Time for the rebuild of the swivels and axle ends.

Part 1 - Removing the hub

First job is removing the Fairey free wheeling hubs.

On the body of these there is a grub screw which is undone using a flat bladed screwdriver. Underneath this you should then see a ring which is attached to the plastic strip. This needs to be gently pulled out to release the FWH.

Using a pair of needle nose pliers we got it out so far and then holding the strip and moving the pliers in a rolling motion across the hub, we got it out undamaged.





Once this strip is out, the outer casing should pop off





as you can see in the previous photo, there is a castle nut with a split pin running through it. Before this was removed, I twisted the drivers side FWH to the 4x4 position and moved the transfer box into low range and selected first gear to lock the diff, preventing the shaft from turning.

the split pin was removed and the castle nut was removed using a normal socket.



The six hub bolts were then removed (these should have a spring washer)



Behind the castle nut should be a washer



And behind this is a felt seal which has de-laminated on mine



A centre punch was used to make a mark so we could align everything back up afterwards.





The drive flange could then be removed







The old oil was cleaned up, revealing the bearing nut.



Before taking this off, I took off the brake drum. It is best to adjust the brakes right back so as not to bing the drum with the shoes. Putting a couple of wheel nuts on will help to catch the drum, preventing it from falling on the newly exposed shaft.



To remove the nut the locking washer must first be knocked flat using a punch.




Once this is flat, you can then use the hub nut spanner to undo it. If you look at the above pictures, you can see where a previous owner has used a chisel to tighten/ undo the locknut instead of using a hub spanner.





The locking washer is then removed



There is another nut behind this (again undone with the hub spanner) and behind this is a thrust washer which is thicker than the locking washer.



The hub itself can now come off. Be careful, the bearing inner race on mine was loose and could fall out. Its best t keep these clean so no grit/ dust can get in there.





The nuts washers and hub were all cable tied together in the correct order to help keep them in order and so we dont loose anything.



This was then placed in a carrier bag to keep the bearings clean (these are good so will not be replaced)

With the hub now off, attention turns to the stub axle



First the brake pipe is disconnected from the cylinder and the cylinder and pipe are covered so as to prevent dirt from entering the brake system





The six bolts holding the brake back plate on have a sort of locking plate which needs the tab knocking back flat before they can be undone.









With a bit of persuasion with a rubber mallet, the back plate and stub axle came off in one piece



The back plate was then knocked down to remove the stub axle from it



Its in pretty good condition

With these out the way, it is now the turn of the half shaft to get attention.

This simply pulls out



To check wear in the UJ, grip either side and twist in opposite directions. If theres any play then it is a bit worn. Happily mine is rock solid



The half shafts look to be in very good condition



The UJ and splines were then wrapped up to prevent damage

Before the swivel housing can be removed the link arms need to be removed first.

We do have a ball joint splitter but it has a tendency of damaging the rubber on the track rod ends. So the nut was wound down till it was just past the end of the thread and hit with a lump hammer until the track rod end became loose. Once its loose, when the nut turned, the stud also turned so to loosen the nut a g-clamp was place on the drag link and below the bracket (pushing the taper back into the hole so it will hold the stud still.







A general view "down the tube"



Once the link arms are off, there are 6 bolts holding the housing to the axle end which must be removed.

This photo shows the location of the steering stop bracket on mine (end of the screwdriver)



We tried to undo the nuts with a spanner but they were solid and the nuts were starting to round, so to save effort we got the nut splitter out wihich got 3 of the bolts out before it gave up the ghost. So we have 3 more to do tomorrow which are scheduled to have a meeting with the grinder.

I shall carry this on when we do a bit more tomorrow

Sam worth a look at some of these splitting ball joints with two hammers,Ask Jeeves makes removing look so much easier.

samc88 said:

So we have 3 more to do tomorrow which are scheduled to have a meeting with the grinder.

I shall carry this on when we do a bit more tomorrow

Click to expand...

it was 10 impatient minutes before i got the grinder out, its a tight space, but its doable.

Right then, the 3 offending bolts were cut off using the grinder and by persuading it with a mallet,the housing came off.





Once this was on the bench, the first job was to remove the seal retainer (I had previously took this off to remove the old gaiters so the bolts were still loose).





Revealing the (rather mucky) oil seal behind



Which is then drawn out with a scraper



To free the swivel ball from the housing, the top and bottom swivel pins need to be removed.

