Defender swivel bearings

[JoshV12345]

Hey guys,

Just wondering peoples' thoughts. I did a complete strip and rebuild of my swivels, replacing top and bottom bearings, top pin and seals except I kept the original ball, it was in good condition. Set up pre load and everything was smooth, great put it all back together.

About 6 months later, I went to do wheel bearings, as I was there, I thought I would re check swivel pre load, well I found it wasn't smooth through the whole range of motion, especially in the straight ahead position. How can the bearings wear so quickly? The preload was still within range so I'm assuming everything was set up correctly the first time.

Cheers, Josh

[jboot51]

Chinesium bearings..?
When you rechecked the preload, did you remove the cv and swivel ball seal as these would create friction and give a false value.
If they were timken bearings, too loose may have caused chattering and hurting the race.
But too loose also causes the swivel seal to leak.

Not much help from me.

[JoshV12345]

Thanks, yeah they were timken, I didn’t remove the seal but did add to the value to compensate. I’ll have to remove again and inspect the bearings.