Swivel seals and shim questions

Hello,

I have searched and searched and read all the rebuild threads. I just completed the rebuild of both my swivels on my Series 3 109. I put new swivels on, seals, bearings, pins and shims. Questions.

1. Is there a maximum amount of shims that can be used? I have the manual and it doesn't say anything about it but my left side took .100" and is at 9 pounds of pull. My right side is currently at .200" and at 12 pounds. I do have more shims coming but will this cause alignment issues for my seals?

2. Follow up on the above question. Both of my seals are leaking around the middle of the swivel ball. I tried to reposition them but the leak in the same spots. Could this be because of the shim amounts or just chalk it up to the blue packaging? I do have new seals coming to replace these again. I cleaned the swivel outer housing where the seals ride and there aren't any bumps or high spots.

My left side seal will not leak if I turn the hub left or right. If I keep it wheels centered it will leak slowly.

Thanks for the help.

presume your setting preload before securing the seals ,adding more shims wont effect seal as you cant pull housing further up than bottom bearing allows,8-10lbs without seal, if each side is greatly different, its either some poor parts or poor fitting

jamesmartin said:

presume your setting preload before securing the seals ,adding more shims wont effect seal as you cant pull housing further up than bottom bearing allows,8-10lbs without seal, if each side is greatly different, its either some poor parts or poor fitting

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I did order another swivel pin for the right side. I did find some NOS here in Spain. The britpart pin that was in on the right side was a little bit longer than the original one I pulled out so I will see what I get when the new one arrives.

I did check tension on both swivels without the seals tightened up. They were as far back from the swivels as I could get them. I will try new seals and see how things go.

How well does the cutting the new seal to put it on without pulling the swivel trick work?

I would think that if you are putting that much shim (0.200" over 5mm !) something is very wrong with parts or assembly. Have you got the tufnol thrust washers under the railko bush? Have you changed the bottom bearings ? If it where mine I would strip right down again and do some checks.One shot swivel lube tends not to leak on suspect swivels as much as EP90. Messy stuff on strip down though, does not drain out like oil.

I'm sure I've read one or two similar threads is recent months where they have had to 'over shim' to get the load correct. I'm wondering if there could be some questionable replacement parts out there.

Land Raver said:

I'm sure I've read one or two similar threads is recent months where they have had to 'over shim' to get the load correct. I'm wondering if there could be some questionable replacement parts out there.

Click to expand...

there certainly is some poor parts out there ,but poorly fitted parts ie bush or bearing race not fitted fully can cause similar

I recall having similar issues when fitting mine a couple of years ago. I had to dress one of the tufnol bearings that had some gouges in it. I can't remember if they were duff parts or I'd mishandled them when fitting though...

to confirm when I received my Britpart swivel kits last month I had to use all of the shims available in the kit to get my correct pre-load without the seal attached...lucky really or I would have had to dress some old shims to get my required preload.

Update:

Well the NOS swivel pin I ordered from a Spanish supplier ended up being one made by AllMakes 4x4. It did the trick though. New swivel pin in and .110" of shims and have 9 pounds of pull on the swivel assembly.

The swivel seals were swapped out for new bearmach seals but they still leak. Not full blown rain shower leak but about a drop in an hour. If I turn the wheels they seem to leak more at the steering stops. Keep them straight and they either stop or leak a drop an hour. I think they will stay there until I can get some good quality swivels and will try again.

Thanks for the help and input.

Drain the oil out and use one shot lube. Nasty stuff but does not leak out like oil unless your swivels are totaly shagged. If you have free wheel hubs lock em up in 4wd once a week to splash the lube up to top pin. I have modified my top pin to take a grease nipple through a drilling and groove just to make sure they get lubed. Three years as a daily and still good.

divie said:

Drain the oil out and use one shot lube. Nasty stuff but does not leak out like oil unless your swivels are totaly shagged. If you have free wheel hubs lock em up in 4wd once a week to splash the lube up to top pin. I have modified my top pin to take a grease nipple through a drilling and groove just to make sure they get lubed. Three years as a daily and still good.

Click to expand...

Did you drill all the way through then groove the sides of the pin?