak oil but I put that down to the hole having been drilled too deep and letting oil seep out from the hub.

Today I was cleaning old grease out of the hubs of my 1969 2a, and noticed ALL the hubs have a drilled connection with ONE of the driving member bolts. My 1959 S2 seems to be the same. In all cases it's the bolt adjacent to the single countersunk screw retaining the brake drum.

When the earlier Land Rovers had oil filled hubs, it would make sense to be able to drain them too, just turn the hub until the single screw is at the bottom then undo the adjacent driving member bolt and the hub will drain out. But I'm surprised this useful feature survived until at least 1969 and perhaps much later without ever being mentioned. If you've been deep wading, even grease filled hubs can still fill with water, it would be a very sensible thing to check when you get home.

I suppose you're all going to tell me you knew all about this years ago, but it came as a complete revelation to me. I've checked every manual and hand book I've got and can't find any mention of it.

John

Any chance you can post a picture of the drilling new one on me had landrovers for about 25 years of my life including a series 1 .

[Craig T]

I have seen plugs in some drive members but not many. I have a set of series one hubs on the bench at the minute and haven't noticed any extra holes into the drive member bolts.
Can you post a picture of them? Maybe a very clever previous owner modification?

Craig.

[Oilierthanthou]

I'll post some photos this afternoon. I'm a bit busy this morning as I've got to go to the dentist! And as Captain Oats said, "I may be gone sometime".

[Old Hywel]

One of the Drive Member bolts acts as a drain plug.
At least, that's what I understand by Oily's post.

[GHOBHW]

yes that is what he means.

inside the wheel hub itself is a hole that leads to a drive member bolt.

I only noticed a few years ago too....

[GHOBHW]

first image is of a 1966 hub with no hole for whatever reason, next is a later/early series 3 hub with the hole? so no idea when it came and went, but my 1964 hubs had holes. so no idea
part numbers on the hubs are 217292 on the 66 hub and 561887 on the later hub

I thought i had images of it so went searching and found them

by the way, that is the original paint finish on the 1966 hub, so don't ever feel bad about crappy painting skills!

[Craig T]

Okay, I think I remember seeing that hole in the past.
I'll check my 1955 hubs when I get back home later.

Craig.

[Serious Series]

The original poster talks of a hole drilled into the tapped hole for the drive member flange bolt those holes are through the flange.

[biloxi]

The original poster talks of a hole drilled into the tapped hole for the drive member flange bolt those holes are through the flange.

You're quite right, I realised that too late.
.W.

[Oilierthanthou]

Herewith, some pictures as promised. It certainly looks like an intentional drain hole to me. It's always the bolt adjacent to the single countersunk screw, so you know which bolt to remove. And if blocked with grease or crud, a bit of springy curtain wire poked through will clear it.

Strange that I've never seen it mentioned elsewhere.

[Craig T]

Yeah, makes sense but never noticed it or thought why it might be there.
Maybe you could turn it to the top and fill the hub with oil through there as well.

Craig.

[Serious Series]

I wonder if it is so you can check for water in hub after fording rivers.