By L_Tilly on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 09:09 am: Edit

I posted previously that I recently flushed out a blob of gunk from my front swivels and refilled w/ 90wt synthetic. Well, I have discovered that the swivel seal on the driver's side is shot.

I noticed leaking after draining the 60k guck, putting in the 90wt and driving for about an hour. I would guess it is loosing about a quarter of it's volume per 350 miles (one week). When I wiped the seal down well I found one place (hidden in the top-back of the swivel) where the rubber is actually torn and hanging outside of the swivel about 1/8 inch. I obviously will need to replace this seal.

We are currently renting and don't have access to a garage (although I may be able to bribe for use of someone's lift). I do have jack, jack stands, etc and a decent collection of tools (always willing to buy more if needed!). I have not had a chance to look into the shop manual on this yet. It sounds like some of you open up your swivels once a year or so, and I'd love to get some details from you. If I can get enough details to get through this without major problems I'll write up a short tech article w/ images for posting.

How much of an effort is it to open up the swivels and replace the seals? Is there a replacement seal available from NAPA or PepBoys (etc), or do I need to order them? How much time is involved if this is my first time doing this? What would be some other good things to do while I'm in there (things to clean, danger signs to look for, etc)? Are there any other parts other than the seal that should be replaced automatically? If there are any other pearls of wisdom...please pass them on.

On a side note, the fill plug is starting to show wear on its corners from the heavy recent use (it seems to be a pretty soft metal). Anyone know a matching replacement I could pick up before this thing strips??

advTHANKSance!!!
L_Tilly lnctilly@mediaone.net
96 Disco "Beowulf" - NH, USA

By Matt Rigby (Mrigby) on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 01:41 pm: Edit

Before you dive into all that work, check to see if you can't just put in the LR swivel housing grease to replace the 90wt oil. One of my swivel housing oil seals was leaking like crazy and I was sure I would have to replace it, but Bill at Great Basin Rovers suggested I put in the grease and it worked like a charm.

By Perrone Ford on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Why would anyone suggest adding a thicker fluid when the guy really has a blown seal? He's obviously getting contamination past the seal so how will this help?

-P

By L_Tilly on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 04:34 pm: Edit

Matt,
I appreciate the suggestion, but as Perrone mentioned, it's a bandaid (tm) that doesnt'address the issue. I try to get at least a day of trail ride each month and get into dust, gravel, mud and shallow water. I need to fix the seal or I'm just going to be introducing contamination in there.

So, any input from people who've done this??

L_Tilly lnctilly@mediaone.net
96 Disco "Beowulf" - NH, USA

By Alex Schubow (Alex) on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 04:42 pm: Edit

Perrone is right,

LR did a great disservice to their customers by putting that grey gunk in there, and then to add insult to injury, deleting the drain and level plugs. what a bunch of horseshit.

The swivel seals on my 98 never leaked a drop [of grease], but one of the swivel balls is badly pitted and corroded. If I was able to flush 90wt through there it would have never happened. Don't know what's going on inside the other one, but the ball looks ok. Its probably half full of gritty water too, just hasn't ground the teflon off the ball YET.

Point is, with the grease in there, the seal could be shot and you would never know it. With 90 wt, you know when the seal is going bad, it will leak.

Alex

By Moe on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 04:51 pm: Edit

Ummm . . , just maybe GBR's advice was particular to Matt's problem not what Tilly here is talking about. Matt said his was leaking not torn apart. I suspect that throwing grease in there is a good alternative to replacing pitted swivel balls, but it seems a lazy way out of fixing worn seal.

I heard KVT describe a 'trail' (not trailerpark )method to replace the seal that was far quicker than the more involved process. It would be great to have both documented on the Discoweb

By Slider on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 06:34 pm: Edit

Moving right along......

How do you replace the swivel ball seals??

Do you have to disassemble the axel??

By Frode Hübertz Haaland (Discofrode) on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 08:29 pm: Edit

L.Tilly!
Chk my site on how to replace swivel seal from axle side (easy way). Should be no problem for you doing the job! Takes you an evening, and no fancy tools except from the closed end of a 14mm combination spanner (correct english term???)

http://home.halden.net/discovery
It's in the "axles" section"

Roverly Yours, Frode

By L_Tilly on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 06:20 am: Edit

Thanx much for the pointer, Frode. Your guide was very easy to follow. I am thankful for the tip about the break pads...I may not have thought to check those for contamination.

I'm going to look into the process for attacking it from the outside in, however, as I may have to be doing this job solo and your method was definetly a two-person job. If anyone has done that method, I'd love to hear about it.

L_Tilly lnctilly@mediaone.net
96 Disco "Beowulf" - NH, USA

By L_Tilly on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 07:09 am: Edit

Well, I have ordered the parts for re-sealing my blown swivel. I actually ordered two sets of everything. The way I look at it, if one is blown then the other is probably not far behind. I'll be installing new shocks / springs at the same time, so I'm already getting into both wheel areas.

Anyway, I have looked over some options and will most likely be doing the service as per the shop manual (ie from the outside going in). The order includes seven or so seals as well as replacement roller bearings for the stub axel (AB advised that w/ 70k + miles they may be due for replacement, and since they were only about $10 each I figured "why not").

My main question here deals with the crome swivel ball itself. Since I'm going to have this puppy out how could I go about cleaning its exterior really well? After about 1000 miles since I switched over to synthetic oil, the balls on both sides have become quite clean (they were previously covered by grease & gunk). However, there is one small patch on the top of the passenger ball that has some black buildup. It's a small patch right next to the seal and is definetly "on top" of the ball, as oposed to being gouges in the ball itself. I really want to clean this off so that the ball is doing its job unhindered and the build up doesn't put unneeded wear on the seal. As an FYI, this is NOT the side that has the blown seal.

In addition to cleaning the swivel ball, if there are any other suggestions out there, please speak up! I'm going to look over the shop manual pages again this evening or tomorrow and may post additional questions if something jumps out.

As always...Thanks for the assist! Only four days until the slow spiral into mod-ville starts!!! :-)

L_Tilly lnctilly@mediaone.net
96 Disco "Beowulf" - NH, USA