King pin still leaking????

Last year I replaced the oil seal and kingpin bearings on a family friend's Jimjam and it leaked a couple of months after. To get her through the MOT someone else drained the front diff at my advice and she was told not to select 4wd.

Today I replaced the kingpin bearings again, albeit they were likely ok and the seal but shimmed them with annealed copper washers. I've done this on mine with good results.

The seal was absolutely trashed but I know I put it in properly and square and I didn't damage it putting the shaft in. The wheel bearing seems tight and quiet too.

I'm at a loss as to why the seal lips were so flattened. I'm hoping it will be good for a few years now and with new oil in the diff it can be used in 4wd this winter if required.

Thankfully the 4wd system worked after I had it apart as you have to disturb several seals and pipes from the vacuum system. There were 2 audible clicks and the light was solid, not flashing.

Kirkynut

I've recently done the kingpin bearings/ oil seal/shim/grease job on both sides of my 03 Jimny and passenger side is still leaking.From reading this, I guess I'll have to order a new halfshaft oil seal and be more careful re-installing the halfshaft.
How does too much grease in the swivel cause this issue? Does it cause grease to leak or diff oil as it smells like diff oil is leaking on mine.
It could also be that I haven't brought it to get it's tracking done and wheels balanced after the second kingpin was replaced and that a small wobble in the drive shaft might be compromising the seal.
Also is there a way to know how many shims to use?

Hi,
The grease will not cause the issue. You only need enough to coat the Kingpin bearings and inside CV joint, any more is just wasted and a gunky mess.
If it's leaking still it's likely to be diff oil getting past the seal. Damaged seal or grooved shaft (the bit the seal runs on) are possible causes.
You only need shims to achieve the correct swivel load, it's about 3kg (someone please confirm, I can't recall exactly) to get the swivel moving from side to side. It's possible you don't need any with new bearings, mine has none fitted.

Scimike wrote: Hi,
The grease will not cause the issue. You only need enough to coat the Kingpin bearings and inside CV joint, any more is just wasted and a gunky mess.
If it's leaking still it's likely to be diff oil getting past the seal. Damaged seal or grooved shaft (the bit the seal runs on) are possible causes.
You only need shims to achieve the correct swivel load, it's about 3kg (someone please confirm, I can't recall exactly) to get the swivel moving from side to side. It's possible you don't need any with new bearings, mine has none fitted.

Service bulletin says the maximum swivel load is 4.6kg (45Nm) or less.

I have tried on many occasions to measure the starting load on the swivels when fitting with shims.

In the end I resorted to the "Goldilocks" process.

This involves simply swiveling it by my finger tips and seeing how it felt - Too Hard > less shims Too Soft > more shims Just Right = success.

Its hard to describe this but you can literally feel it in your fingers and sense that it is just right

Had a similar issue on my last jimny only way i could stop it from leaking was to fit a genuine suzuki seal and that was on the long shaft side.