Swivel grease leak during preload check

Although I've been a hobby vehicle restorer/mechanical oddbod for over 25 years the Disco 1 is continuing to amuse and annoy me in equal amounts.

Having managed to sort the preload on the passenger side swivel and losing about 80% of the death shake I today decided to give the driver side a go. Firstly I found out the clearance issue with the ball joint link and the axle tie bar so I decided to loosen the balljoint anyway and work with what movement I had with the intention of removing just one shim to see what happens. What I DIDN'T expect, and it didn't happen on the passenger side, was to have what looks like grey oil and smells like EP 80 gear oil to leak out of the bottom of the large swivel seal. Rather a lot escaped as I was too busy fiddle farting with the 17mm spanner to get the bolt under the brake pipe undone. It stopped as soon as I tightened the top bolts up again and hasn't leaked since in a 10 mile test drive.

Now, that grey stuff was definitely "oil" in my book as grease in my world doesn't flow like water. BUT, under the bonnet on the slam panel are round stickers stating swivel joints have had grease fitted. I can only assume either the driver side has had"oil" fitted or the passenger side is running dry. My big question though is...how the bleedin ell do I sort the driver side preload and not lose all the lube ???

Loving the machine otherwise, even though I think it hates me!!

put a jack under bottom swivel to support it whilst you alter shims ,remove jack once top swivel is retightened to test , you might want to strip the grey fluid side down and clean out grey sounds like water contamination it will corrode internals if not , swivel preload should only be 2-3 lb with seal undone as it has bearing and not bush as top swivel

and check the diff level too, as you're not sure of previous maintenance ...

Thanks, I;ve been looking at old posts on here about this - should have done so first - so I have a much better idea what I'm facing now. I don't think water contamination is an issue though as there was no sign of it in the oil and the vehicles general condition seems to dictate a pampered rather than off roaded at any opportunity existence. I'll be working my way round the fluid levels very soon though just in casr.

i often find one axle has water contamination on only road use trucks ,condensation etc , its worth doing all oils yearly

The bearmach swivel grease I used in mine was quite thin and oily consistency.....and grey, as I remember.

jamesmartin said:

put a jack under bottom swivel to support it whilst you alter shims ,remove jack once top swivel is retightened to test , you might want to strip the grey fluid side down and clean out grey sounds like water contamination it will corrode internals if not , swivel preload should only be 2-3 lb with seal undone as it has bearing and not bush as top swivel

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I was just going to post your advice about the jack under the swivel, because you gave it to me after I was slightly deluged in oil after adjusting my shims.

Chrisw8 said:

The bearmach swivel grease I used in mine was quite thin and oily consistency.....and grey, as I remember.

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Was just about to say the same thing! If you think you've lost a lot of the grease then just let the rest out and buy a couple of one shot sachets and refill. Over fill and it will blow the seal, underfill and the CV won't last long.

Well, I ordered 2 complete swivel kits and have spent the last 2 days ripping into it. I built the driver side up on the car only to find the rear seal retaining ring is not universal and has to go on a certain way round to fit all the 8mm bolts, so I had to undo all the svivel/axle bolts and turn it round !! I built up the passenger side off the car and it went much better.

I used all the shims on each but with the top pin bolts torqued correctly the preload is way higher than the 15 Lb loading i'm working to with the unit fully built up and greased so I'm not going with the torque setting and just tightening the bolts up with a spanner and using thread lock. As long as nothings loose and rattly I can't see a problem. I intend to check it again after a few hundred miles in case anthing has settled. Hope this is right. Also I cannot believe how small the swivel bearings are. They have to put up with an awful lot of weight. Surely thay are a major design error ????

I also bought the 52mm hub nut box spanner for the bearings, but again the manual goes on about setting them to torque. No possible so they've been tightened to where the lock tabs were bent over. Seem tight enough and no play.

bluedisco300 said:

Well, I ordered 2 complete swivel kits and have spent the last 2 days ripping into it. I built the driver side up on the car only to find the rear seal retaining ring is not universal and has to go on a certain way round to fit all the 8mm bolts, so I had to undo all the svivel/axle bolts and turn it round !! I built up the passenger side off the car and it went much better.

I used all the shims on each but with the top pin bolts torqued correctly the preload is way higher than the 15 Lb loading i'm working to with the unit fully built up and greased so I'm not going with the torque setting and just tightening the bolts up with a spanner and using thread lock. As long as nothings loose and rattly I can't see a problem. I intend to check it again after a few hundred miles in case anthing has settled. Hope this is right. Also I cannot believe how small the swivel bearings are. They have to put up with an awful lot of weight. Surely thay are a major design error ????

Click to expand...

15lb is way to much for a disco

What do you suggest as a suitable weight for a built up unit ?? I did do the 1.5 kg load check with it all free of cv joints/seals etc and that felt too free and easy.