Front Fulcrum Pin Lubrication.

[AustHaflinger]

I am about to pull the front diff out to find a noisy bearing. In doing so I also want to sort out oil leaks from the front swing arm fulcrum pins.

Instead of having geaseable fulcrum pins I understand the designers in their wisdom had little wicks that suck oil from the diff into the fulcrum pins for lubrication.

When I had my swing arms out last year the wicks were missing so the fulcrums had direct access to the diff oil - an even though the swing arm o rings were replaced they leak oil.

So my question to those in the know - are the wicks really necessary and if so, could I make some using natural fibre twine or is there something special about them?

Thanks

Garry

[heinkeljb]

I know nothing - as the saying goes....

Logically, if the wicks are missing, more oil is going to trying to go into empty space and therefore come up against the rubber seals. If the either the surface of the pins is rough or worn and the seals do not make good contact, then they will leak.

So,

wicks would reduce the flow of oil but not eliminate it, this would reduce any oil that might get as far as the rubber seals.

This implies, to me, that having the wicks is a good thing if your rubber seals are poor, but that not having the wicks provides better lubrication to the pivot points.

I can think of two possible remedies. 1) use thicker diameter "O" rings to make tighter seals. (might not last very long depending on the amount of movement they are subjected to). 2) Fit some wicks - they were probably originally felt, so find an old felt fedora and using a hole punch, cut yourself some suitably sized pieces, soak them in gear oil before pushing them in to the holes.

So, anybody else got any ideas for Gary?

John

[AustHaflinger]

Yes - thanks John - we think along the same lines - it would be nice if the gurus could chime in as there is still a lot to learn about these vehicles.

Cheers

Garry

[pathfinder700ap]

Hello,

I have the theory that on younger Haflingers, the wicks were left away. As far as I could see, on my 1971 Haf, there are no wicks in the pins. Also, younger Haflingers have a system with O-Rings, while older versions had flat rubber seals instead of the two large O-Rings per pin. It was possibly tried to find a non-leaking solution there. Also, the side lids of the axle housings were changed to work with the system with O-Rings.

Gary, maybe the cause of your leak is not the large O-Rings, but the smaller ones that sit directly on the pins. Especially the one at the small end of the pin gets easily damaged as you twist the pin into the bore in the aluminium lid (sharp edge).


Kind regards,
Constantin

[AustHaflinger]

Hi Constantin - hmm explains why I had no wicks in the fulrum pins I pulled out 18months ago - my vehicle is a 1973. Re the O rings I will look closely at this when I pull them out this time and make sure I get big fat ones (within reason) and take particular care when putting them back in.

Thanks for your advice - exactly what I needed.

Cheers

Garry