Thread: Done Front swivel .. but oh dear

Did the front driver side hub yesterday and all went smoothly - in some ways easier than I was expecting. The oil leak and the movement in the hub have all stopped and the vibration at speed has definitely decreased.
However based on what I have seen inside the hub it will need to be done again. Firstly the swivel ball had remarkably bad gouging and roughness on the base near the bottom bearing. It looks like the bottom pin got badly worn (or broke) and allowed pieces of metal to get between the swivel housing and the chrome ball.
I used a fine file on the worst gouges and got it reasonably smooth - they only affect the bottom of the large rear oil seal on full lock - but the ball will need to be replaced.
Secondly, and worse, I found some large lumps of metal inside the chrome ball. They are about the size of my small finger nail and it seems pretty clear that they come from the CV joint. Its the only thing inside the ball. I am not hearing knocking or other obvious symptoms but it needs replacing.
Cheers

Originally Posted by wagoo

The gouging on the ball and bits of metal may due to a previous CV joint failure/ trackside repair, and they hadn't done a thorough job of cleaning out all the schrapnel.
Wagoo.

You've got me thinking - maybe the gouging is due to THIS failure episode - not an earlier one. All the pieces I saw were quite large but I guess if there had been much much smaller pieces then they could have gotten between the ball and the housing and done this damage.
Anyway, already looking for replacement cv and swivel ball - hot dog!!!