Is it possible to replace the steering knuckle oil seals without disassembling the steering knuckle and axle shaft?
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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.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.
I didn’t mean you can’t. I meant you shouldn’t. Not in his position. This isn’t a trail repair.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.
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.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?
The kit from cruiser outfitters has the directions and torque specs printed out for you in the box.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.
going to want to at minimum replace the seal and repack the wheel bearings since they're probably washed out with gear lube.
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.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.
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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.