The Definitive Swivel Pin Thread!

Group,

In the 80's I owned a 1967 Series IIA 88 AND a 1967 NADA Series IIA 109. Both rigs had a chronic swivel pin/ball leaking problem. My answer, at the time, was to simply install a pair of "gaitors" that masked the problem.

The constant problem with the spherical swivel pin housing in most Rovers is that... THEY LEAK OIL!

Is the real answer... GREASE?

I've inherited a similar situation with my '93 RRC LWB... Do I go the grease route? For the past 3 months, I've been feeding the swivel pin housings with 90W... Yet to REALLY go the grease route, I should strip down everything and PACK the CV's with grease.

Before my front end goes BLONK! I'm asking for experienced input.

Do tell,

--ccec

I would think for the 3-4 hours of time to strip the front C.V.'s out, clean them and re-assemble, it would be worth the piece of mind and end the sleepless nights.

2p

Maybe that's what I REALLY need... more sleep. No more posts at 12:30 am.

I will keep monitoring the situation. When I get inspired, I'll strip:)... Thanks!

There's always a cheap or in this case case lazy bastard way to repair something. -It may not hold for long in some cases but you get the point. This repair worked GREAT and permanently.

I repaired my leaky swivel ball seals on my RRC by buying new seals (thick black, plastic with rubber and a little spring deal that went around the inside) and actually installing them from the rear of the hub assembly. I know, you're saying 'what the f_ck?' I even left the wheels on the truck.

There is only one easy-to-remove bracket on the backside of the hub holding the swivel seal in place. Remove it. Take a dremel or heavy duty side cutters and remove the old swivel seal by cutting it and pulling out from around the axel housing. Take your new one and (remove the spring inside of it) make a cut through it thereby allowing you to NOT PULL IT APART MAKING IT A "C" but pull it apart making it look like part of a coil spring. Thread the new seal onto the axel housing, do your best to bend it back to new and install it putting the area you cut at the very top. Now take that spring you had removed and cut it and wrap it around the axel housing and reconnect it by twisting it together like a wire splice but much more cleanly. Place back into the swivel seal.

EDIT: if you can re-use the old springs on the old swivel seals rather than trying to install your new ones (that you had to cut) and reattaching them, then do that. One of my old swivel seals still had the spring intact but the other was in pieces.

Seal the area you cut to spread it open with silcone and let it sit for a day at least. I can't remember if I could re-install the mounting bracket before the silicone but you'll figure that out.

Most of the 90W has probably run out of it by now (a good thing) and if you're thinking ahead you'll have cleaned out as much of it as you could. Fill the swivel ball with the correct LR grease. If you grew up in IA like I did then (no LR dealer within 200miles) use John Deere cornhead grease. It's the same thing.

I love it! I've thought about that concept as well. :thumb-up:Good to see you've actually DONE it. Thanks for chiming in.

--ccec

Been Driving RRC's for 2o years. Don't turn my own wrenches on this type of fix and couldn't tell you what my mechanic did to fix the issue but can assure you neither of my classics have had this problem after addressed.