Thread: 110 swivel bearings

Last week when servicing the County I found that there was a small amount of play in the LH swivel - probably accounts for vaguely unsatisfactory steering lately. So yesterday with some trepidation I decided to look at the swivel bearings, or more precisely the upper bush and its preload.
To get at it you have to move or remove the brake pipe and the disc guard as both are attached to a bracket under the studs that hold the swivel pin. The LH pin was difficult to remove, but the RH one was not.
Both pins were polished on one side but the amount of wear was below the resolution of my micrometer. Not too bad for 420,000km. (I reversed them on assembly although I doubt it makes any difference.
The bushes appeared to be in good shape and the required preload was set by removing a couple of shims from each side. As I was limited to the shims on hand, I set the preload higher rather than lower, and it seems to drive OK. An additional problem found is a weeping hub seal on the right - left this as I do not have a spare on hand. No real dramas, the worst that happened was that when I was disconnecting the LH end of the track rod I leant on the swivel assembly - which moved the seal away from the ball, which I did not realise until I found I was kneeling in a pool of oil.

Another interesting point is that although there was essentially zero preload before I did the job, there was none of the notorious wheel wobble even on corrugated gravel, only a slight tendency to wander.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Another interesting point is that although there was essentially zero preload before I did the job, there was none of the notorious wheel wobble even on corrugated gravel, only a slight tendency to wander.

John

thats right......most times its not the steering damper thats at fault......
swivel hub pre-loads will give a wobble over bumps......
its a cheap and simple fix.....and quite easy to check in the first place....

only if your pre-loads are fine should you really look at changing the steering damper........