I've got a disco 2 on the ramp ATM if you want axle measurements ? If so what measurements ?

sounds like a load of bs if you ask me!

Sounds like a LOT OF BS to me.

Neil has offered to replace the ball FOC, probably to shut me up.

He didn't seem to want to talk part numbers anymore

Here's today's transcript, see what you think. It's in reverse order cos I copied it from my mailbox:

Neil:

Hi Sam

I really don’t know, but still life goes on

Regards
Neil

•••••

Sam:

Hello Neil

Your offer of a replacement part is very kind, I will obviously gladly accept it!!

However, (unless you no longer wish to discuss it!!) it is of interest to me as to how I obtained the part.

I remember speaking with the parts supplier at carriages (who I had known for awhile as he used to be a parts advisor at our local land rover dealer) and he asked me if I had 12mm or 8mm seals fitted, because the kits were different, otherwise there was no other choices.

It has to be said that Britpart is easily the largest supplier of aftermarket LR parts so it is likely that all the machined teflon swivel balls I have removed from axles recently were quite likely to be britpart.

I know for an absolute fact that the ones I removed from britpart boxes a year or so ago and fitted to my car were definitely britpart, as the non machined type would simply not fit on my axle.

However, if the answer is unknown, we will just put it down to the mystery of Land Rovers, and I will speak highly of your service either way.

Kind Regards, Sam.

•••••

Neil:

Hi Sam

Yes, they are listed as using the same number, but in DA3163 we use FRC7065M, which is machined, we do not use this part in DA3164, we introduced the FRC7065M last December.

As Carriages are no longer trading, we cannot obtain any information from them, and as we are not going anywhere with this issue, as a goodwill gesture, I will send you a FRC7065M swivel housing free of charge to help you out.

Thank you
Regards
Neil

•••••

Sam:

Hi Neil

Ok I can see that the two parts in the pictures you supply are different.

However, please have a look here:

Land Rover Accessories | Swivel housing kit | Discovery 1 - up to JA32850 - with 12mm seals | Range Rover Classic - up to JA624516 - with 12mm seals - Britpart - The Quality Parts for Land Rovers



And here



Land Rover Accessories | Swivel housing kit | Discovery 1 - up to JA32850 - with 8mm seals | Range Rover Classic - up to JA624516 - with 8mm seals - Britpart - The Quality Parts for Land Rovers



These are the two kits, and they have the same swivel ball in them.



My vehicle chassis is JA020166 and has always had the brass collar on the half shaft, as had any other discovery 10 spline of the same era that I have ever seen, all needing the recess.



Mine has 8mm swivel seals fitted to the knuckle, therefore according to your catalogue it requires the DA3164 kit as supplied to me.



As such, I cannot see what you are getting at because I clearly have the correct ball and correct kit as supplied to me by yourselves through Carriages of Droylsden.



Kind Regards, Sam.

•••••

Neil:

Hi Sam

We have been using our current supplier since 2009, as you will see from the attached pictures, they do not have a recess machined on the inside (black circles), and the casting is different as well (red circles)

The only kit that has the machined recess in the swivel housing is DA3163, and we have only been doing these since December last year.

Regards
Neil

•••••

Sam:

Hello Neil,

Thanks for getting back to me

However, I have to be frank, but I do not believe you!

The reason for this is that I remember purchasing the very swivel ball which you have in your possession and when it arrived I removed it from a Britpart box, which also contained Britpart swivel grease, bearings, seals etc etc.

So in short I have to say I'm not with you on that.

Regards the half shaft fitment, I'm no expert but my 10 spline shafts have the brass collar around them which as far as I can see requires a seat machined into the inside of the ball, which I assume the ball which you have in your possession has, otherwise my CV assembly would not have fitted once the stub axle was offered up.

Please let me know what the next action will be.

Thanks again for your help.

Kind Regards, Sam

•••••

Neil:


Hello Sam

We have compared the swivel housing to ours, ref DA3164 kit, the housing does not match ours, the kit you have purchased is not the correct one for your vehicle, it should be DA3163, as your vehicle has semi floating halfshafts and not full floating ones, as per later vehicles. Our DA3164 kits do not have the extra recess to clear the bush on an earlier axle, however, the swivel you have sent does, there are other differences as well, and do not think that this is a Britpart product. We are happy to send this to our supplier for their analysis, but we believe he will state that this is not his product as well.

