I have removed brakes, hub, stub axle, halfshaft and removed both swivel pins...

Just undone the 6 bolts keeping the swivel housing oil seal retainer attached to the swivel housing and was expecting the swivel housing fronts to just come off. They don't as they are still not clearing the swivel ball thingy part(!?!). Having looked at the parts manual it looks like an oil seal should now come off the back of the swivel housing allowing the housing to just come forwards. Everything is so gunked up and stuck I can't work out the problem and about to smack it with a hammer to try and dislodge it.

Anything simple I've overlooked before I start adjusting it?!!

seal corroded in wack it off carefully

jamesmartin said:

seal corroded in wack it off carefully

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"Wack it of carefully"?? lol

Got the NS one off. Drivers side is well and truly stuck despite numerous attempts to persuade it. Have soaked with pen. fluid and guess I'll try again tomorrow.

Now I have one off I can see that inside the swivel ball there are lots of metallic 'hundreds & thousands'!! I presume this is some kind of bearing that has disintegrated? ...Any suggestions???

You might just have to hammer a chisel into the edge of the seal and lever it out. The metal bits might be the bottom bearing or the UJ bearings broken up, but the UJ is quite a snug fit in the swivel - if the swivel bush/bearing allowed enough play the UJ may have been rubbing on the inside of the swivel.

The bottom bearing in the swivel housing looked intact but I was just reading about the universal joint in the workshop manuals and I see it refers to "needle rollers". That sounds like a good description of what these things are and I do recall now the UJ's being loose as I took them out and put them aside. UJ's need an overhaul before reassembly as well then.

be careful when you order them as they are smaller than the normal prop uj's some parts suppliers dont realise this and send the wrong one:doh:

Thanks pef, I'll pay attention to that.

The metal hundreds and thousands were definitely from the UJ. I have knocked the joint out and there are no bearings left on any of the 8 joins!

You can imagine the gunk all components are covered in as every seal or washer is failed and the oil looks about 10 years old! I've also then put them down and got them covered in grit or leaves or whatever else is blowing around! SO HERE'S MY QUESTION: Is there a good, cheap or good and cheap way for me to clean all these bits up before I reassemble them? I guess a nice little bowl of something I can bath them in is what I'm thinking. If I do that, what's the best way to then treat them in order to keep them tip-top until I come to refitting them?

Thanks,

Andy.

Might be worth having a look at the roller bearing at the end of the axle casing,if you look at the swivel with the halfshaft out where the swivel meets the axle casing there is a needle roller bearing that supports the halfshaft,if your axle is as bad as you say this bearing will probably be Af (absolutely f##ked!). If you replace the bearing you will need to replace the collar that is on the halfshaft where the bearing runs on.

Wash off in white spirit or petrol (this used to be the cheap method!) with a paintbrush, leave to dry. If you're storing stuff, spray with wd40, put in a bin liner and put somewhere dry - behind the sofa, for example.

Thanks Oxides, washed the first few bits and they are rusty around the UJ yokes (and actually a bit bubbly/corroded) and the stub axles are themselves rusty too, though the half shafts seem in better nick.

V8Jon - If you mean the bearing (part # 244150) and collar (part number 90217398) then these are actually not in bad shape. Though they look so good compared to everything else I wonder if they were replaced most recently! Though I can't even get to them properly as I can't get the chrome swivel ball off from the axle housing....

...The bugger before me just painted over everything which makes finding any purchase on bolt heads difficult to begin with. Added to that they were already rusted and seized beneath the paint anyway and the awkward position with the chrome swivel ball in front and everything else to behind the bolts is proving a right bastard! One constant challenge after another on this 40 year old neglected piece of **** car (which I do love dearly and I did write this where it couldn't see me). What's the best way for me to attack these bolts then? Does it help to add heat or anything? Currently I am painstakingly scraping paint off and trying to give it generous amounts of WD40 but I am not confident I can get any decent kind of socket on them to put enough torque through them to get them to budge. Arrrrrggghhh.

Thanks for continued marvellous help

A wire brush should sort the corrosion, it won't come back if the swivels are lubricated properly and the water's kept out. Angle grind or saw the bolt heads off.