Axle vents to prevent seal leakage?

[Redbug]

My Kubota is sealed, also. And there have been problems with the seals going out like what you described because of pressure differences. I was thinking of doing the same thing Mike had just mentioned. My idea was to also add a small pipe where you could connect a length of tubing and run it up into the engine compartment for the vent. That way, if you get into water above the filler bolt on the axle no water could get in. That's the way it is on my truck.

Maybe drill a hole in the filler bolt and weld a small piece of metal tubing to that. The rubber tubing would attach to that and go up...

 

[Car Doc]

Why not have the front axles vented on these 4 wheel drive tractors? There must be a reason that I am not aware of. I've done a search and came up with no definitive answer. I was wanting to vent my GC through the fill cap, but it looks like I need a vent on both sides of the axle, or one in the center. I am not willing to drill a new hole, so any ideas, or just replace the seals once they start leaking.

I vented my front axle on my Yanmar because it would leak out of the pinion seal after a work out and it has pretty much stopped it.

Lucky mine had a threaded hole in the top of the punkin with a plug in.

I removed it and ran a tube up by the radiator support and looped it down so dirt etc could not get in.

My 2c on why not is they are under water at least the gray market tractors are sometimes and that is one less place to get water in jmho.

 

[slowzuki]

My Kubota is not vented, not a problem. I had seals fail, but not because of venting, they just wore out. I'd guess a vent is more problems than good as its a place to suck water in if you drive in too deep.

 

[ray66v]

If your really concerned about this, it would seem that drilling and tapping a hole, then screwing in a barbed fitting with a hose would be a simple fix, would it not?

 

[Wacky]

If your really concerned about this, it would seem that drilling and tapping a hole, then screwing in a barbed fitting with a hose would be a simple fix, would it not?

It would, if it was just that simple. If I do that, metal shavings will fall into the axle and there really is no way without disassembling the axle to get them out.

 

[Wacky]

Check your filler plug, the cap is the same as the rear end and should vent if not screwed in too tigh.

Ahhh, but they are different. If you look closely, the one for the rear has a 1/16th hole drilled in it, but the front one does not. If you put a hole in it the oil will seep out when you side-hill with that axle down hill. The hole needs to be in the center of the axle.

 

[Reg]

It would, if it was just that simple. If I do that, metal shavings will fall into the axle and there really is no way without disassembling the axle to get them out.

Isn't that the reason for putting heavy grease on the drill bit just before it breaks through ?
With CARE you shouldn't just get drill swarf in there. - - with CARE !

 

[Reg]

Ahhh, but they are different. If you look closely, the one for the rear has a 1/16th hole drilled in it, but the front one does not. If you put a hole in it the oil will seep out when you side-hill with that axle down hill. The hole needs to be in the center of the axle.

Seems you SHOULD be able to get a replacement plug, drill it out and put a fitting into it.
Run a hose from that fitting up however high you feel a need to.
As long as it is always above the other end of the axle you shouldn't get any oil loss.
A bit might go up the tube once in a while when it is downhill, you get it back on the opposite side slope - - unless you are posing a full time ploughing situation where the axle is tipped to the right for MANY HOURS (-:
Even then, you bring it back to the barn at night and stand it more or less level.

Small, cheap, easily replaceable part that you can work on at the bench - - seems a winner to me.

 

[ray66v]

It would, if it was just that simple. If I do that, metal shavings will fall into the axle and there really is no way without disassembling the axle to get them out.

You men the axle that is full of metal fragments already?

Did you know they drill out the filter adapter on a hydraulic transmission, and tap the what is it 1" hole, when people break off the filter?

And they drill out spark plugs from the heads of engines, and repair them?

You could drill next to one of the caps, so you could catch the catch the chips with some sort of device held in through the hole.

I have heard one of the ways they do this is to use grease to hold chips to the drill and taps. Even without doing so, flooding the axle with solvent like mineral spirits, or even light oil, would surely clean it out.

 

[Car Doc]

A vent in the fill plug could work as long as there was a way of separating the oil from air after the fact.

The air pressure would equalize just fine its only that if the tubing was two small it could just pump some fluid out if any was covering the vent.

In mine the level is a little less than half ways up so it would have to be quite a tip in order to cover the vent anyway.

With that said a small container at the top of the tube could work once the pressure got out the fluid would drain back in in theory as long as the tubing was fairly large enough not to create to much suction.

Somewhat like a closed circuit cooling system overflow bottle works except w/o a closed cap.