Hi everyone. I've got a 97 discovery with 187,000 miles. I've been going through all the systems doing preventive maintenance and have discovered a concern I'm not ready to jump into without a little advice from someone whose been there. I've downloaded the manual and it says the swivel pin housing has a drain, level, and fill plug and requires gl-5. I've found the fill plug but there are no drain or level plugs that I can see. Through searching for parts I've found a heavy grease used to lubricated the constant velocity joint. Looking down through the fill plug I can see on the drivers side that the joint appears to be greased with what I guess is the stuff I've seen for sale. However on the passenger side it looks like there is the same grease but that some axle lube has found its way into the joint. Did the 97 swivel pin housing get packed with grease or filled with lube? I plan on resolving this soon as I really like this truck. How bad is it on the joint for these different lubricants to mix? I've checked the vent and vent tube, both are good and there are no external leaks. However the dust cap on the side that is of concern looks like its been shot for a while. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Still figuring out how to use this forum correctly so have some patience with me. Thanks.

 

They were filled with lube to start with, and this enabled you to drain and re-fill them after a day of water crossings. Because of small seal leaks, many replace this with a "00" grade grease, which you can buy cheap at most lawn mower shops. Some even mix up their own, with Lucas red & tacky #2, etc. The cavity is about the size of a grapefruit, and the CV joint ball bearings are like ping pong ball size. If you turn wheel hard to one side it make a straight path down to get material to the bottom instead of just pooling on top of the bearings.

Earlier models had a drain, and fill check as well as the fill. My 97 has all three shown in attached page from RAVE. Some if not all are brass and soft.

There are axle and hub seals to keep axle lube and wheel bearing grease from entering this space. Mixing is not the issue only issue. The expected water contamination of the swivels, and that migrating to the axles and hubs, may have been the larger concern.

 

Put in gear oil, if it leaks out then use grease.
There is no drain on your truck for the swivel *****.

 

grease. and forget about it.

 

Thanks for the replys. Does anyone have the parts list for resealing the swivel pin housing? Just how much grease do these need? I know there are inner and out seals for the swivels and I'm guessing there's one for the wheel bearings also, is there anything else?

 

What seals do you need?
Depends on what you are going to do, are you going to rebuild them?
Adjust the pre-load?
Repack the wheel bearings?
Are the swivels leaking?

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. My curiosity sometimes gets the best of me. It appears axle lube is making it into the swivel pin housing. Otherwise there are no problems that I can tell, not that I know this truck well enough to catch everything. I just want to correct the small stuff before it becomes a real problem. There are no visual leaks. I'm a pretty good mechanic, had four ase certifications for five years before changing professions. However four wheel drive was never my specialty. Love this truck and want to give it the proper care it needs. All your help is appreciated.

 

How often does the preload require adjustment? When you pack the grease when is enough enough?

 

The swivel pre-load needs adjustment everytime it gets to loose.
How often? Who knows, it all depends, there is no set mileage.
You dont pack them with grease, I do 20 pumps each side from my grease gun every 6 months.
Unless your steering is so bad you cant keep the truck straight and the ball joints and tie rods and wheelbearings and everything else is in good shape then worry about the swivel ball pre-load.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Cool, I'll forget about them for now and go do my head gaskets and get one of those ultra gauges.