There's a New BJ70 in My Garage! (1 Viewer)

[HoffLarr]

Sorry Jason, but I just had to steal your line.

So I'm sure you all saw the BJ70 on Kijiji up on blocks with the stalled front axle rebuild. Well, it's now in my garage.

I saw the ad on Wednesday morning and thought it looked very familiar and it was. I had been posted a few months before, but the ad disappeared quickly. When I saw it again I was a bit wary of why it was for sale and didn't really think I would go check it out, but then Tyler texted me the ad and he thought it was worthwhile to go see it so I did that night.

Basically the guy is getting a divorce, selling his house and everything else. He started the axle rebuild 4 years ago and never got it back together (I know that feeling), but he said he had all the parts to reassemble it and it looked like they were there in the back. I checked out the frame and body. The frame definitely has surface rust but looks to be structurally good. The body, I think is actually not bad. It has a lot of surface rust and the rear quarters around the wheels are rusted through and a couple of holes that go through the left wheel well into the cab, but it could be worse.

Didn't even try to start the engine because he said the batteries were dead, but from my very novice eye, it looks pretty good. He says the rad was replaced and it looks like it was, new water pump, new starter and new exhaust. He also has battery warmers and I think an oil pan warmer as well.

I took a look at all the parts I got for the axle rebuild and I THINK it is all there. Lots of bearings, seals and gaskets that I am assuming are all there. I'm gonna work on it tomorrow and I will probably get it slowly done but if anyone with more experience wants to come over and have a look at the parts and give some advice that would be very much appreciated. Some of the part are rusted and I just don't know what is acceptable or not or what else I should do while I'm in there. So if anyone is kicking around the North side this weekend let me know if you want to drop by.

Ok, so now for some tired pics.

Say goodbye to the old place.

On the road again...

Say hello to the new place

Are all the parts there? Let me know what's missing.

I always wondered what this big bowl was for under the hood. It's for peanuts? Now where do you guys keep the beer?

 

[Bambino840]

Nice score, looks like you have what you need. If not I have a few spares in boxes taken apart. Do you have an fsm? Pretty easy to figure out all the pets needed from that. What year? I assume 24v?

 

[phoenix60]

I only see one problem, its a two wheeler!

What's the odometer at? You bought an axle rebuild kit that came with a truck! Once the rust is cleaned up you'll have that axle back together in half a day. Use the rest of the day to eat the peanuts and drink beer. Looks like a new air filter would be a quick tune up. Then find some batteries, maybe some fuel that isn't 4 years old and start it up. How much fuel is in the tank? Might be some rusting in there to take care of before heading out to Ruby again.

 

[HoffLarr]

Nice score, looks like you have what you need. If not I have a few spares in boxes taken apart. Do you have an fsm? Pretty easy to figure out all the pets needed from that. What year? I assume 24v?

Right now the only thing I can see missing is a couple of springs in the one brake caliper he took apart. As far as the FSM goes, I have the one for my '77 I'm using; doesn't look like much is different judging by the parts I have. Can't believe I forgot the year! It's a 1985 and according to the owner it's a 12V. It's a Canadian spec so left hand drive for me. Whoo Hoo! Only reason I'm happy is because I drive alone most of the time and when we went to Cold Lake I remember you mentioning the issue with passing on the highway witha RHD so I figured for my situation a LHD was best.

I only see one problem, its a two wheeler!

What's the odometer at? You bought an axle rebuild kit that came with a truck! Once the rust is cleaned up you'll have that axle back together in half a day. Use the rest of the day to eat the peanuts and drink beer. Looks like a new air filter would be a quick tune up. Then find some batteries, maybe some fuel that isn't 4 years old and start it up. How much fuel is in the tank? Might be some rusting in there to take care of before heading out to Ruby again.

I think the odometer is at 220 something. Never really looked at that too hard.

Now that's the kind of info I'm looking for. I don't know how much gas is in the tank cause of the no power issue. I'm charging the batteries now and I think they are ok, just were not maintained for 4 years and the clock at all their power. So another question. It is supposed to be a 12v and it has two batteries, so I do not know the proper way to charge them. To be safe, what I did was disconnect both of them and then put the charger on them and I will reconnect them once they are charged, but could I have just put the cables on one and both would have charged? And who knows, maybe it's a 24 volt!

I'm wondering what I should do before first start-up since it has sat for so long. It may be less than 4 years since it was started since the PO said in the beginning he used to go out and let it run every once in a while. Should I pull the tank and check it out and check for debris, again, I remember the issue that Dean had with his 80 and wonder if it would be a good idea to just check out the fuel system before I turn the key for the first time.

 

[HoffLarr]

OK guys. I think I will need some advice/guidance as I go along so I have set up a "nerve center" in my garage any real-time help is appreciated. I want to get done as much as possible this weekend and I'm the kind of guy who can't move forward if I'm not sure I'm doing it correctly.

