Dedion quad seals for greased tube

cdnp6

Member
My dedion gaitor is rapidly deteriorating. I have oil seeping from some small tears, but no oil at the elbow drip holes. Does this mean my quad seals are still good? I will be removing the tube soon, and will be greasing instead of refilling with oil.
 
If your de dion tube is of the oil type, then it would seem logical that you should refill it with oil.

Do you know of anyone who has successfully used grease instead of oil in the oil type tubes?

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
If your de dion tube is of the oil type, then it would seem logical that you should refill it with oil.

Do you know of anyone who has successfully used grease instead of oil in the oil type tubes?

Ron.

I have - no problems so far [ 2yrs ]
 
If there is oil leaking at the boot then the quad seals are gone. There should be no way for oil to get into the elbows at all as the tube is separated from the elbows by steel caps.
 
Thanks Kiwirover.
Both this gaiter and the seals only lasted 3 years.
I will order seals. Will the greased type seals fit an oil type tube?
 
I have greased a de dion tube, and then used oil filled seals. This seems to work well. The tube was pitted so oil would most likely just leak out, then end up in the rubber boot, hence I decided to use grease.

I think you can use the felt seals in place of the oil ones. However I cannot see any of them for sale from the usual suppliers. If I recall correctly they used to be listed, so I suggest that you just go with oil filled seals like I did. You may be able to find o rings which will work as well. I knew a Rover mechanic in Adelaide who did this.

James.
 
I'm due to do this job. Do I have to pull practically the whole rear suspension apart like the manual says, or is it reasonably easy to get the tube apart?
 
There are many folk on here with far greater experience than me at this, but I didn't unbolt the entire hub. I just slightly jacked up the car on the central cross member (after sticking the car up on some ramps), supported the the two elbows with a further couple of jacks and unbolted both ends of the tube, after marking its precise location with everything else around it. Note that the hubs will try to roll inwards at the top (negative camber) after you undo the tube so be watchful of that.

New seals and gaiter and bolted it all back together, then filled with oil.
 
Thank you Johnny. Is that hub roll going to be a problem? Do I need to take any precautions?

Got the seals sitting in my spare parts drawer; will get onto it as soon as the weather turns a little warmer.
 
I used some extra old scissor jacks to prop under the elbows to keep them horizontal for the final assembly. It looked a bit fiddly but was still much easier than unbolting everything on one side of the car.
 
Thank you, you've made it sound easy. I've been putting the job off for ages on account of the workshop manual's instructions to practically remove all the rear suspension.
 
I have done this job a couple of times on the ramps. It is not too bad. Just make sure that you mark everything well, and then it will go back together easy. If you do not mark well, then you will have trouble lining up the bolt patterns correctly on the flanges.

My other bit of advice is do not do up the hose clamp/ jubilee clip around the rubber gaitor until the car is off the ramps, and has been moved back and forth on flat ground. That way the suspension will be in the neutral, mid point position.

James
 
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