Thread: Split swivel balls-2a 2B, How common?

I often look at the front , end on, and think are those wheels splayed?
The axle has 2 1/2 tonne on it and they could be.
Can this be measured at home or is it a job for the shop?
How dificult is it reinforcing them?

Originally Posted by wagoo

As above. I've seen a few in my career as a Landy mechanic and have reinforced mine to support my portal boxes and large tyres, but how common is it among FC owners that use their vehicles for outback trips or rough work.?
Wagoo.

I have seen a couple of cracked hsgs, it appears as a very difficult to see crack at the corner between the flange & the cylindrical part, about 2 or 3 inches long. I have never seen a completely broken one. There are at least 4 different types of construction of Series 2/3 hsgs. I don't have any to check , so my order of use may not be right. First is plain no markings (ordinary 2/2a's). Next has a groove turned on the flange rim, to indicate the strengthened FC version. Then later, no groove but a steel grade letter/no (EN????) combination cast on the outer (stub axle side) end face between the swivel pin lugs. The Series 3 hsgs have a round blob cast on one of those outer swivel pin lugs, sometimes but not always with the cast no. as well. I have only ever used the Series 3 type & no problems, although I've always checked them when off. I've seen (& heard) of more problems with the attaching bolts shearing. I've used hi-tensile grade 8, 3/8 UNF bolts with ordinary Nylocks. The factory bolts, while marked with strength grade, are difficult to read, so the modern grooves of UNF bolts are easier to see. Grade 8 bolts I think have 6 slots in the head. I have cringed for those 6 bolts every time I've hit an obstruction way to hard.

For the portals,I reinforce my swivel balls in 2 ways,either method on its own would be sufficient for a standard FC.and the second method effectively reinforces both inner and outer swivel housings and flange bolts, as well as reducing side loading on the Railko bushing.
Whoever at Rover thought a 3" diameter 40,000lb capacity roller bearing was needed to support the weight of the halfshaft was a moron.Having a 3'' hole in the neck of the ball drastically reduces its wall thickness.
I remove the bearing and replace it with a press fit bronze bushed steel insert that I weld in at the hemisphere side. The insert protrudes from the flange and spiggots into the axle housing after removing the inner seal and grinding the spiggot from the axle housing flange.
The other and easier modification was to make a pair of 5'' long bottom swivel pins, make a short tie rod with a 3/4'' rose joint on one end, a left hand thread eyebolt and bracket on the other which is welded to the axle housing.The eyebolt is made from a scap tie rod end. This is similar, but not identical to how Maxidrive, Marks 4WD and Tibus reinforce Rover swivel assemblies for portals.
Wagoo.

Hi Wagoo

I will let you off if you have already posted pictures of this on the forum.

Otherwise you are doomed to crawl around under your bus, with your camera!

I know, I Know! where are all my pictures?

Cheers Arthur

Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

Hi Wagoo

I will let you off if you have already posted pictures of this on the forum.

Otherwise you are doomed to crawl around under your bus, with your camera!

I know, I Know! where are all my pictures?

Cheers Arthur

I suppose I should read up on how to post photos. Anyone know if doing so uses up megabytes/Gigs? We are limited to 3 gig per month on our wireless poverty plan, and my daughter has used most of this months limit up on skype video.
Wagoo.

Posting up photos should only take around 150 kilobytes per image, a megabyte is a thousand kilobytes and a gigabyte a thousand megabytes. So not much!
You will have to edit your photos to make them suitable for the web, photos straight from a decent camera could be too many megabytes. It isn't hard, if you need instructions, I or many others could help.

Originally Posted by isuzutoo-eh

Posting up photos should only take around 150 kilobytes per image, a megabyte is a thousand kilobytes and a gigabyte a thousand megabytes. So not much!
You will have to edit your photos to make them suitable for the web, photos straight from a decent camera could be too many megabytes. It isn't hard, if you need instructions, I or many others could help.

Hi Isuzutoo

I too would like to be taken gently by the hand down the picture production path.

I can already resize my photo's using a freebie program called PIXresizer, if that is the way to for a start.

Hey Wagoo, is that 3 Gig limit allowed both for the uploads as well as the download?

The upload allowance may be considerably less.

Cheers Arthur

Originally Posted by wagoo

I suppose I should read up on how to post photos. Anyone know if doing so uses up megabytes/Gigs? We are limited to 3 gig per month on our wireless poverty plan, and my daughter has used most of this months limit up on skype video.
Wagoo.

Bill, I take photos on a digi cam, then upload to my photobucket account (free to set up).

photobucket automatically resizes each pic - saves you doing it!

Next to each pic you upload to photobucket there will be an [{IMG}] code link, which you cut and past into a thread on here and it will embed (insert) the image.

If you want to upload them directly to AULRO instead you will need to resize them yourself first.

As a guide, each picture taken using an average resolution digi cam would be ~1MB, so 3000 pics until you have used up your quota.