Advice needed, when to change out the kingpin

Hi Guys, some assistance from experience Jimny owners required. My drivers side kingpin has started to weep oil (see photo), at what stage should I change it out and will one of Martins kingpin kits cure it, thanks

Personally mine looks like that when its had a hard time off road. I clean it up and it doesn't "weep" any more on road. If you jack it up there will be movement along the vertical plane when rocked with your hand top and bottom of the wheel iirc.

When my bearings are shot there's a noticable run of oil from the swivels and the diff oil usually sprays around the arch and over the inside of the wheel.

Thanks mcjimny, I have noticed mine has sprayed oil around the tyre . They don't last long they were only changed out 12 months ago.

mine lasted 6 months but i suppose that comes down to how & where you drive the jimny

its not expensive to change them so best to change them as soon as you have to

I've done mine twice in almost 3 years of ownership so no they don't last long. Its not the cost of the job i dislike, its the job itself i hate, probably the messiest job on these things. I can do it in no time at all now too.

I'm interested to hear if the washer fix works for the next time i do mine. Hopefully coupled with the waterproof grease it should go some way to prolonging their life a bit.

Thanks for the help, is it an easy job to do, I dont want to start taking it to bits then go to work in a taxi Monday morning

I personally changed the kingpin bearings twice and one cv joint in the first year of life of my jimny ... then i learned a trick which avoid water and mud to enter the kingpin housing and the joints: fullfill the hubs with grease ...

I made some pictures of this easy operation:

1) unscrew one bolt from lower kingpin plate
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2) unscrew one of top kingpin plate
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3) unscrew greaser nozzle
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4) push greaser head into the free lower hole
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5) pump grease inside untill it exit from upper hole
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Doing this procedure frequently since last 3-4 years, i had no more kingpin or cv joint failures ...

Hope this can be usefull

Sounds a good idea, would this not overload the CV with grease? I never know how much grease is to much or to little. Would this then make the swivel seal start leaking under pressure? Sorry i'm still new to the jimny thing and haven't had to change kingpin bearings yet!

There is a recomended amount to pack the cv's with but i can't remember what it is! Everytime i've done the job i've gone to town on the cv's with grease and they still click off road!

I'll try the motorcross grease next time though.

As for how hard a job it is, it's easy enough if you are confident with simple mechanics ie oil change, brake pads etc. The how to guide on here is very usefull. It is the smelliest and messiest job on a jimny though.

The smelliest messiest job is mine! I'm a Garage Equipment / Commercial Vehicle brake tester engineer! It pays for the Jimny!
I'm tempted on a tub of Marine grease as Martin has in the Bigjimny shop.
Suzuki recommend 100ml of grease in the CV.

Thanks for the help, the kingpins seem to be the Jimny's weakness and a regular money maker for the garages

Since owning mine(nearly 3 years) i've done:
1 cv, kingpin bearings twice, swivel hub seals once, both rear wheel bearings, rear wheel cylinder twice all on top of normal service stuff pads, oil etc..

Imagine how much that would have cost me if i hadn't done the work myself. The only thing i've paid to have done was the clutch at £270