Thread: Swivel Pin Housing, How to change grease?

Davie, being a '98 you'll have a fill plug, not a level plug and yes, under BMW stewardship, a semi-fluid grease was used.

You can buy it from a Land Rover dealer or parts reseller and it's called 'One Shot' grease, (335-550ml in one sachet, can't recall ATM) which was nothing more than a very basic NLGI 00 lithium complex grease with 3% MoS2 in it.

To check, you need to put the wheels on full lock (front of wheel pointing out) and using a suitable piece of wire, dip the level.
A good rule of thumb IMO is half way up the swivel housing.
You can use a good GL5 gear oil to replace the grease if you wish, but this may induce a leak.
You can also try and drain the housing by undoing one of the lower swivel bearing retaining bolts.

If they hadn't done away with the drain and level plugs it'd be so much easier.......

Hi guys,sorry if this is a duplicate post but I cant find my post, so here goes. My Disco is a 1998 and I have been trying to find out how to do an oil change to the swivel pin housing,and I can't find the drain plug or the filler plug, then on another forum someone said that from 1997 LR started putting grease in the swivel not oil, so didn't put in a drain plug. This seems to be what I have, but surely you would need to replace grease?If anyone can help me with this one I would appreciate it.Thanks.

Hi, the filler plug is on the upper front face of the housing, turn to full lock to make it easy to get at. There is no drain plug. About 10 shots of a moly grease every 5000 km is enough. Too much grease in the knuckle housing will work its way into the wheel bearings and/or differential housing. Early landcruisers use same system, since 1963 when my old man first bought one.

Note. Lubricant is not grease, semiliquid grease, known as "one-shot". Should be available from any dealer or Landrover specialist. Use of solid grease that does not flow is likely to result in lubrication failure, particularly for the top swivel bearing.

John

The tip for grease filled swivels if you HAVE a drain plug, is to fill the swivel with ATF and drive around the block. this will thin down the grease so it flows.

If you do not have a drain plug, the same procedure will thin it down, and when you loosen the swivel bearings , the fluid should drain out the bottom of the seal. But then you will have to fit a new seal.

The grease is supposed to last a long time. mine has been in about 100Kk and still looks good on a dip.
Regards Philip A

Thanks for the replies to my question, I thought I was going nuts there for a while. Everyone saying there is a drain plug and I just couldn't find it. My Disco has 250,000 K,s on the clock, so do I have to pull the seals off to get the lubricant (grease) out. I am the third owner so I have no idea if this has ever been done before and how big a job is it. Should I just get it done at a service center. If I remove the filler plug and stick a bit of wire inside will this give me some idea of the state of the lube and what level it is?
Thanks again.

I actually answered your first Q before you posted this question with this reply.
Maybe a mod can delete one and/or merge the two.

Davie, being a '98 you'll have a fill plug, not a level plug and yes, under BMW stewardship, a semi-fluid grease was used.

You can buy it from a Land Rover dealer or parts reseller and it's called 'One Shot' grease, (335-550ml in one sachet, can't recall ATM) which was nothing more than a very basic NLGI 00 lithium complex grease with 3% MoS2 in it.

To check, you need to put the wheels on full lock (front of wheel pointing out) and using a suitable piece of wire, dip the level.
A good rule of thumb IMO is half way up the swivel housing.
You can use a good GL5 gear oil to replace the grease if you wish, but this may induce a leak.
You can also try and drain the housing by undoing one of the lower swivel bearing retaining bolts.

If they hadn't done away with the drain and level plugs it'd be so much easier.......

Thanks for that Rick, I removed the plug and stuck a piece of electric wire,(about 3mm dia.) down the swivel,it seems to be about halfway but the colour is black,is that normal? and its quite fluid, like it runs off the wire like oil. As you say it would be so much better if they had left the plugs in, a dollar saved is a dollar profit.