Swivel seals sealing!

I noticed my swivel seals were past their best gaping a little on one.

Therefore they were gonna let water into the kingpin bearings and cv's.

I'd got new ones but had no time to fit them before going down my club site. So knowing I was gonna strip each front hub, clean and re-grease, I wasn't too worried about water ingress but smeared waterproof grease over the swivel ball and seal to give the seals something to seal against.

It worked well. Both sides spent a considerable amount of time completely submerged in muddy water when I got stuck in it. The side with the most knackered seal was deepest but let very little water in considering.

This might be something worth considering even with good seals as I don't rate them much. The fact that the swivel balls are not chrome like landy ones means they can't seal properly as the surface isn't smooth enough.

I don't think Suzuki meant us to do so much with Jimny's but my old SJ seals worked better.

I've heard of people rubbing down and painting swivels to get them smooth. Anyone tried this?

Kirkynut

I was wondering about this as well. Mines got a bit of damage on the nearside sphere from when the bottom kingpin bearing was away ( it had totally disintegrated, nothing but shreds of metal and loose bearings so it got a bit of a battering :blink: ). I filed the rough bits of and sanded it fairly smooth then coated it with grease and it seems ok but I don't really like the idea of bare metal rusting then catching and buggering the seal.

They seam to be only painted from the factory, surely it would be OK to give them a thin coat of hammerite or something ?

Been doing it for a while now, get the surface rust down with emery cloth , use a medium grit, gently does it,then tickle over it with a smoothish emery then a bit of wire wool, wipe dust off then smear grease around them. Works well.

I do it after laning or P&P as it's stood a lot not a daily drive jimny.

Had mine from new and the look teflon coated lol

Andy

Hi, It would'nt be worth painting them, just grease them up, even that gets shifted off,with turning the wheel. I mean a coating of grease not a hand full;)

Just watch out for rust starting up again, clean up and re-apply grease.

Andy

I think I shall carry on then. The waterproof grease even took a battering from the pressure washer well after off roading. That might be how some water got in!

Kirkynut

I use marine grease, a sample was given to me by a member of this forum as a possible product to sell.

Its very very sticky and amlost "plastic" in its constituency, but it seems to hold up well. My swivels still have a good coating of the original paint on them but I know people have sanded them and put stopping paste over them and sanded them smooth.

Martin