Swivel housing: grease or oil?

[Sign Guy]

I added 90wt to the passenger side and realized that it was pouring out of the bottom of the seal and running down the tire. Upon further inspection I realized that a previous owner had hit a rock or something which slightly scarred the swivel and pulled the retaining ring for the seal back far enough that I could see the spring that is supossed to be inside the seal itself. At that point I figured adding wheel bearing grease was better than having nothing in there, right? Today I am going to take a peice of wood and a mallet and see if I can't coax the retainer back in so its not acting like a hood scoop directing crap into the swivel housing. Anybody change one of these out??

Thanks,
Bill

[KevinNY]

I think a lot of folks in the thread are confusing BEARING grease with SWIVEL BALL grease. Bearing grease is the heavy sticky stuff you pack wheel bearings with. Swivel ball grease is a semi liquid moly grease that flows, albeit slowly. It comes in premeasured tubes, 375 ml per swivel ball.

[Disco]

I've only ever used the oil and see no reason to change.

[p76rangie]

If oil leaks out, water will leak in. So fix your seals are use oil. Grease allows air pockets that restrict lubrication, and traps moisture that causes rust.

[MuddyRangeRover]

Originally Posted by MuddyRangeRover

Ok, so I took a look at my swivel balls(lol) and i realized the plugs are really weird. what do you guys use to remove the plugs. they are all sqaure heads or somehting.

anyone?

[Sign Guy]

As forgetting the bolts out just use a small adjustable wrench or open ended wrenches. The drain bolt is actually a head head but I didn't seem to have the right size for it so...once again...an adjustable. I couldn't get the filler bolt out at all and just added direclty through the level access.

[p76rangie]

I use an extension bar for the small socket spanners. THe drive on the socket is the same size square head on the bolt. Then I use a spanner on the other end of the extension bar to undo it.

[stevo-II]

I think they are 1/4 square bolts - mine were stuck pretty good, so I took a socket adaptor - 1/4 to 3/8 drive adaptor (1/4 female - 3/8 male) and put it on the bolt, then put a 3/8 wrench on the other end of the adaptor and they came out just fine. I tried to put a 1/4 wrench or adjustable wrench on the bolt and it ended up sliding off and rounding the head.

Steve

[Greg M]

Originally Posted by Sign Guy

As forgetting the bolts out just use a small adjustable wrench or open ended wrenches.

Ditto on the adjustable wrench. I use a multi weight 90/140 oil. It seems to help a little on the leakage.

[onslow]

Originally Posted by MuddyRangeRover

anyone?

If they refuse to budge hit the top a few times with a hammer and retry usually does the trick if not a little heat off a blowtorch does it too but dont get em too hot

[MuddyRangeRover]

Ok, so did them on monday. Not TOO hard, but they took a little force to come off. THe Fill plug on the Driverside didn't wan't to budge so I had to fill through the level check. The pass. Side ball had almost nothing in it, the drivers had some disgustingly dirty grey worm like liquid come out of it. I will run it like that for a bit, and change it again, just to try to get rid of as much of the crap as I can.

[daway]

Originally Posted by MuddyRangeRover

Ok, so did them on monday. Not TOO hard, but they took a little force to come off. THe Fill plug on the Driverside didn't wan't to budge so I had to fill through the level check. The pass. Side ball had almost nothing in it, the drivers had some disgustingly dirty grey worm like liquid come out of it. I will run it like that for a bit, and change it again, just to try to get rid of as much of the crap as I can.

i had the samething happen w/ the bolts (PIA)! i found on BA that they sell bottles of grease now. i wonder if it would make it easier to get it out? http://www.roverparts.com/Parts/STC3435.cfm Also i found that if u set it in the sun or set it in warm H20 first, the grease will come out faster.

i changed my grease acouple of month ago and i noticed that the grease is pushing out (small amount) around the swivel housing ball on the drivers side. above the plate w/ bolts were the level and drain plug are. i noticed when i changed that side, very little grease came out and there was dried caked on grease around the swivel housing ball and the bolts/plate below the swivel housing (not alot)? maybe my seals need to be replaced or the old grease was dried up and i did not get it all out and it made the new grease start to push out? i remember paul grant on rangerover.net forum stated that u sometimes have to unbolt around the swivel housing and clean out the old dried grease. i will take a pic tonight or tomorrow. any1 have any ideas? my rover drives straight as an arrow and no shaking and etc.

[MuddyRangeRover]

I am running gear oil, as per suggested, and plan on changing it very often, especially when i start wheeling again, as I do a lot of Mud and water. I will also be changing my Diff oil fairly often too.

I don;t know what is more benefitial, oil or grease. I reckon, as long as something is in there, its fine.