www.Amphicars.com

Front wheel bearings.

Prevention is best and there are two tricks to significantly extend the life of front wheel bearings. Using a synthetic grease like Amsoil helps but a real big improvement is to kit Kens rubber caps in place of the metal ones. This is a note I wrote about the issue in early 2007.

OK, I've got to write this up properly, I'll put something in a club newsletter soon but here is a summary.

First I should say I've learnt a lot about this over the last 20 years from the engineers in the German Amphicar club and also from talking to a specialist in boat trailer design, the 30204 and 30206 taper roller bearings Amphicar used are the ones most trailer manufacturers use.

The problem is when Amphicar goes in to water the temp drop causes pressure differences and water is sucked in past the large seal and the steel cap.
The way a lot of boat owners fix this is to use a "bearing buddy" this slightly pressurises the grease and so when the pressure drop happens it isn't enough to pull in water. However for various reasons the bearing buddies don't really work well on Amphicar.

You must remember the Amphicar engineers and designers were truely world class and in the early days had no shortage of money. They did of course recognise this problem and came up with a solution. The groove in the hub is to allow a dome shaped rubber cap to fit. This forms a watertight seal but also deforms when in the water to equalise the pressure inside and outside the hub and so stops water being sucked in, brilliant, simple and effective.
Only problem was when Amphicar changed to use the black Moly based grease (which was to help with the rear axle problems). This reacted with the rubber caps causing them to disintegrate. By the time this was discovered the Amphicar Corporation had other more serious problems and so didn't invest to fix it but instead just slapped on the generic metal cap.

What we need is someone to remake the original rubber cap to the same design but in modern grease tolerant materials. I've spoken with Hugh about this
many times and I think it is on his list - but it's a long list and it hasn't got to the top yet.

Regarding the inner race, yes, remove it once and then cut two small slots each side with a wide hacksaw to enable you to remove the bearing race in the future. I've seen some late cars with two small holes (about 3mm) drilled so you can push the race out with a pin, it was most probably a factory mod or dealer advisory.
 

And, Ken Richer of Louisiana USA went out and produced a mould to make the rubber caps !

On my car, this is the normal steel cap

And the problem, see how the Amsoil grease has changed to light blue as water has been sucked in past the metal cap.

Look closely and you can see the water globules on the grease.

Kens cap fitted showing the way it deflects to equalise pressure.

Job done.

I now have a set on my car. They are excellent and I reckon totally solve the problem. They will deflect when in water so as the wheel is "quenched" will allow the pressure to equalise therefore preventing water being sucked in. Another benefit is they make it much easier to remove the front brake drum.

To buy them search for Amphicar Axle on Ebay.com  If you are in Europe then contact me as I'm planning to get a bulk order together.