By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Saturday, June 09, 2001 - 03:17 pm: Edit

While replacing the drive train fluids yesterday, I discovered that our 1997 Disco does not have drain or fill plugs on the two swivel pins/swivel balls. It only has a level check and is filled with grease. I had thought that this was done on 1998 and newer, but was obviously wrong. At this point, I don't want to tear them apart to get the grease out.

I have some simple questions.
- When I pulled the "check plug" there was grease in the swivels. Should it be full/solid to the check plug?

- If it does need to be topped off, is the easiest method to purchase the tubes of LR grease and pump more in? I've heard some folks mixing the grease with 75W90 gear oil, but that's primarily on RR and older Discos which are designed to be drained and refilled regularly.

- If I do top it off, do I just pack as much in as I can?

I'm just not certain what to look for here. I absolutely HATE when manufacturers design in parts that the customer can't easily maintain. I certainly don't believe the LR pitch that it's a "do it once and forget it" applcation! Do you have to tear them apart everytime you go wading?!?!?!

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Saturday, June 09, 2001 - 08:11 pm: Edit

Well if everything is right you shouldnt get any water in there. I only tear mine down about once a year (Unless I have an unscheduled tear down ) and its always fine. Go ahead and fill it with as much as you can squeeze in there. Turn the wheels to lock in that direction forst of you cant get it in.

Kyle

By Steven Henry on Saturday, June 09, 2001 - 09:07 pm: Edit

I wanted to change the swivel ball grease on my 1999 Series One Disco, but noted that they do not have drain holes. Has anyone simply used a drill powered powered pump to empty the grease for regular changes? I do not want to pull the entire thing apart, and this seems like it would be an easy way of servicing the swivel ball housing without tearing everything apart.

Does any one have any comments on this?


Steven

By Steve (Oz93discov8) on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 06:23 am: Edit

My 1993 has the oil filled swivels with the level & drain plugs. The swivel seals don't leak but the oil seems to disappear all the same. I suspect it is leaking into the front diff. Is there any dramas if I switch to grease instead of the recommended 90W gearbox oil. If so which grease is the best.

By Cal on Sunday, June 10, 2001 - 11:40 pm: Edit

Landrover released a tech bulletin to replace the oil with a lithium grease.

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 12:03 am: Edit

Yes. And that grease is supposed to be "maintainance free" forever more afterwards.

Somehow, I just have a hard time believing that suddenly LR (or any of the other OEM's who make such claims for that matter) have discovered the secret to a lubricant that never breaks down, wears out, gets contaminated, etc and then puts it in our cars/trucks.

When I see claims like that, the translation usually comes back "expensive service item".

By Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr. (Jpg2esq) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 11:17 am: Edit

I changed mine this weekend at 76k miles. Looked fine to me, but I changed it anyways. Heard that the grease wasn't that much of a difference so used the same 80/90weight gear oil I used in the transfer gearbox.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 11:47 am: Edit

Just changed mine this weekend. Did a full teardown, cleaning, and greasing. Supposedly, for a CV joint, you should only use grease that says it is for a CV joint.

I used a blended synthetic that was a universal grease (CV joint OK). I would have went fill synthetic, but the AutoExpress I stopped at didn't have it.

Just soime food for thought.

By ROn on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 11:58 am: Edit

wo wo wo

Did you put real grease in there? Like thick stuff? The RR swivel grease is like more of an oil. You need it to "splash lubricate" some such thing which the cv does when spinning.

Ron

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 12:08 pm: Edit

wo wo wo? I take it that is bad?

Real grease, yes. The stuff I took out was pretty thick as well. The grease was universal stuff and would work for driveshafts, too.

Did I f**k up?

Tom

By Ron on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 12:16 pm: Edit

I don't know. All I can say is that at the very most I have heard people mix 50/50 grease and 90wt. If it were me I would pump out a bit and do that. RR "Grease" is really a 90wt with moly particles in it making it somewhat thicker like a grease. Given the price of new CVs I think it would be preventitve maintainance. Maybe someone else would like to render an opinion?

Ron

By al hang on Monday, June 11, 2001 - 12:45 pm: Edit

forget mixing up a anything, just use heavy weight lube, like 85-140wt. it won't leak, it's available everywhere, and it's cheap. I don't think the small tubes you buy from the dealership contain enough.

-al

By Mike Holland on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 10:02 pm: Edit

The easiest way to drain a swivel with no drain plug is to unbolt the swivel seal retaining ring and pull the seal away from the housing. When empty wipe off the housing and refit the seal. Factory swivel grease seems to work fine.

By Mike Holland on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 - 10:03 pm: Edit

Oh yeah remove the ABS sensor to refill it.

By Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr. (Jpg2esq) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 09:39 am: Edit

Does the abs sensor have the wire loom coming into it on the top if the housing?

By John on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 02:23 pm: Edit

Any trucks with the black swivel as opposed to the shiny chrome plated ball will not have a drain plug....Al is right...90 weight works great.

By Ali on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 06:18 pm: Edit

I use Cornhead grease by John Deere in the swivel. It looks, feels and smell the same as LR's "one shot" but it costs $2.50 / cartridge. I dumped it into a squeeze catsup bottle and keep one in the truck for emergencies. Any John Deere will have it. It's synthetic BTW.

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 06:36 pm: Edit

Yes , its dont really matter. Just fill the bastard with grease. As far as "splash" go's. How fast you think that bastard is spinning in there? How hot you think it gets? And how thin do you think that grease gets when all that happens? I think there is plenty of shit flying around.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 06:38 pm: Edit

How the hell would you fill a truck w/out a fill plug with 90 weight?

If that LR stuff is just 90 weight with some "space age ploymers" how would I get it in there and have it stay while I put the CV back in? Turn the truck on it's side???

Tom

By Kyle Van Tassel (Kyle) on Wednesday, June 13, 2001 - 06:43 pm: Edit

It has a fill , might be too damn dirty to see , but it has one...

Kyle

By John on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 10:07 am: Edit

13 m/m square fill plug at top inside. Make a dipstick out of a cable tie that shows full
1 1/2" below the hole as you dont want to overfill and blow your ball seal.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 10:38 am: Edit

Thanks, guys. Once again, my ASSumptions have proven wrong.

Tom

By Jeff Bieler (Mrbieler) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 10:42 am: Edit

Damn! I was hoping you'd post a tech article with the truck on it's side! ;-)

At this point, I am going to go with the "just fill it" method and recheck it regularly.

I saw a post on the D-90 reference page where the retrofitted the swivel balls to a drain and fill design, but I am no where near being up to speed enough to tackle that yet.

By RVR OVR (Tom) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 - 01:27 pm: Edit

Yes, I saw that too. That actually led me to beleive that we didn't have fill plugs 'cause I scanned it really fast. Didn't seem right to me. Anyway, yes, just fill and check.

Just to be safe, I am going to tear down the front end and put the right stuff in there.

Tom