Thread: Swivel housing grease... I'm confused!!!

It's actually very lazy logic as the swivel seals on a 101 is very easy - the seals are split so you can put them in from the back in 10 minutes flat...

Seems to me that the idea of grease in wheel bearings and swivel housings largely cures possible problem of oil leaks - especially onto brake linings However it can create more expensive ones when grease - which sometimes gets cheesy and hard gets forced out of where it should be lubricating. After seeing another Defender with grease filled swivel housings like mine but higher mileage in a local garage several years ago getting dry chewed out CV joints replaced, I have added some hypoid gear oil to mine three times since. Still no leaks from swivel housing seals. Seems any surplus has leaked - probably into diff, but slower than it has oozed out from seal and gasket.


I also had left rear drive hub run dry and strip itself and axle spline (rusty and fretting) after vehicle had only done about 35,000 km. Got pair of standard axles and hubs from bloke who had replaced his with Maxidrive (now Hytuff) ones. Also bought a set of the hub oil seals. However, have not yet got around to installing these. Note the outer splines are the same as on the other ends of the axles in the diff, which run in oil. Have not heard of them stripping. Seems as long as adequate lubricant in them, outer ones are OK. Simple way of achieving this is to half fill standard plastic hub covers with thick oil and slap them back on. If overdone, maybe surplus oil could leak out grease seal onto brakes if it does not leak into swivel housing on front or diff on back. The oil I have used is very thick Castrol Alpha SP 680 (hypoid) Gear oil have I bought in 20l drum largely for other purposes. Re the hub cover caps: A new set of genuine Land Rover ones I bought recently seemed better than older types. Looks like will hold more oil than older ones as they stick out slightly further. Made of softer material and less prone to leak oil than older ones. Also, appears that older non genuine cheaper ones are false economy. More prone to leaking from going hard and then from splitting.

I keep my swivels filled with oil. If the seals start leaking I can see the oil leak, and then I know that water can get in....


Up here in the UK our streams and rivers are cold. When a hot gearbox, transfer box or diff is immersed in the cold water the internal air contracts therefore wanting to suck in the water past dodgy seals. This is why axle and gearbox breather tubes are popular up here for serious off roaders.
The same principle applies to swivels...


Bob.
The Yak.

When we are talking Land Rover 'One Shot' grease in the swivels/CV's, for those that haven't seen it, it's an NLGI #00 consistency grease, in other words it looks and acts like a very heavy oil (but it does have a Lithium soap thickener) as well as 3% MoS2, so is grey in colour.

'Normal' wheel bearing grease is an NLGI #2, it's stiff, there realyl is no comparison in consistency.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I bought three tubes of Penrite Semi-Fluid Grease to do my Disco 1 but never did it. It was somewhat cheaper than the LR product.

SEMI FLUID GREASE

Maybe that was a good thing, they don't show it as suitable for CV joints.

http://www.penriteoil.com.au/tech_pd...e_brochure.pdf

Ron it might've been OK, it just depends on how well/total amount of EP additives worked.

As I mentioned above the only reason 'One Shot' works OK is that it has 3% moly, which gives boundary layer protection once the hydrodynamic layer has been breached, and CV's can do that easily due to the immense point pressure they exert.

A conventional GL5 gear oil can work in a CV due to the sulphur/phosphorous EP additive package, which becomes activated with heat and pressure in a similar way to what it is designed to do in a hypoid diff, but from my limited understanding of how lubes work, and seeing what greases worked best in extreme CV applications, I like having lots of solid lubricants in there too. The best racing CV lube I've seen and used had a combination of syn (di-ester) and mineral oils and loads of solid lubes including MoS2 (molybdenumdisulphide) graphite and lead !
It wouldn't be legal for sale these days, but ended up in the rear end of most every F1, (turbo era) Indy/Champ Car, and LeMans prototype in the late eighties/early-mid nineties, regardless of who their lube sponsor was !

I am talking from experience with my 92RRC.
I filled the swivels with one shot grease and was happy with the result . My left swivel had a small rust mark at the bottom so it stopped the leak.


The swivel grease only fills the swivel about one third.


It is easy to check the level and consistency. Just turn the wheels to lock on the side you are working and stick a zip tie down the filler hole like a dipstick.
To change the grease on an early hub which has a drain while the later ones don't , just fill the hub with ATF and drive around the block to mix. It will then drain out. You are on your own with the later ones. LOL


If you have grease migrating to the diff , you need new seals in the axle flange


Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

If you have grease migrating to the diff , you need new seals in the axle flange


Regards Philip A

They'll push the lube through just from heat build up too as the swivel isn't vented.

Originally Posted by rick130

They'll push the lube through just from heat build up too as the swivel isn't vented.

What you can do is modify the filler plug into a breather,then extend it.

When my brother was living on the Cape,they used to do this to all of them.