Swivel ball rebuild

[Bob602274]

I'm tired of my '69 2A leaking 90 weight oil out of the swivel balls. I do all of my own work but I've never pulled these apart. How difficult of a job is this to pull these apart and install new seals? Anything to be aware of and any special tools required?

Bob

[Enigma]

Check out TeriAnn Wakeman's site.
She has all the information you need to know.

Cheers

[lumpydog]

I did this project last fall - it fell across two weekends. I was replacing a rusty/pitted ball as well. When you have it all apart, it's a good opportunity to change out all seals, felt, crush washers or other one-use/degraded part. Below is Cut/Paste from a post where I outlined my experience and pointers:

1) Breaking down both sides to the axle takes about a quarter of the time it takes to put it all back together (I thoroughly cleaned, painted and overhauled each part that I wasn’t replacing). This is the Land Rover way, easy apart loooong reassembly.

2) Parts that used to play well together continue to play well together. Make sure the parts you are keeping/re-using go back on the SAME side they came from. If you keep them, bearings need to go back in the same location - as the races and bearings are paired and they will be conditioned to each other. Any other parts should go back to the same side as tolerances seem to make a difference.

3) Pressing bearing and seals in place can be done without a hydraulic press. I used a punch tool set that proved indispensable. I used these to pop out races and bushings that I wanted to replace and also to press in. Light taps moving the punch around the edges in a plus pattern shimmied bushes and races out and in nicely.

4) Pressing bushes and bearings without a press takes time and patience. Freezing parts that need to fit inside something will shrink that part. Heating parts that need to contain parts will expand them and help parts fit into it. I froze my railko bushes and bearing races that needed to go into the swivel ball. Made it a little easier. Tap lightly around the edges with the punch tool, moving side to side – using light to medium hammer taps and is works its way home. Hard hits don't help and will cause races to get stuck as you try to seat them.

5) If you don’t want to have to disconnect the brake hose (and bleed the brakes) you can simply pull the break backing plate over the stub axle/axle and place it out of the way (I left mine on top of the leaf springs).

6) Sealing her up… I used another member's suggestion and used Permatex Right Stuff in addition to the to O-ring on the bottom pin. Great idea. I also used thread sealer on the studs that held the steering arm to the bottom of the swivel ball housing as they protrude into the housing. Additionally, I used thread sealer on the bolts that mounted the stub axle and brake shoe backing plate to the swivel ball housing - they also protrude into the swivel ball housing and I didn’t want oil seeping through them. Fill (pack) the lip of the swivel ball seal with heavy grease (Ike Goss recommends sig 3000 in one of his posts) - it will take a good amount of grease to do this. Also, Ike recommends putting sealant in the groove in the swivel housing into which the swivel seal fits to prevent oil from weeping around the outside of the seal. I did not do this as I used one-shot grease which tends to not weep or creep as much and so far it has held just fine.

7) The 2a Green Bible gives different pre-load specs (14-16lbs) vs the Series 3 Green Bible (8-10lbs). Not sure why. My truck is a 1968 2a so I used 14lbs on both sides. Set the pre-load BEFORE you mount/secure the swivel ball seal – some of the online instructional pictorials showed preload being set after installation of the swivel seals and retainer. Not correct.

Here is a list of web sites/page tutorials that I found to be helpful.

Landrovernet:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Mud4fun:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Here is a list of the parts that you may need (it assumes you will reuse the major re-usable components) I used a subset of these, for example, my inner, outer hub bearings, half shaft bearing/collar/distance piece, swivel pins, one of my swivel balls, etc were fine:

Swivel Ball Overhaul:
244150 – Half shaft bearing – 2
90217398 – Half shaft collar – 2
244151 – Half shaft distance piece - 2
277289 - Joint gasket (swivel ball to axle) - 2
217400 – Oil Seal (between swivel ball and axle) - 2
539741 – Swivel Ball – 2
RTC3528 – Swivel seal – 2
235968 - Retainer for swivel seal – 2
576583 - Swivel pin - 2
539742 - Railko bush - 2
FRC2906 - Thrust washer for Ralko bush - 2
530984 - .003 inch shim for swivel pin – 2-4
530985 - .005 inch shim for swivel pin – 2-4
530986 - .010 inch shim for swivel pin – 2-4
530987 - .030 inch shim for swivel pin – 2-4
217268 – Lower swivel pin bearing - 2
531433 – Lower pin O-ring – 2
531001 - Lock strip for swivel pin housing top bolts and bottom nuts - 8
277311 – Lock strip for stub axle/brake backing plate bolts - 6
232413 - Joint gasket (stub axle to swivel pin housing) - 2
230511 – Copper sealing washer (swivel ball drain plug) - 2


Hub Overhaul:
599698 - Stub axle distance piece – 2
RTC3510 – Hub oil seal – 2
217353 – Lock washer - 2
231505 – Hub gasket – 2
RTC3515 – Felt hub seal – 2
PS608101L – Split pin – 2
RTC3416 – Inner hub bearing - 2
RTC3426 – Outer hub bearing -2

EP90 Gear oil or “One Shot” grease to refill the housing!

Special tools/items to have on hand:
1) An impact driver - to get the brake drum screws off.
2) Various size punch tools to get bearing races and bushings in/out if needed
3) A small hand held scale (fish scale) to measure/set pre-load
4) Bearing grease and a grease packer (handy device that packs grease into bearings - there are lots of them on this job)
5) Sig 3000 or other heavy grease to pack into the lip of the swivel seal

[singingcamel]

I have a swivel ball rebuild with photos as well on my site.
www.singingcamel.com

[slowmo]

Here is a link to my experience. The first one took me three hours and the second a bit less. I did not have to replace the swivel balls themselves. Just the seals. It was a fairly easy job.

http://forums.roversnorth.com/showth...ghlight=slowmo

[lumpydog]

Hey SingingCamel - where did you get the white (light gray) vent ducting for that 109 restoration? Awesome site by-the-way!!

[singingcamel]

Hey SingingCamel - where did you get the white (light gray) vent ducting for that 109 restoration? Awesome site by-the-way!!

I had them at the shop, last pair . oh thanks for the compliment..