Swivel housing

Hey guys, looked at the guide for changing swivel housing oil and replacing it with one shot grease, but when Iv come to do mine I haven't got a drain plug ??? Iv got a filler but no drain.... Is there a different design?? It's a 300tdi defender!

300Tdi and later have grease already. Land Rover removed the drain plug in their infinite wisdom (cost cutting and all that). Personally I prefer the older oil-filled swivels but that's just me!

You might be able to drain it out by removing one of the bottom swivel pin bolts. I'd take the weight of the vehicle off the swivel first on an axle stand, and remove the road wheel. You might have to take the car for a good run in order to get the grease warm enough to run out before doing this.

When drained just re-fill through the fill hole, easier to do this on full lock elsewise the CV is in the way!

the only way you can really drain the cv grease out is to strip housing down ,i wouldnt normally recommend trying to undo bottom swivel bolt even if stripping down

Ah cheers it looks like the seal is leaking so I was going to try and drain it and stick in some one shot grease to try and hide the leak from the mot bloke! It looks like oil not grease......I wonder if it coming in from the diff or if someone has filled it with oil in the past??? Any thoughts?

does it only leak after ya been drivin.. the grease thins when it gets warm...

if it stops when its bin parked a while it aint oil...

ive filled mine with ep90, 1996 defender axles, had to change stub axles so drained it from there

often people put oil in as grease level cant be checked and it can migrate into diff leaving less in swivel housing ,if chrome ball is good undo ball at axle and fit new seal ,if not you can either suck oil out or release seal and drain it or as above try bottomn swivel pin bolt but be careful it undoes and doesnt snap then refil with grease sachet

Crome ball is pitted like fook! Gonna have to change its asap! Can't think that far ahead like just wanna pass thee mot first! Might try and suck it out like? Where would I get a sucky outy thingy majigy?

something like this can be used for filling other units as well http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...sg=AFQjCNHbFAKagbD20ZI6fJKbeAjz5sDcgQ&cad=rja

jamesmartin said:

something like this can be used for filling other units as well http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...sg=AFQjCNHbFAKagbD20ZI6fJKbeAjz5sDcgQ&cad=rja

Click to expand...

You found a make of those that work james? I've tried Draper and Sealey and both either leak, or the rubber plunger is just not a tight enough fit to suck anything other than very thin fluid up.

I've gone back to refilling the 1 litre containers with tubes to fill gearbox and diff - got bored with the other kit which should in theory have been easier

When I stupidly over filled one swivel with one shot grease, managed to suck some out using a thick tube through the filler hole, a decent length and my mouth - but wouldn't recommend to try and remove it all!!!

Can also loosen swivel ball seal and try blowing out with compressed air - but seriously messy and not entirely effective

As james says, only real way is to strip down

mines a samoa, works

thanks for that JM - will investigate!