Swivel pin change help please.

Afternoon all,
Quick question. I'm about to renew my swivel bearing as one has failed, and was wondering if it's possible to do the job without stripping the hub? Was thinking caliper off , swivel oil seal retainer off then swivel pins out then just remove hub, swivel housing and half shaft as one?
Only problem I can think of is checking swivel preload after due to the extra weight and the drag of the cv joint?
Any ideas/ suggestions?
Thanks
Sam
P reg 300tdi

Its an hour a side to strip down from drive member to axle end.

I did it on thursday for the first time.....

How ever i dont see why you couldnt do it as you suggest so long as you werent chaning the swivel seals , just be a bit heavy to work with, and you would still have to take off the drive member and such like

Seems madness to go into the swivel and change bearings without changing the associated seals on the way out for the pennys it costs to save double handling.

Sounds like a plan. If you are changing the swivel bearings you need to change the outer races too. They are an interference fit in the swivel ball so will probably need to be driven out from the inside and the new ones pressed / driven in. I think it would be a lot easier if it were fully stripped and on the bench. By all means prove me wrong, nothing ventured, nothing gained and you may have come up with an alternative way to do this.

Thanks for the replies gents. I'd completely forgotten about needing the ball off to change the swivel oil seal and a fewide of the other practicalities!
Was hoping I could get away with doing it the way I suggested to save time and save disturbing everything that's okay at the moment!
Cheers for your help.
Sam

My tip on the bearings is to freeze the races overnight, and warm the ball. Easy peasy.

That's a cracking idea boguing! Thanks mate.