hole in hub housing?

[az ranger]

I have a small hole in my hub housing on my D44 driver side only. the hole seems to be perfectly round as if it is supposed to be there. the problem is that it all my greese gets blown out and I am sure that it lets water and dirt in. Does any body know what this is can I just plug it with silicon or put a spot weld on it or does it serve a purpose.

 

[monsterjim]

Are you talking about on the differential housing itself or out where your hubs are? If its on the dif. then it is probably the vent tube hole. If its out on the hub ya got me. give some more details as to where and the size of the hole. lol

 

[az ranger]

its on the end where the hubs are, deffinantly not the vent. It's no more than a 1/2 inch from the end of the housing and about the size of the end of my pencil I have not seen this on any thing else before, but it was on the axle when I bought it. also it is the older style with the flat top passenger knuckle if that matters at all. The housing is not rusted or falling apart the hole looks like mabe it was drilled there. javascript:void(0)

 

[POWERMAD]

You are refering to the hub? Where the bearings and races are.
Is the hole threaded?
Maybe someone tried to install a zerk fitting, so they could pump the hub full of grease. /forums/images/graemlins/dunno.gif
I have an external hub D44 and neither the hub or the lockouts on mine have an extra hole in them.

 

[monsterjim]

sounds like a grease zerk hole like he said, should be okay to silicon it up, to keep water out of the hubs and all.

 

[az ranger]

thanks for the info, greese zert sounds about right, althogh correct me if I am wrong but the locking hub assembly itself should only be ligghtly oiled and not greesed like the wheel bearings at least thats the way I have always done it. is that wrong?

 

[monsterjim]

you are correct sir. I usually use a little tranny fluid in the hubs, and a crap load of wheel bearing grease in the hub assembly. I've heard in colder climates that if you use grease in the hub they are hard to engage and disengage.