Swivel Filled With Grease - Removing Excess

Hi all, I'm wondering if you can help us.

We've just got a new (to us) Jimny and noticed that there is a lot of grease around the swivel joint.

It turns out the previous owner thought it was a Landy and filled the housing with one shot grease.

The downside of this is that it is now trying to escape.

I've been reading on here that the swivel should be dry apart from the grease on the CV and another small amount of grease. The Kingpin bearings seem good and there's no movement or noise.

To get to the point, if I strip the swivel to clean it out (remove the excess) and grease it correctly, will I have to replace the axle / half shaft oil seal? We can't get a replacement seal before Christmas and was hoping to get this done tomorrow. There's no sign of any axle/diff oil leaking so don't think there's a problem with the old seal, kingpins or bearings.

Or is there an easier way to just remove the excess temporarily? (Don't fancy climbing underneath it every other day to remove the grease).

Thanks if you can give us some help.

A long as your careful i see no prob in what you want to do,

Where are you? As i have a spare seal

+1 should be ok I would De-grease the lot and re-grease it up properly undue the swivel seal it's self remove caliper and kingpins and the hole lot will come off as 1 unit

j999pre wrote: Where are you? As i have a spare seal

Same here.. I have a spare one also

steffan wrote: +1 should be ok I would De-grease the lot and re-grease it up properly undue the swivel seal it's self remove caliper and kingpins and the hole lot will come off as 1 unit

and the steering link(s)

Thanks guys for all the helpful info.

I'm in Norfolk.

Can I remove the swivel with the vacuum hub still attached or does that also have to come off (I've checked the guide here)?

I feel happier now knowing I won't necessarily have to replace the axle seal.