changed the discs on my 300tdi disco today, went ok took twice as long as I thought. one thing I was not ready for was the amount of one shot grease the leaked from the swivel, I would imagine a majority of it was lost. the only oil I had to replace it with was HP GL5 EP80/90gear oil, would this be ok to leave in or should I change it for one shot grease? Paul.
There used to be occasional dust-ups in here over the merits of the gear oil versus one-shot grease, I think it came down to whether you wanted to put the one-shot in and forget about it, or whether you were worried about one-shot grease getting contaminated with water and you not knowing about it until the swivel corroded.
it wont matter mixing oneshot and EP90 , you could make youre own "one shot" by mixing grease and gearoil anyway .
youre present mixture may give you a little drip of oil out of the swivel housings but at least the swivel balls will be lubed .
the red lithium grease is very similar to fluid grease [one shot ] and if you want it thinner then just add some EP90 to it .
the reason the swivel housings tend to leak a lot of the time is due to the preload of the swivel bearings becoming looser and then when they become slack it allows a gap at bottom of the swivel ball seal for oil to exit .
if you remove some of the shims from the top swivel bearing , in order to tighten up the slack it may have had , then the seal will be nice and tight again .
if youve ever adjusted wheelbearings and still had them feeling slack , feeling like the bearings are still loose, this is most likely because the swivel bearings were actually the culprit .
if steering jumps out of youre hand and wobbles when you hit any pothole etc then this is a sign that swivel bearing preload is slack .
basically you need to keep an eye on the swivel bearings and make sure they are tight enough . you are supposed to set them using a spring balance but so long as they are setup so the steering wheel wont stick in one place and stay there when driving the landy , you can get very close to spec by feel .
if you do remove some shims from under the top swivel locating pin you should still be able to turn the swivel by hand when all rods are connected , it will move but require some effort to turn them , if you cant turn swivel by hand then its too tight .
easy to adjust the swivel preload , but watch the brake pipe to caliper pipe so you dont damage it when trying to fit a socket on the front retaining bolt of the swivel pin .
if you have no slack in wheelbearings and swivels then theres not much to worry about .
i have just done my swivel preload and wheelbearings and brake flexis and bushes up front on the landy , made a lot of difference to its ability to keep the steering wheel from jumping out my hands when i hit a bump in road , and it doesnt wander now .
on the rod that retains front axle to chassis , the nearside bolt for the rod requires a 0.030" washer placing on the bolt because the bolt threads bottom out and you cant tighten the bolt up , hence the rod will be loose and rattle otherwise .
I'd also suggest that the eariler axles with the Series type top (Railko) bush do not get propperly lubricated when using grease as the metrial they are made of is intended to abosorb EP90 to give librication. Later axles with "proper" bearings to and bottom are ok on either. I've only impircal evidence to back that up, but we do see quite a lot of the Railko bush type ones with bad wear when used with grease rather than oil, but as we don't know the conditions the vehicle are used in there could be other factors.
Richard
My '84 110 has never leaked at the swivels and does an amazing proportion of its work on rough terrain [if not offroad during Winter]. I put it down to being used daily. I don't think there has been more than a handful of days during 20 years that it has been idle. There is not a hint of corrosion or pitting on the chrome either. I have changed the oil a couple of times over the years and check/top up every couple of years or so. The same was true of a Discovery and a Range Rover which I ran to nearly 100,000 miles but only in seven years and mostly on paved roads.
Huw
I'm with you on that - my 110 has 252,000 miles on the clock now and one swivel ball is just starting to pit - I've never had to change the seals or do any work on the swivels (except taking a shim out to shut an idiot MOT'er up - it went straight back in). Along with never having steering box problems and never changing any bushes (except shock absorber ones) I also think that daily use (except last Chritmas Day and one day a couple of weeks ago while I did the clutch) is the key factor. However, as anyone who has seen it will testify, such usage doesn't do a lot for the doors! [1]
Richard
[1] I must find out what these "sponge" things are for.
I've had my fair share of steering boxes. I think the 110 is now on its fourth.
and never changing any bushes
All mine used to eat panhard rod bushes for breakfast during the Eighties but I have seldom had to change them since. It does have an average of a couple of odd bushes and a steering joint at each MOT though.
I also think that daily use (except
Door hinges have almost worn through on the drivers side. The only sponge things I can think of go into the rail of the door stop strap.
Huw
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