Opinion sought on swivel balls

[JohnboyLandy]

Hi Everyone,

I need to make a decision on whether to order new swivel balls or whether I can reuse my current ones. I have attached front and back pictures of both swivels. To the me the right side doesn't seem pitted on the sweep area, where as the left does obviously have some pitting in the sweep area.

From left to right, the pics are Left side front, Left side rear, Right side front and Right side rear.

131560131561131562131563

I am interested to hear any opinion on whether they are usable or repairable.

Thanks
John

[whitehillbilly64]

Do they leak Oil ????
Maybe try New seals and one shot grease/ep90 mix.
Info on web on cutting New seal with fine blade to install.

whitehillbilly

[Homestar]

They look fine to me - the slightly rusted area at full lock shouldn't be a problem, where they run 95% of the time looks fine, I've seen a lot worse.

Things to consider are how often you drive it, do they currently leak, etc. As mentioned, new seals may be all that is needed - or use one shot grease in them, which is fine for low mileage applications.

[JohnboyLandy]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

When I bought this vehicle, it wasn't registered, so I wasn't able to drive it far before I started on the restoration. However, there was/is signs of oil leakage, but I guess that doesn't necessarily mean the swivels are bad, could be the seal - true ?

So, it seems the view is that my swivels seem basically ok, so I will just clean them up and replace the seals and see how we go.

Cheers,
John

[inch]

Replaced the young blokes seals recently, balls were much the same, so far no leaks. We did put a set of leather gaiters over them, I know thats a whole other debate!

We actually did a full rebuild, all seals and bearings, whilst that may not be necessary I'd strongly recommend getting a full set of replacement bolts (250693 x 10) and stop bolts (SH404081 x 2), and carefully chase out the threads with a tap. The old bolts looked like yours and I think we were lucky to get them out without any casualties, there was quite a bit of crud in the threads.

Cheers

Ian