We will try and find out who we think the supplier of this swivel housing, this may be of some assistance to you.

Regards

Neil Waldron
Sales Manager

Here's a pic Neil sent me of my ball:



And here's the pic of the ball I should have apparently:



No chance!

Clued up customer - 1
Captain BS Sales Manager - 0

It's interesting that after the part has been changed, since December, yet they are still advertising two kits with the same swivel. Are they admitting that they haven't updated their website, catalogue or are they trying a fast one? Are they saying that before December they didn't supply swivels for your motor??

On another note, it doesn't really matter which was allegedly used, although I go with sam, but neither of these swivels should have broken. Add the fact that this muppet can't find out from sales invoices or delivery sheets which part You had, I would be worrying about the items I was supplying in any case. It's not right that they may be supplying items that could fail like this.

Cheap Chinese castings being palmed off as UK items???

Mark L said:

Clued up customer - 1
Captain BS Sales Manager - 0

Click to expand...

Felt marginally smug

funny how lr would make only 2 balls with 7 point fixing irrelavent of half shaft ,frc7065 disco ,rrc or frc2644 rialko bush type def and abs later , so bp have made 2 balls instead of 1 and of poor quality

Seems more like not admitting fault than anything else. Especially as they offering to replace it for free. Either way, at least they are being decent about it - some probably wouldn't be.

JoelC said:

Seems more like not admitting fault than anything else. Especially as they offering to replace it for free. Either way, at least they are being decent about it - some probably wouldn't be.

Click to expand...

Yes, as far as I could see it was more a case of here's a free ball now go away and lets not discuss whose fault it was anymore than anything else.

Anyway, assuming the ball turns up I argued my case successfully

Very much a case of go away and stop making a fuss before anybody notices. Have you shared this on LR4x4 as well?

No but could do?!

Mr Noisy said:

Yes, as far as I could see it was more a case of here's a free ball now go away and lets not discuss whose fault it was anymore than anything else.

Anyway, assuming the ball turns up I argued my case successfully

Click to expand...

yeh! that's what i would think too!!, why don't they just say "hey things happen" bad casting etc, but give you a story like that, what next?

Mr Noisy said:

No but could do?!

Click to expand...

The wider the audience the better as far as this is concerned. I try to avoid Brit part where possible anyway but that's a disgrace.

If it were me on the other end of the phone it would have been, "I'm extremely sorry to hear that, I will replace it straight away and review how this could have happened. We take safety and performance of our products very seriously and we will look into exactly how this could have happened. Blah blah blah"

Then I wouldn't have a large thread on a large forum made up of my core customers, discussing how I am looking bad dodging the obvious.

What he said ^^^

When I get time I'll put a thread together!

I have just put a new swivel ball on mine, bought from Paddocks. I was a bit gutted to find it was a Britpart one. Wish I had checked this fred yesterday now, before I had fitted it so I could of looked into what sort it was.
Are most Land Rover parts Britpart if not original..?

Well done on getting a replacement. Looks like you had to fight for it though.

JonnyP do you still have the box/part number?

Mine has just arrived and it is DEFINITELY a different part to what they used to supply.

I'm tempted to say different casting, much smoother inside, and the recess is machined AFTER coating.

The old ball was machined before coating.

What Neil at Britpart said was partly true for the wrong reasons.

The ball I had previously which everyone has used for all of time is like jamesmartin said the FRC7065 but now britpart have started the FRC7065 and the FRC7065M.

I think they have changed casting, and for profits in one way or another have probably stopped machining all the balls, thus having an M part number.

Will get a pic later!

Mr Noisy said:

JonnyP do you still have the box/part number?

Mine has just arrived and it is DEFINITELY a different part to what they used to supply.

I'm tempted to say different casting, much smoother inside, and the recess is machined AFTER coating.

The old ball was machined before coating.

What Neil at Britpart said was partly true for the wrong reasons.

The ball I had previously which everyone has used for all of time is like jamesmartin said the FRC7065 but now britpart have started the FRC7065 and the FRC7065M.

I think they have changed casting, and for profits in one way or another have probably stopped machining all the balls, thus having an M part number.

Will get a pic later!

Click to expand...

Mine says DA3165 on the box.

All this talk of balls and not one whiff of innuendo. Must be an LZ first!