Corroded swivel balls - cure or replace axle case?

Hi,

Another question.

Does anyone know of a cure for corroded swivel balls? Does anyone hard chrome them?

If not, does anyone know where I can get a front axle casing at a reasonable price - is it a Suzuki only part?

I'm just doing mine.

Remove the swivel housings

I then used a 60 grit flapwheel in the drill and loads of emery cloth to remove all the rust.
This has left a fair bit of pitting, and likely some flat areas

I painted them with Aldi shiny black metal paint (their version of smoothrite: good stuff I paint exhausts with it )

Now I have to wait a week or so for it to dry hard, but the new bearings won't arrive 'till next week anyway.

They are only painted in the first place

There are a few axles on ebay from time to time where the paint looks good, but you can't tell if they are bent from the crash that wrote the car off.

Thank you - good luck with it. I think mine are a bit far gone for that and will just keep wrecking seals. They've been smoothed and are still pitted so it won't last long. Would be interested to know how long the paint job lasts.

I did hear of someone who removed all the rust and then filled the pitting with body filler, I did think of filling mine with metal loaded epoxy but I'm hopeful the paint has done some smoothing.

If yours are that bad then a newish axle housing is required. The ball ends are welded not bolted like a Landrover.

You see them on EBay minus the Diff and driveshafts quite often.

Thanks for that. I'll have look on Ebay. I know about the welded rather than bolted balls. Given my recent experiences (see my other post about failed panhard rod eye), my next car may well be a Landrover!

Mine were as rusty as old iron: I can only do 3000 miles a year, and about 1500 of them are on wet salty gritty roads.

When I stripped them down the seals looked fine, but the bottom bearing on both sides was solid with rust from the water that must have got through the seals.

I'm hoping the smoothrite will set hard enough to not scrape off first time I go lock to lock

Strip the axle, high pressure clean then take it to be powder coated! Pack the seals with silicone grease on reassembly.
Should see you good for a few years and cheeper than a new axle.
The pre shot blasting will get rid of the corrosion and the powder will fill the pits to a silky smooth finish.

After finding out the price of an axle casing today that is pretty much what I've settled on - thanks!