Swivel housing lube and procedure

[brider]

My '93 RRC LWB has never had a sniffle from the front end or steering gear, and I've done minor wheeling regularly. If there was a clunk or grind or slop, I would've heard it by now. I've had it 16k miles, PO took very good care of it.

When swapping the front brake pads, I opened the right side swivel drain plug and top fill plug and.......barely anything came out, and I left it "dripping" overnight, thinking the cold had thickened it. No more than a few spoonfuls of Moly-looking thick lube slowly dripped out.

I have some tubes of Britparts Land Rover swivel housing lube in squeeze tubes, like toothpast. I tried to put some in the top fill hole, but the stuff is kinda pasty, and didn't want to "flow" in. I barely got more than the few spoonfuls that dripped out back in. It just doesn't want to flow. But it DOES look like the same stuff that dripped out.

So assuming my swivel bearings and everything is tight (remember: it's smooth and quiet and tight, no problems), can I also assume that whatever lube is in there is just too thick to run out, and it's doing it's job, or should I try to fill the housings with lube that flows better, like a synth 90w?

[antichrist]

Turn the wheels full right or left, depending on side, to move the fill hole away from the CV cage. That will give a better opening. This time of year warming the grease in hot water will help it flow better.

[mikieman]

UpShift: DIY: Replace CV Joint and Swivel Ball Seals on a Range Rover Classic or Discovery I [RRC/D1]
this ia a good link

[pazzo rover]

Originally Posted by antichrist

Turn the wheels full right or left, depending on side, to move the fill hole away from the CV cage. That will give a better opening. This time of year warming the grease in hot water will help it flow better.

Grease - YouTube

Grease - YouTube

[antichrist]

I wouldn't put it in the microwave. You could end up with a really messy microwave if you're not really careful.
But yeah, the video pretty much shows what I said. I wonder how people got them filled before youtube.

Brider, your RRC probably came with gear oil in the swivels, not grease, and should have a drain plug on the bottom.

[lwbblue]

I’ve used the gear grease before, but it gives me the willies to not know if you have enough or any left. So I switched back to synthetic gear oil; Mobil one 100+ something. Now I check it at each oil change and top up. Once you get the routine down it’s easy to do and not messy. Also you can see if your seals are still good by looking for oil drippings on the suspension and especially on the lower part of your rims. You can visually check each time you walk by the front of the truck! I guess I have too much time on my hands.

[brider]

Originally Posted by antichrist

Turn the wheels full right or left, depending on side, to move the fill hole away from the CV cage. That will give a better opening. This time of year warming the grease in hot water will help it flow better.

Now WHY didn't I think of that?

Since it's grease-ish I'm squirting in and may not immediately move into the nooks and crannies, is this a process I need to do a couple of times after driving it a bit, to get what I've put in slung around and make room for more?

BTW, What IS the factory spec for swivel lube? Grease or 90w oil? I have a difficult time finding stuff like this in the factory manual (and I've looked, don't recall that it said what type or how much).

[antichrist]

It was gear lube until the mid 90's, 96 or something. By then people were complaining about oil spots on their posh drives and so they switched to the grease, and shortly thereafter removed the drain plugs.