96 300tdi Disco top swivel pin clearance

I've bought new swivel kits from dingocroft but the top swivel which is bush not taper bearing (cos it's got ABS) I've noticed has 005" clearance which seems a lot for a new bearing. The new top pin is 1.220 OD and the new bush once pressed into the swivel housing is 1.225 ID

Whilst messing about getting the shims and pre load correct on the swivels the horizantal movement in the top swivel is noticeable.

The old worn bearing had 018 clearance.

So is 005 clearance correct for a new bearing?

Thanks in advance.

id thought 5 thou a little excessive hows it feel with pin in bush ,cheap parts ?

Hi James the parts are from dingocroft who I only thought sold oem parts but I'm not sure on that but they weren't THAT cheap....the pin is a loose in the bush but I measured the parts accurately anyway, the new pin is only 002 thou smaller than the old worn one so I guess if a part is incorrect it's probably the new bush, it occurs to me rave might have the correct clearance details, so I'll try to download that and have a search for the info next week.

Just noticed the pins are in boxes marked Brit part, the oil seals marked with a spanish seal manufacturer brand something like connetex does this mean they are not original land rover parts?

the easyest way to check this is to fit then and use a spring scale attached to the hole where the track rod end is bolted through then pull on the other end if the scale to measure resistance. I cant remember the resistance required but a bit of searching the net I,m sure you will find it.

Hi Whatty, thanks for the info. I've not a problem with the pre load I just put in shims until it was free to turn without the oil seal and cv shaft fitted then took out 012" of shims and that seemed to give the right sort of stiffness turning. Rave says the pre load is 0.25mm to 0.3mm (012") and also gives a torque figure if around 2nm from memory.

The problem I have is the horizantal movement int top bush which cannot occurs with pre loaded taper bearings top and bottom as for the non abs models but which can occur on the abs models with a bush as the top swivel

The supplementary question I now have is are Brit part oem suppliers of abs top swivels and bushes or have dingocroft supplied me aftermarket rubbish!

tis highly likely pattern part will be crap ,some will be good but not all by any means

Hi James, I'm gutted it took a month to get the parts and the freight to nz and back if they are no good costs almost as much as the parts.

I could of bought aftermarket swivel kits much cheaper from paddocks but I mistakenly thought dingocroft supplied purely oem landrover parts, so this sort of quality issue would be unlikely to happen. My mistake.

Now I look again at the pin it's fairly roughly machined where it fits in the bush and looks to be plain mild steel but the original is polished and hardened, apart from being a loose fit I don't think this pin would last 5 minutes.

I also suspect any horizontal movement in the top swivel will rapidly ruin the little thrust bearing under the top swivel. The old thrust bearing was in pieces with half the little rollers missing from it!