SteveG Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 Having been an oil man up until now How do you maintain swivels with grease in?? How much do you fill it up by?? etc etc Going by both TD5's the swivel seals seem to allow a small amount of grease to pass by so they are going to lose grease over time and therefpre need topping up. Lastly what are my options for changing them back to oil? I assume I'll need different type of seals - if they are available for latest teflon swivels. Also need to put in a level plug too. I like having oil just from the point of view that you can easily spot if you have any leaks and therefore likely to have water ingress But if the consensus is that running grease in the swivels is ok I'll leave it like it is. Thanks Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NegevLandRover Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 The grease comes in a "one shot" tube the whole of which goes into one swivel - two swivels = two tubes. The tubes are a sort of plastic bag - you simply snip off the tip and squeeze the contents in. I dont bother re-filling untill I replace the swivel seal - once in the five years since I went grease. As the graese is thicker than oil it tends to leak less. To reduce water ingress you want to make sure that the diff breathers are working properly and then there will be no ingress via the swivels towards the diff when the diff suddenly cools and sucks in air/water. IMHO grease is the way forwards and I would never go back to oil. Adam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 The swivel grease comes in 1 shot sachet, so 1 per swivel, it's a viscous grease so it's very runny when warmed/hot, only way to service grease filled swivels is to do a full strip down, wash out the old stuff,rebuild & fill with another 1 shot sachet, LR part number for these is STC3435 in 375ml sachets. swivel seals are FTC3401 regardless of the chrome or teflon covered swivel housings. hth Oil everytime for my truck, simply cos I feel happier with it & it was built that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 well in the true syle of being awkward: I fitted teflon swivels/standard new seals and filled with grease all was going well or so I thought.. till I stripped the hubs to fit new CVs to find bugger all grease in there! it had migrated to the diff side of the swivel seal. so I've gone back to oil and check it/top it up regularly. no probs with oil leaking out past the seals(the same seals as were fitted when I fitted the new teflon swivels a year or so previously. Steve your problem will be there are no drain/level check plugs fitted to your swivels housings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted April 24, 2006 Author Share Posted April 24, 2006 Steve your problem will be there are no drain/level check plugs fitted to your swivels housings. Thanks Tony et al, and yes I'd already spotted this tiny issue! So my reason for asking is general maintenance plus also I have noticed that out of 4 swivels, 3 of them have a light covering of grease on the visible part of the swivel and one is bone dry. Now it means that I either have 3 poor seals and 1 excellent one or I have 3 normal seals and one empty swivel. I suspect the latter. I'll have a closer look and strip down if necessary. Can you cause problems by overfilling with grease or is it ok to top it up? Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 Yeah I have the same problem grease only as no drain bungs. Every time I have drained oil from my old 90 it had a small amount of water in so given that the same seal and ball is used I see no reason why the new ones won't leak as well. The other thing with oil is you get early warning of a leak, with grease the water will get in long before the grease gets out, bang, expensive new swivel. So I run grease but am not happy with it. I guess with the appropriate kit you could put in drain and level bungs but to be honest it falls into the "better things to do with my weekend like sitting in my armchair" category Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted April 24, 2006 Share Posted April 24, 2006 no prob over filling as it will migrate into the diff when you check the oil level in that you'l see the oil has changed to the grease colour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveG Posted April 24, 2006 Author Share Posted April 24, 2006 no prob over filling as it will migrate into the diffwhen you check the oil level in that you'l see the oil has changed to the grease colour Yeah noticed that already when I changed the rear diff oil last week when I ran a new axle breather. No sign of water in oil yet though in that one. I'll change the front diff oil sometime this week when I put a new breather in that too and check then. Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will_warne Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 The other reason for using oil is you can run oiled wheel bearings. IMHO, there's not enough grease in a shachet to do that and maintain a decent level in the swivel. I use to run grease but after the same issues Tony had plus water ingress and seal issues I wouldn't go back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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