23rd April 2017

Front Suspension and Drive Train

During the course of the week another two boxes arrived from Paddock Spares - a new swivel housing to replace the damaged near side one and a set of covers to protect the swivel housings from dirt and mud.

The swivel housing rebuild was fairly straight forward enough with the supplied shims for the top bearing providing just enough turning resistance when fitted. Using a small spring balance that we use to weigh our travel bags I dutifully followed the fitting instructions in the MOD Land Rover Workshop manual to measure the turning resistance after the new housing and bearings were fitted.

New swivel housing being assembled

Britpart - Swivel housing gater kit

With the swivel housings reassembled I installed the Britpart gater kit that I hope will prolong the life of the seals and of the housing itself by protecting them from road dirt and spray.

The kit contained the two gaters, a pair of latex gloves, a tube of super glue and two metal wrap around ties. The gaters are fitted around the swivel housing and then the open end is closed together using the super glue. 

Wearing the gloves supplied I was extremely carefull to avoid contaminating the edges to be glued together with oil or grease before I applied the glue.

The gaters are an extremely tight fit and it was virtually impossible to get the two faces together. After holding the joint closed for nearly 2 minutes I left each gater to set for an hour before I fitted the retaining plate that holds the gater and the swivel housing seal in place.  The other end was secured using the metal ties provided with the kit.

Overall I was not that impressed by the kit and i would recommend that anyone else looking for one consider some of the others that are on the market.

Both rebuilt swivel housings were then refitted to the land rover along with new heavy duty steering rods and ball joints.

Swivel housing mounted on the cleaned and repainted front axle

The old steering box was an unknown quantity as it had been drained of fluid and partially removed from "Wolfie" when I bought it from the MOD. Rather than attempt and refurbish it myself I opted to replace it with a fully rebuilt exchange unit which came from National Power Steering in Leicester.

Suspension in place - heavy duty steering rods also fitted

 The standard steering damper which was fitted when "Wolfie" arrived was bent and unusable so It was replaced with an upgraded unit made by "Old Man Emu"

"Old Man Emu" Steering damper adds a bit of colour next to the new steering box

Before I can complete rebuilding the front axle, I need to install the new nearside CV joint which unfortunately was not delivered in time for last weekend. The original CV joint was damaged to the point of near failure through the nearside swivel housing having been previously run dry and when I removed it two of the ball bearing that should be contained within it actually fell out.