First tap back the locking plates



First to be removed is the upper swivel pin. The 4 bolts were removed. Using an 18mm socket on an impact driver really speeds up this job





This image shows the shims present



Next was the turn for the lower one (process is exactly the same for both)



When we took the lower pin out, it also started to bring the bearing with it



The lower pin has an o-ring which must be replaced



Once these are out, the swivel ball itself is ready to be taken out



So there we have it, one dismantled swivel housing The bearings and seals will all be replaced so the next job was to spend the rest of the night cleaning up all the parts ready for reassembling tomorrow

Heres a shot of some of the cleaned up parts given a coat of red-oxide



Cheers,
Sam

Jeez, you're putting me to shame on my project, cracking on at a proper rate. I think I've paid more rent on my garage than it would have cost to buy a new one and so far I've managed to clean, weld and paint about two feet of chassis!

Keep the pictures coming, I love a bit of restoporn!

Haha cheers

Right then in with the new swivel balls!

First off, I cleaned the new ones with white spirit as they were covered in some type of grease. Then we proceeded to lubricate the Railco bush with EP90 before pressing into the top of the ball. Compared to the old one, this should be pressed until flush with the outer edge of the ball (in the picture it needs to go in further, as evidenced by the step). I can tell you this is a lot of effort in a non-hydraulic arbor press



Next the lower bearing race was pressed in (again till flush). Havent got a photo of this as I forgot to take one). The lower bearing was lubricated with blue grease worked in.

Lastly the halfshaft bearing was pressed in. Before this though it was given a good coat of blue grease which was worked into the rollers.



Next the o-ring on the lower swivel pin was replaced and the pin was fitted (the track rod arm points to the front of the vehicle remember)

Once this was fitted, the upper swivel pin was fitted, using first the same thickness of shims as the old ones



This was way too tight, so next was an hour or so of adding and swapping shims until we got the pull force on the spring balance just right (in the manual it states it should be between 8-10 lbs



Then the lock tabs were knocked up and the oil seal packed with grease and dropped in place. (the retainer plate will be finally fitted later as we will have to take it off anyway to fit the gaiters



Before fitting the swivel housing back to the axle, it was decided to replace the axle case oil seal (worth doing while we've got it stripped down to this stage. The old seal was tight to remove so a self tapper was screwed into the rubber and using a claw hammer, the seal was easily pulled out.



when putting the new seal in place, the outer edge was given a smear of hylomar
Here is a shot of the new seal in place as well as the axle flange gasket (fitted with a good smear of hylomar).



Next the swivel housing was bolted on to the axle flange



Now onto tonights job,

First thing was to fit the track rod ends. As mentioned earlier in the thread, the stud has a habit of turning when not pressed into the taper, so this was held down with a g-clamp whilst the nut was tightened on



Next was the turn of the halfshaft. As we put in a new bearing, the inner race (which is pressed onto the halfshaft) was to be replaced for the new one as a matter of principle. This meant the collar also had to be replaced (as it is in front of the bearing race)

To get the old ones off, they were cut into about three quarters of the way through with the grinder, then using a cold chisel and a hammer the job was finished off and they were loose on the shaft.



To get the new parts on (bearing race first then collar with the conical end facing away from the UJ), we got the blowlamp out and warmed them up for a few minutes before sliding onto the shaft. Result was a piece that slid nicely in place and once cooled was fixed solid. We also did the same with the stub axle collar



Once these were done, the halfshaft was slid into place with the splines located in the diff (sounds easier than it is, the long half shaft is a bit of a faff to get in), then the stub axle and brake backplate were put on, the bolts having new locking plates. There is a gasket between stub axle and swivel housing (again fitted using hylomar)



The next job was the hub. This was all cleaned out and the old bearings (in good condition) were repacked with grease



Next the oil seal was fitted. We put this to soak in EP90 yesterday overnight ready for fitting



This was slid onto the stub axle and the thrust washer and adjustment nut were fitted. As we had painted the old wheel, the spare was rolled in for the next bit. It was attached to the wheel studs and by rocking the wheel and tightening or loosening the nut, the amount of play was adjusted (you need a very small bit so as not to over stress the bearings). using a dti its about 4thou if i remember right from looking at the book, but we dont have a dti so this was done by feel.

The locking washer and nut are then fitted and tightened and the tab on the washer knocked over.

After this the flange gasket was fitted and then so was the FWH driving flange (yes I'm actually keeping the things)

The bolts were torqued down to 28 lbs/ft



Next the felt washer, washer, castle nut and split pin were fitted and the recess where the FWH engages was given some grease



Then the FWH was fitted. Worth remembering there are 3 roll pins holding the spring on which must align with the corresponding holes for the gear to fit. This was all given a grease prior to fitting as it wont hurt to give it a bit of lubrication. Pushed on, the spirolox plastic ring was fitted and finally the grub screw.



