Front Axle Service and Re-Gear in Progress with Photos (1 Viewer)

[unwiredadventures]

Within weeks of purchasing my 1997 Land Cruiser in May of 2008, I had larger tires installed. Immediately I knew that the gearing needed to be changed to something lower. Over the last nine months I've been collecting the parts needed to re-gear the differentials and service the axles.

So this month I had the time to get this done and a Land Cruiser expert that was available to re-gear the differentials to 4.88.

I spent more time reading posts here on Mud than I will have spent on the this project. Thanks to all that have contributed. The FAQ and posts have helped me very much

Here's the driver's side with spindle removed:


Here it is out of the truck. There is visible wear from a seal on the right side:



Re-Geared 4.88 Front diff installed:


Re-Geared 4.88 Rear diff installed:


This would have been impossible for me without the help of my little friend from Harbor Freight Tools:


Old trunnion bearing races removed:


New Marlin Crawler seals and trunnion bearing races installed.


This Bearing Race and Seal Driver Set made easy work of installing seals and bearing races.

So far, I've used up over 300 blue shop paper towels. This is a very messy greasy job.

Early tomorrow morning, I'll start the reassemble of the axles. So if all goes well I should be done tomorrow.

 

[Brentbba]

All purty and clean ready for new grease! Nice!

 

[NLXTACY]

Wow frank, looking nice!!! So wishing I didn't have a full time job now so I could go play with those axles. I feel like I am really missing out.

 

[Randy88FJ62]

That axle housing is way too clean. We're going to have to take that into the sierras and put some wear into it.

Looks like a nice clean job.

 

[Tapage]

dude that's a clean knuckle .. congrats ..

 

[PabloVTA]

who did the gear install for you?
thanks for the links to the tools, great job.

 

[unwiredadventures]

who did the gear install for you?
thanks for the links to the tools, great job.

Robbie aka Powerpig set up the gears.

 

[unwiredadventures]

Putting it back together:






All done!

I feel like I've gone through an initiation.

 

[gotmud]

Let us know how your new rotors work out.

 

[FirstToy]

whew, i'm tired just looking at the pics frank!
can i borrow that seal tool? I have the slee one but don't think it's wide enough for the Marlin seal. I have to do a fr/rr rebuild as well, maybe in a month or so.

rotors look pretty!

 

[PHIL O]

your mod project is bad ass. very clean and neatly done. how much did you spend for the regearing?

 

[unwiredadventures]

whew, i'm tired just looking at the pics frank!
can i borrow that seal tool? I have the slee one but don't think it's wide enough for the Marlin seal. I have to do a fr/rr rebuild as well, maybe in a month or so.

rotors look pretty!

Yes, let me know when you are ready to go and you can use the seal tool.

I haven't done the rear axle yet. There is an SST needed to adjust preload on the full float axle and I don't have that tool yet. Do you have one?

 

[FirstToy]

my trusty torque wrench

 

[unwiredadventures]

my trusty torque wrench

How do you set foot pounds?

 

[FirstToy]

a cool, self-adjusting ratcheting mechanism built right in

 

[unwiredadventures]

a cool, self-adjusting ratcheting mechanism built right in

I don't get it. When are you going to do your axles? You can show me then.

 

[SBFJ60FIG]

Started my birf pack/front brakes/rear brakes/parking brake repair tonight.

God I love California cars, you guys have no idea how good you've got it man!

 

[unwiredadventures]

I see that you don't half-way fix something.

I don't like to fix the same thing twice. Especially when on the trail.

Why did you pick the Marlin crawler brand instead of factory parts?

The Marlin Crawler seal is just better engineered than the stock seal. This seal is considered one of the weak points of the front axle.

SO many options on brakes, how did you decide on these and what are they?

The brakes are DBA, I got them from Man-A-Fre. I drive a steep mountain road several times a month that goes from 5,000 feet to around 1,200 feet. It's really hard on the brakes. I installed some slotted rotors last winter and they started to feel warped. So I'm trying these now.

I want to put 35's on my truck but have not lifted it yet, would you use the J's again and would you still regear and use 35's if you had it to do over again?

No, I wouldn't use J's again. They're too soft for me. Especially when the truck is loaded, going up a steep hill the rear suspension compresses more than I like. Just drinving around town, I find I can bottom the suspension with the neighborhood road dips. I'd go with the Slee 4" lift kit. Yes, I'd re-gear with 35's. The stock gearing is much too tall with the big tires.

What tools, tricks of the job did you discover that made the job turn out better?

The FSM is a must as well as reading the FAQ and going over other reports here on MUD. I went though almost 500 of the blue shop towels. Lots of latex gloves as well.

I don't have factory lockers. I am looking for a set before I spend alot of time on the ones I have. A friend recommended that I just put an auto locker in the rear only and keep my axles. Do you feel that front and rear lockers are needed to do the off-roading you do?

I switch on the rear lockers somewhat frequently. I've only really needed the fronts a few times.

I don't have any experience with an auto-locker. I don't know what impact that would have on street driving.

I don't go out looking for the hardest trails. But on trips there's always something unexpected. The lockers just make some of more difficult parts of the trail much easier.