87 FJ60 Steering Knuckle oil seal leak. (1 Viewer)

[elkhunter]

Is it possible to replace the steering knuckle oil seals without disassembling the steering knuckle and axle shaft?

 

[stevebradford]

The minimum you can do for an inner oil seal change is unbolt the bottom trunion or king pin keeper plate 4 bolts, drop that away. Your tie rod end ball joint, the 10mm knuckle dust felt seal, next you have to undo your 10mm locking hub bolts, remove the snap ring keeper then finesse everything apart with a lot of pushing, pulling and wiggling. Also you will have to undo your brake lines as mine don’t have enough length to pull far enough away to slip past the axle shaft. By then you’re most of the way to a complete tear down anyway.

See here for part numbers and torque.
Post in thread 'Some info saved'
Some info saved - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/some-info-saved.1024764/post-11333798

 

[3_puppies]

probably a good idea to tear it all down and clean and inspect.

 

[BlackCat]

long and short of it? No, not really. Not sure you would want to, anyways. If it's come to the point where it's leaking and dripping gear oil, you're going to want to at minimum replace the seal and repack the wheel bearings since they're probably washed out with gear lube.

 

[Bluebj42]

long and short of it? No, not really. Not sure you would want to, anyways. If it's come to the point where it's leaking and dripping gear oil, you're going to want to at minimum replace the seal and repack the wheel bearings since they're probably washed out with gear lube.

Not true you absolutely can. you have never snapped a birfield out on a trail and stripped apart the bare minimum in the dirt to get the truck out obviously. Like mentioned earlier above the entire hub can be unhooked by removing the bottom cap.

 

[OSS]

The groil (grease/oil) that’s remaining in the knuckle cavity is crap. You want to clean it all out and replace with new anyway

 

[BlackCat]

Not true you absolutely can. you have never snapped a birfield out on a trail and stripped apart the bare minimum in the dirt to get the truck out obviously. Like mentioned earlier above the entire hub can be unhooked by removing the bottom cap.

I didn’t mean you can’t. I meant you shouldn’t. Not in his position. This isn’t a trail repair.

 

[elkhunter]

Hey guys, thanks for the info. Part of what concerned me was if I had to have any special service tools to get any part of the job done. I've never gotten in to a steering knuckle and don't know all of what to be prepared for. I can generally always tear down and reassemble most anything but I can see some jobs where I might not have the right specialty tools to do it right.
Any advice there?

 

[BlackCat]

Hey guys, thanks for the info. Part of what concerned me was if I had to have any special service tools to get any part of the job done. I've never gotten in to a steering knuckle and don't know all of what to be prepared for. I can generally always tear down and reassemble most anything but I can see some jobs where I might not have the right specialty tools to do it right.
Any advice there?

advice would be to do it correctly. Spending a couple of bucks on specialty tools to do the job is still going to be cheaper than paying someone to do it, and will also be cheaper than what can possibly happen if you cut corners. Rebuilding the knuckles isn't a hard job, just very messy and time consuming.

 

[kevin in okinawa]

snap ring pliers, a 54mm socket, a brass drift for the cone washers, torque wrench...I think that's about it for special tools for the front-end service.

 

[kevin in okinawa]

I think that it is Wit's End that has a pretty cool poster that shows the exploded view from the manual with all of the torque settings.

 

[BlackCat]

I think that it is Wit's End that has a pretty cool poster that shows the exploded view from the manual with all of the torque settings.

The kit from cruiser outfitters has the directions and torque specs printed out for you in the box.

 

[kevin in okinawa]

if you've never done it before, plan for one side to take one an entire day (a lot of that time will be spent properly cleaning and degreasing reusable parts) and get lots of paper towels for the old, nasty, goopy grease and the new moly-b grease for the hub. Be sure to pack the bearings really good with bearing grease. It's a dirty but satisfying job to complete. Kind of a rite of passage for the LC crowd. I'm excited for you.

 

[stevebradford]

going to want to at minimum replace the seal and repack the wheel bearings since they're probably washed out with gear lube.

No offence, and I agree with a full hub rebuild but a leaking inner axle seal doesn’t wash out the wheel bearing grease.

The oil/grease slurry fills the birfield knuckle and leaks out the felt seal as well as the centre of the spindle where the axle shaft goes threw into the locking hub selector. There’s an inner hub seal that keeps knuckle grease in the knuckle and the wheel bearing grease separate.

It also is very acceptable to do just the inner axle seal at times, for example a knuckle rebuild was just done but the seal got nicked sliding the axle shaft back in. Or the knuckle isn’t perfectly centred, axle slightly bent and the truck keeps chewing threw that inner axle seal on that side.

 

[BlackCat]

No offence, and I agree with a full hub rebuild but a leaking inner axle seal doesn’t wash out the wheel bearing grease.

The oil/grease slurry fills the birfield knuckle and leaks out the felt seal as well as the centre of the spindle where the axle shaft goes threw into the locking hub selector. There’s an inner and outer hub seal that keeps knuckle grease and wheel bearing grease separate.

It also is very acceptable to do just the inner axle seal at times, for example a knuckle rebuild was just done but the seal got nicked sliding the axle shaft back in. Or the knuckle isn’t perfectly centred, axle slightly bent and the truck keeps chewing threw that inner axle seal on that side.

View attachment 3507002

Well I guess we can agree to disagree then, since I just did mine and they were swimming in a puddle of gear oil/grease soup.

 

[stevebradford]

I think that it is Wit's End that has a pretty cool poster that shows the exploded view from the manual with all of the torque settings.

Yes part numbers! I bought a dozen, for the local guys up here. A must have piece of artwork for any landcruiser enthusiasts shop.

 

[Bluebj42]

Axle oil can mix with the wheel bearing grease not wash it out per se but it can turn it into a full hub slurry threw the locking hub selector if you let things get real real bad!