leaking swivel joints

adamatdraycott wrote: How can the main stealers ask £100 for a bit Martin offers for just £23!

And not stock it!
I would imagine it would be less if fitted by them, they obviously only make the profit on top of the part where by fitting they are making from the labour as well as the part.

Its still way too much of course, even my local factors are double what martin is for rear wheel bearings.

Absurd isn't it
and remember how they wanted £270 for OEM back box made out of recycled biscuit tins
looks like a pattern - Suzuki Bandits - they even named a bike after themselves

Jimny looked at on Saturday, and both sides need doing, pins and all!

It seems the pins are the expensive bit (£42 each ish), and Suzuki just charge about £40 for both bearings.

Hoping to get the bearings and half shaft seal through work, as they are standard parts. The large seal and pins are genuine only

Why do you say the pins need doing? They should be good for 00000's of miles. There is a bit of play in mine but not excessive to the point of needing changing. The recommendation is to keep them in the right orientation ie top and bottom for the wear.

Its a close family member i took the Jimny too. He his mechanically minded, and owned a big jimny a couple of years ago.

He said its worth the extra, and will mean the bearings will last in excess of my ownership.

My Jimny has done 47k on an 04, never really off roaded. Is it possible for me to take a pin out and check for wear?

If i put my hands at 1o'clock and 7o'clock there is about 10mm wobble in the wheel, and you can see this looking at the swivel. 12o'clock and 6o'clock there is no movement. The amount of grease around the swivel is increasing slowly. Its fairly thick, not oily.

My thinking is a pin can't wear, as if the bearing has gone that is where the movement will be.
Although, all guides insist you mark the top pin, to ensure it is put back into the top when replacing. This points to the pins wearing, and maybe not giving the new bearing the best chance to bed in correctly.

I have found the pins for roughly £165 for the set, along with the swivel seals off eBay for £22 ish, meaning i'm upto £200 and lacking the bearings and axel seals. The full kit is available for £155 per side.

I'm not sure how important it is but i've always followed the advice and kept them the right way round and can understand that they will of course wear in a certain way.

Mine is a 2002 and done about 58k iirc. I've replaced the bearings 3 times and the only play has been in the bearing itself. The gunk coming out is a combination of CV grease breaking up/mud and water/Diff oil. The Diff oil escapes when the movement in the bearings allows the shaft to move within the axle letting oil pass the seal. Once you take the kingpin out you can try the bearing on it and check for play.

I understand your friends logic entirely but i would very much doubt the bearings will last any longer for having new kingpins. The failure is due to water and crud sitting in the bottom bearing and it destroying itself, a shockingly weak design imo from Suzuki-san! I had about a year where i never took mine off road at all and mine lasted no longer. Your best hope is to use a good motorcross or marine grease to prolong the life of the bearings.

As you have already discovered its an expensive enough job without the added cost of kingpins too. The cheapest i could find was the bearing kits off Martin and the swivel seals off ebay.