IDEA TO PREVENT BEARING FAILURES COMMENTS PLEASE

I’m sick of changing King pin & wheel bearings in my Jimny.
The other day I had an idea. The bearings general fail as a result of ingress of water / mud into the axle housing probably through the swivel seal.
Since I have long changed to manual hubs, my idea was to introduce a positive pressure down the 4 redundant pipes for the vacuum hubs thus preventing the water getting in.
At first I thought about tapping into the exhaust manifold but I’ve since gone off this idea due to corrosive nature of exhaust fumes.
So I’m currently thinking about a small pump such as windscreen washer pump or if this is not man enough a small compressor. This could be operated by a switch on the dash before entering water. Due to time constraints I probably never get around to trying this but what do you guys think?

The theory is sound. why not give it a go it can't do any harm.

I read an article in Total Off road about a chap with a Series LR who did not want to lose his drum brakes for some stupid reason but built it into a challenge truck, so was going through muddy water alot. He drilled his drum back plates and screwed fittings in for compressed air connected to a compressor and turned it on when wading.

It worked well apparently.

So it's worth a try and is something I've considered since reading that article, however, I am not happy with the other effects of muddy water on my Jimjam and would like it to last the test of time, so I've just stopped driving through crap!

Kirkynut


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I may have a look at work for the bits needed because iv googled it all including positive pressures etc and seems to work well

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Sounds a fair idea. I've been wondering if it might be possible to use rubber TWO swivel seals under the metal ring per side! Crazy or might it be practicle??

I think you and I are working to the same goal. We ought to put our heads together,.