So, the first question is do I need to "polish" the knuckles? They have quite a bit of surface rust on the inside and outside.

Second question, should I disassemble the inner axle shafts and repack them with grease?

And a gratuitous engine pic.

 

[HoffLarr]

Oh, and should I be concerned about the fluid leaking out of the knuckles or is that normal?

 

[potlatch4805]

Clean the nuckles up some, they dont need to have a mirror finish, just knock the surface rust off. The "fluid" is gear oil, perfectly normal, drain it and change it. install new axles seals and wipe a bit of grease on them so the axle slides through nice like. you'll be done this afternoon. change the engine oil and fire it up. Proceed to drive the snot out of it!
Congrats! Should be a fun little truck.

 

[potlatch4805]

just a thought...did the guy keep the shims with the knuckle bearing caps or did he mix em all up? May have to monkey around with pre-load a bit.

 

[HoffLarr]

Thanks Paul. I will not be done this afternoon. You forget, I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing! Maybe on the tenth one I do it will take less than a day. Took half the day to clean up the backing plates.

It seems like the shims are still in place where they were. There are also two new shims in a package as well. This pre-loading thing scares me but I'll have to figure it out. I am working on the calipers now. Not sure if I should just get new ones. These are pretty grimy. I got the pistons out and they don't look too bad but I'm searching prices right now and looks like it might be less than $100 per caliper so maybe just buy new. I do have new pads for these ones though.

First one

Same one, other side

Second one, first half

Second one, other half

 

[HoffLarr]

I was planning on dipping these in some Solvent and then maybe a rust remover, but I don't know if that is a good idea. IF I can't and they are still usable I will just give them a brief cleaning and call it good.

 

[HoffLarr]

Hey, about the inner axles should I repack the bearings in there or just leave as is?

 

[RockDoc]

Hey, about the inner axles should I repack the bearings in there or just leave as is?

The bells of the birfs? I would just force some fresh moly grease in with your thumb / butt of your hand unless they look particularly bad. I've probably been in front axles 4 or 5 times and have only separated the birf from the inner axle twice, once to swap in a locker compatible inner axle and once to change out a broken birf.

 

[HoffLarr]

Thanks for confirming my plan Curtis. That is what I have decided to do. I'm just going to try to clean our as much of the old grease as possible and pack in new grease.

I've also decided to use the calipers. They cleaned up not too bad. I'm sure they'll work good enough for now and I can always replace them later.

 

[HoffLarr]

Ok guys, I need some help with these large gaskets and felts. I have a ton of them and although I know it's cliché, I'm sure there are extra there that I don't need. I just don't know which ones!

7 seems to fit on the backside of the knuckle and I have another metal split ring that I think holds it in place. Is that it? I can't seem to find where the other felt would go. The number 8 paper gasket fits between the spindle and knuckle and I think that's the only gasket between those two parts. If that's it, then there are a lot of extra gaskets. The FSM for my '77 45 has a diagram that seems to show one more metal piece with the felt. I thought that might be number one, but the ring interferes with the bolt holes.

Anybody have the answer?

 

[HoffLarr]

On another note. I just started her up for the first time and she runs like a champ! Started on the first crank.

By the way HER name is BB King Scrappy.

 

[Bambino840]

Repack , I use an air die grinder with a wire wheel and they clean up nice. Paul's right, shims not in order is bush. I ended up ignoring the fsm and just set for preload. I'd drop all fluids on spec, filters, ignore the tank rust and go. 85 is 12v , it's way easier to find crap. 24v can get annoying at times considering parts availbility.

 

[Bambino840]

You have two sets of certain things

 

[potlatch4805]

It looks like you have two kits. Off the top of my head, put #1, #2 and #7 over the knuckle ball in that order before you install anything else. There should be 2 half circles that sammich all that stuff together on the backside of the knuckle. 8 and 9 are spindle seals. 6 and 3 are the same as 7 and 2, but the bolt spacing may be slightly different, my 60 axle has different wipers than my 80 axle. I'm not sure what the 70 has.
There is a pretty good video on YouTube:
As far as pre loading the bearings, start with the old shims, usually you can get really close with them. You need a fish scale. Can't remember the value required...old brain!

 

[potlatch4805]

I think you should name it Peanut...

 

[HoffLarr]

I think you should name it Peanut...

That's a good one never thought of that.

And thanks for the advice. I do have four half circles (actually I have 8 but again 4 just don't line up).

I watched the video and I think I have the wrong parts. I remember his ad stating the reason he did not finish the job was because he at first got the wrong parts from Australia and by the time he got the right ones thing had changed. Anyway, I just saw that I have some of the old parts and it looks like you are pretty much correct Paul. I need a ring like #1, but not this #1, it is too big. The old one is a touch smaller and fits in the grove of the knuckle as shown in the video. I need to use one of the rubber gaskets, but I need to use the flat one, #3, and then the #7 felt. Problem now is I only have one old metal ring so I gotta figure our how to get/make a second one.