Result after doing this is I now have a FWH which doesn't spin 360 (also had to file the groove in the plastic piece which engages in the tabs inside the cap, this was because they had worn so as it moved round, the taps were engaging in the groove but then the plastic was jumping out_

Tomorrows jobs then, fit the gaiter, fill the swivel and replace the drum and wheel and paint

Right then, got the swivel gaiter on (this is a right PITA to do, took us 2 hours as its right fiddly). It was given a good coat of vaseline both sides before fitting. Then the brakes were reconnected and the drum was put back on





Then we filled the housing up with the swivel grease and gave it all a good coat of black paint before refitting the wheel (wheels will get painted limestone at some point)



Job done (yes he is a bit dusty I know)



Now for the other side

looking good, looks like it is almost fully done now.

Well got the drivers side one done which was pretty much a repeat of the passenger, except for when we came to press the stub axle collar on. It was very tight even after heating till it turned blue. So we put the collar in the oven and the shaft in the freezer for a few hours. It was still tight but we used the arbor press again and with a combination of press and big hammers resulted in the collar being fitted at last

Tonight it was the turn of the steering relay. Before taking this out, the relay arms were disconnected (making note of their position on the relay before doing so. The flange on the bottom of the chassis also needs removing by taking out the 4 bolts and spring washers.

Legend among land rover owners is these are a right PITA to get out. So we didnt opt for hammers, we went straight all in using a trolley jack Putting a socket under the relay to spread the load, the relay was jacked up and suprisingly it came out okay Had to trim the battery box a bit to get it to come out though.



Image showing the socket used under the relay (42mm impact socket)





The relay housing in the chassis



Pic showing the trimmed battery box and the fact we had to unclip the brake pipe



With this off the vehicle, the relay was put in a pillow case and the bottom plate taken off. Next was to hit the relay shaft down using a drift and big hammer. Once it goes partway, the mahoosive spring inside will let go and fly out (the reason its put in the pillow case, stops the spring flying far). The shaft was then drifted out and all the parts layed out as below (to get to this stage only took about an hour and a half )



Parts that should be present:

2 x end plates + oil seals
2 x thrust washers
2 x washers
2 split bushes
1 shaft
1 massive spring


Job for tomorrow is cleaning up

That shaft looks quite pitted and rusty and the bushes not too clever - they might be worth replacing. I did mine recently and the steering is a real joy compared to when it was a bit sticky before...

dominicbeesley said:

That shaft looks quite pitted and rusty and the bushes not too clever - they might be worth replacing. I did mine recently and the steering is a real joy compared to when it was a bit sticky before...

Click to expand...

The main shaft's not too bad, that pic just shows it before it was cleaned up with a load of brown crud around it. The distance pieces the seals run on will be replaced as they are what are pitted, the main shaft is fine (the bits the bushes run are lightly pitted but once cleaned up and dressed with some emery should be fine I think) I can't afford a new shaft anyway, one that isnt made of cheese in any case as britpart ones are reputed to be I've got new bushes to fit

Bit of an update, after cleaning, it turns out my shaft is the earlier 1 piece solid item (i.e not the one with the pressed on collar). So going to see if I can get it skimmed on a lathe till the collar is a good press fit, be better than it is and better than bodging it with JB weld or epoxy metal I think

Buying the shaft on its own from a known good supplier is getting very difficult These have Bearmach at a reasonable price.
562875 SHAFT FOR STEERING RELAY | shop | www.lrseries.com
Put new bushes in mine last year wishing I had used one shot grease in it instead of oil as bottom seal weeping.
Sam yours looks like it has not seen oil for awhile.

Right then, I got the shaft skimmed so that the collars are a good press fit (means its a serviceable item in the future now) and I reassembled it pretty much in the same way as this chap did (no photos of mine as I forgot)

How to rebuild a steering relay.

Then once that was done it was onto the stage of starting the finishing touches. Booked the MoT for this Saturday so it was decided to get it MoT'd, insured and taxed and then finish off the paint and stuff later.

The wheels were given a coat of limestone:


Then were fitted along with the front end (radiator grill and apron)
Mirrors were then added (note, it helps to fit these before the door goes on, dont ask how I know this )
Then the sills were added along with various bts such as lenses and the rear numberplate (yes it looks quite tatty but will order some new ones this week)







Nearly there now

Woooo very nearly done nice one dude

looking good! :tea:

good luck with the mot, after all your work it should fly through

Well MoT day today First MoT in 5 years and result was a pass with no advisories