A lubricant is applied to swage contact surfaces in a disk drive of the type including a suspension arm connected to an actuator arm by a swaging process. A preferred thin film lubricant may be applied to the contact surfaces by immersion and draining, immersion and raising the part out of the solution, localized spraying, or various deposition processes. Application of the lubricant reduces chipping during de-swaging, particularly with nickel plated metal components. Application of the lubricant has also shown to improve gram load uniformity, reduce adverse distortion to the actuator assembly and reduces torque out retention values. Improved gram load uniformity enhances overall disk drive functioning, reduced distortion preserves intended attitude and flatness of the actions for assembly and reduced torque out retention values improves reworkability of the disk drive.