Topic: Swivel joints.....almost done.. (Read 6831 times)

lee celtic · « **on:** February 27, 2009, 20:24:05 »

Hi All

I was doing a bit of work on the truck tonight and have noticed I have a bit of play in the passenger side swivel joint. I have an MOT comming up so I think I will overhaul the whole thing .the questions are as follows ......

I have shopped around a bit for the seal kits but what size would my car have (89 200tdi ) 12mm or 9mm

Are the bearings the same top and bottom as some ads say they are and some don't ( I is confoossed :-k)

Can the bearings be changed with the swivel ball still attached to the car ???

And how do I find out if mine is to JA#### or from JA#### I have found the GA##### on my log book but where do I find the JA numbers???

And can I fit swivel gators too (pros and cons please)

There that should keep you busy :lol: :lol:

cheers Lee....

clbarclay · « **Reply #1 on:** February 27, 2009, 22:12:33 »

The the JA#### is that start of the serial number and is stamped on the vin plate.

IIRC the 'J' referes to the year the the vehicle was built and was the same as the number plate age number, assuming the vehicle was registered the year it was built. If yours serial umber stars GA then it will have been built a few years before the change.

lee celtic · « **Reply #2 on:** February 27, 2009, 22:38:45 »

Cool :clap:

Thats one down cheers... :D

Budgie · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2009, 22:38:52 »

You can change the bearings with the swivel housing in situ but you have to remove it from the axle if you want to change the large seal. So if you're planning on changing the seal at the same time then you may as well take it off and do the whole job on the bench. ;)
The gaiters are OK but if you get any water in there then it can cause more damage then if you had left the gaiters off. You also can't see if the seal around the swivel housing is leaking with the gaiters on.

andrew2986 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 28, 2009, 11:41:31 »

I bought a kit from paddocks, every thing I needed was in there including 1 shot grease. just gave them the vin number they worked it all out.

Andy

Range Rover Blues · « **Reply #5 on:** March 01, 2009, 12:34:16 »

IIRC the early sealsonly apply to RRC. The bearing are the same top and bottom one the non-ABS style swivels found on ealrier Disco and RRC, the later type have the Railko bush so that the ABS sensor could fit inside the top swivel pin.

Gaitors, well i bought a set for mine and they didn't fit so i left them off. BNy the time I thought to sort that out the swivels were already chipped and going rusty, so my advice is sfit them loose so they protect the polished surface fo the ball from stone chios but leave them open so they don't accumulate muck or you can at least hose them out.

Disco_Stu · « **Reply #6 on:** March 01, 2009, 13:08:59 »

My advice would be to follow the above advice!

Except, don't go to paddocks, go to Mailorder 4x4, their service is far superior and the swivel ball kit they supply has the teflon coated ball instead of cheap far east chrome. This way you can probably skip the gaiters also. Mine is sound.

Stu.

andrew2986 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 01, 2009, 14:25:32 »

The kit I bought from Paddocks had a Teflon coated swivel.

lee celtic · « **Reply #8 on:** March 01, 2009, 17:44:37 »

Balls ok so all I need is the bearings and seals just thought I may be able to change the bearings without taking the ball off the axle as the seal there isn't leaking so I don't really want to disturb it ( if it ain't broke don't fix it and all that)...

Range Rover Blues · « **Reply #9 on:** March 01, 2009, 22:46:30 »

Mine are teflon coated, not impressed. Next time it'll be chrome.

Les Henson · « **Reply #10 on:** March 02, 2009, 06:44:12 »

FYI Bearmach supply chrome sprayed swivel balls. I've only started fitting them recently, so I don't know how good/long lasting they are.

Les.

crazymac · « **Reply #11 on:** March 02, 2009, 10:00:45 »

You can do the svivel seal by removing the whole hub as one unit and putting it in a bucket!

Disco_Stu · « **Reply #12 on:** March 02, 2009, 20:08:59 »

Great tip crazymac, I'll use that one :)

lee celtic · « **Reply #13 on:** March 02, 2009, 20:54:32 »

very clever :clap: :clap:

Banjo · « **Reply #14 on:** March 03, 2009, 10:07:37 »

What's the largest bucket I can use on my 200tdi without altering the arches :lol: :lol:.

lee celtic · « **Reply #15 on:** March 03, 2009, 19:59:34 »

:lol: :lol: :lol::lol: very good....

I've ordered a kit from island 4x4 via ebay £19 for 2 bearings , a 12 and a 9mm seal ,grease , seal retainer and a gasket for the ball to axle joint and outer shaft..

I'll let you all know how it goes. 8-[

lee celtic · « **Reply #16 on:** March 05, 2009, 20:39:04 »

All The bits arrived from Island 4x4 great service as usual everything I need :dance: apart from the locking washer for the hub nut :roll: knew I'd forgotten something...

So I'll get one tomorrow then do it Saturday hopfully with piccs if I can borrow the lads camera :D

lee celtic · « **Reply #17 on:** March 07, 2009, 21:02:56 »

Well I spent the morning taking it all apart . Longest job was getting the ball joints apart on the steering arms :roll: I've got a splitter but it just kept sliding off ...

then I spent a couple of hours cleaning everything off ready to put it all back together , old swivel grease is minging :->

Gave the swivel housing a lick of paint and put it all back together. now tomorrow all I need to do is slot the half shaft back in 6 bolts and bang the hub and wheel back on :dance:

what I find funny is that changing the front wheel bearing is a four spanner job according to Haynes but rebuilding the swivel is only a three .. but you have to do the wheel bearing bit before doing swivel bit :-k bizarre

trecfive · « **Reply #18 on:** March 07, 2009, 21:40:07 »

Quote from: lee celtic on March 07, 2009, 21:02:56

Well I spent the morning taking it all apart . Longest job was getting the ball joints apart on the steering arms :roll: I've got a splitter but it just kept sliding off ...

Throw the ball joint splitter in the scrap pile. 3 hard whacks with a good hammer, works every time and doesn't split the rubber on the track rod ends. IF you have got a tap and die set run one through the axle ends, you can then tighten the bolts up a lot more with your fingers. Saves on the spanner work.

clbarclay · « **Reply #19 on:** March 07, 2009, 22:03:30 »

As above, I haven't used a 'ball joint splitter' for a long time.

I find it helps to pry the joint appart while hitting it with a hammer, done right its a one hammer hit job. LR stering ball joints are easy to pry as all you need is the standard bottle jack and use it to push up the track/drag rod next to the TRE. When using the pry + hammer technique undo the nut on the TRE but don't remove it, leave it on a couple of turns so that the joint doesn't fly appart.

lee celtic · « **Reply #20 on:** March 07, 2009, 22:11:43 »

Good idea with running the tap through the ends of the axle . I will do that tomorrow cheers :clap:

I did bin the splitter in the end I put the nut back on a few turns then warmed the arm up a bit and gave it a good smack :lol:

bigwood · « **Reply #21 on:** March 20, 2009, 20:31:28 »

I helped my mate change the front diff on his RR a while back.To save pulling the hubs down we decided to split the axle at the swivel joint. My side no sweat ,his side lots of swearing and cursing. On checking the problem he had not allowed enough room between the hub and the wall for the lengh of the half shafts. I did explain to him he only had to pull the shaft out far enough to clear the diff. Still it was worth a free drink not to tell people of his error. We now have a white line down the middle of the workshop. :lol:

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AuthorTopic: Swivel joints.....almost done.. (Read 6831 times)