Outside tire wear/movement of wheel when hands placed at 12 and 6....whats loose?

[NC_Mule]

1970 SIIA RHD 88
So I noticed the outside inch of my front tires is wearing faster then the rest of the tread. It's something that just started in the last 2-3 months. Jacked up the front and when I place my hands at 12 and 6 I have movement, hard to measure but 1/4" or so. When I place my hands at 3 and 9 all is tight. I've never been inside my swivel balls but know that my swivel ball seal leaks. I ordered new swivel ball seals, wheels seals, inner and outer wheel bearings and took the left side apart today.
So far all my wheel bearings look good so i'm wondering if my railco bush or my bottom bearing might be the problem. I have some top and bottom play at my swivel ball housing. I'm soaking the bolts with WD and plan on taking the housing off next.

What sort of wear should I be looking for when I get to the railco bush and the bottom bearing?

Thanks pb

[o2batsea]

You might as well plan on doing the swivels. New pins, railco bush, bottom bearing, wheel bearings u joint seals and all that shatz. The effort to do those extra bits as long as the swivel is off for a new seal ain't that big a deal. And get a shim pack as long as you're ordering.

[gudjeon]

Agree with ^^^. It sounds like a perfect candidate for a swivel rebuild. When it goes back together, check the toe-in. Just to make sure it wasn't a contributor to tire wear.

[NC_Mule]

Thats what I was thinking, already have the wheel bearings and seals so adding the swivel bits is not much more money. Tie rods look old might replace those and call the whole thing complete. Buying a new set of tires once this is finished so I want everything to be in good shape.
pb

[NC_Mule]

My half shaft bearings look good and turn smooth. Should I pop them out and repack them with grease? Or is it a bad idea to remove and then reinstall the same bearing? On a budget and I just dropped $400 for misc parts and the half shaft bearings didn't make the cut. Thanks pb

[o2batsea]

The grease will just wash out. Are you using swivel housing grease or oil in your swivel housing? The grease for the Disco/Defender/RR CV joint type axles is far better than the oil, especially if you are running freewheel hubs. It has molybdenum disulphide, so it's black already! The moly helps in both high heat and thin film lube. Remember, nothing lubed actually touches. Anything that you can do to help keep stuff from touching is a bonus.

[NC_Mule]

I'm converting from swivel grease back to gear oil. Since everything is apart I didn't realize that the half shaft bearing, when assembled, will be sitting in oil. So I should be good to go. I run MAP hubs in the locked position.
Thanks pb

[gudjeon]

I always pack bearings in grease, even though they run in oil and it may wash out. It can't hurt. The halfshaft bearings , if in good shape, no brinnelling, pits, etc should be OK. I put a used one back on and polished the race on the shaft with fine emery. It is on a full time front end and has been fine on a daily for 6 years now. Bearings are so oversized on the rover, that if they are in decent shape and stay lubed, they last a very long time.

[NC_Mule]

7140

Got the left swivel rebuilt. Cracked open the right and found some pitting. Does this need to be replaced? How bad on a scale of 10, 10 being really bad.

[Apis Mellifera]

That's not bad at all. Maybe a 2. I've reused much worse. Repair with JBWeld and use grease instead of oil. Should keep the good muck in and the bad muck out.

[NC_Mule]

Well I was advised that grease was bad because it didn't lube the railco bushing. So I'm doing all this work so I can use oil and not have a bunch of leaks. Are you refering to the disco,RR CV grease that is mentioned a few posts below?
Think a new swivel seal will seal against the pits?

[Apis Mellifera]

Yes, One Shot grease. There really isn't a mechanism or mode of lubrication for the railco bushing. I suppose the thinner oil may make its way up there more readily that the grease. The One Shot grease is actually just 00 grease (IIRC) and is not at all like wheel bearing grease. It's actually ore like thin pudding. I get mine from a tractor supply store. That said, I also modify the swivel pin with a grease fitting and machining to allow for proper lubrication.

If you want to be sure you don't have any leaks, buy a new swivel ball. I repaired one of mine as I described and replaced the other with a new part. Both sides got grease. Neither side leaks. If you want to use oil and are willing to gamble on leakage, try the repair, but the oil seal will be much happier sliding on new chrome.

[o2batsea]

Thing is, that the time and labor to repair the swivel pretty much equals the cost of new. In addition, the repair may not take. You have to get all traces of oil contamination out of the pits. You can do that with heat, cooking it off with a torch, or with chemicals like xylene. Once clean, sand the entire ball surface with 600 wet sand paper. Coat with POR-15, and while wet mist with a light coat of xylene. After it has dried heat treat it in a 300 degree oven or use a heat gun. Wait 3 days before reassembly.

[NC_Mule]

The railco grease fitting is clever. I'm too far into this to go back to the grease. I'll bite the bullet and get a new ball.
Thanks for the thoughts.
I'm really doing a good job on this, painting all the parts, the left side looks really good. Will post pics once all is done.
pb

[Apis Mellifera]

No question new is the best way to go. There's a reason I replaced and did not repair the second swivel ball on my truck.

[emmotto]

How does one get the grease into the ball? Is it light enough to flow into the same hole you add oil into?


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[Jim-ME]

The one shot that I used was Rover and it came in a tube that came to a point. I just cut the end off and squeezed the tube into the oil fill putting one tube per swivel ball.
Jim

[o2batsea]

Meh, bazillions of Rovers running around with the gooey grease in the swivels and it doesn't seem to hurt the railco bushing.

[NC_Mule]

At some point the gooey grease was an official Land Rover conversion. I have stickers, one on each side, on my fire wall each with a serial number and Land Rover logo explaining that the swivel balls have been converted from oil.
Already burned thru 3 rolls of paper towels cleaning the grease out so I'm going to stick to the oil route. Doubt I'll get my swivel ball by the weekend, was hoping to have the truck back on the road by then.

[o2batsea]

A 5 gallon bucket and a couple gallons of diesel makes a very effective parts washer. No paper towels need die.

[NC_Mule]

Man diesel is a great idea. Brake cleaner is too expensive to use as a parts cleaner.

[NC_Mule]

Yes Sir!

Put everything back together, and had a successful test ride. The Mule is already back to work, hauled about 1,000 lbs of fire wood this afternoon. Going to start researching tires and get those on. Think I'm going to have the shop pull the old tires off so I can paint the wheels then put the new ones on once I get the wheels looking nice.
This was my first swivel ball rebuild. A few notes for the next noobie.
1) Swivel balls are not handed (left/right) but they do have a top and bottom. When my new one came in I jumped on it and installed the railco and bottom race. As soon as I torqued down the steering arm bolts the swivel would lock up even with the railco bolts finger tight. After about an hour thinking about it I broke it back down and compaired it to my bad swivel. Thats when I noticed a slight difference top and bottom. Luckly I was able to get the new railco and bottom race back out and switched. As soon as I did that all was well. I was advised to use a brass drift as it's softer then the metal your banging on. Think thats what allowed me to make the change with out any damage to my new parts.
2) If your ball joints spin and will not tighten up hit them with the impact, it spins faster then the shaft can and zips the bolt right on.

Thats it, here is a pic of my work. Thanks for the help. Next is a new radiator and full exhaust.

7165

[o2batsea]

Oooo, pretty! For the next week anyway...

[Skeeball]

I plan on using Corn head grease when I get my swivel balls back in