Does this look like contaminated birf grease

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CO_Hunter

CO_Hunter

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I did a complete axle job (bearings, seals, gaskets etc.) about a year and a half ago (12,000 miles), all Toyota parts. I used Valvoline Palladium grease in the birf and Mobile 1 gear oil.

This is what I have found. The passenger side looks a bit wetter on the knuckle studs and drips on inside of the wheel. Looks like gear oil is in both sides. I don't think this is what moly grease should look like.

I checked the knuckle nuts and they seem tight, no gaps. I can blow, with resistance, through the breather. I have done some water crossings, last was about 7 months ago but I don't think that is an issue.

The only things I can think of are I damaged the inner seal, on both sides or I have wear groves on the axles. If the later does anybody use speedy sleeves?

here are some pics of the drivers side
driv1.webp
driv2.webp
driv dip.webp
Screwdriver in fill hole
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driv dip.webp
 
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Passenger side

pass1.webp
pass2.webp
passdipjpg.webp

Any insight would be appreciated.
pass1.webp
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looks good to me... I don't know what you are expecting?
 
That is not close to how thick and sticky that grease is when it went in. I don't know how much it smooths out when churned.

I became concerned about droplets of fluid on the bottom of the knuckle studs I've seen. I don't know if it is gear oil/grease mix or the grease from the felt seal that is now separating a bit. BTW the droplets are not shown in the pics, they were knocked off when I was messing around before I took the pics.
 
Howdy! I'd say that is a little too wet on the knuckle for the recent rebuld. Did you use OEM axle seals? You may have wear on the axle at that point, or you may of stressed the seal when stabbing the axles back into the diff. I would just order up a set of Marlins' seals. They have a larger sealing surface and contact the axle in a little different position. John
 
Did you check how the oil in the front dif looks?
 
My opinion is the screwdriver tests look a little too wet though its my opinion. As paranoid as I am after my rebuild 2000 or so miles ago I check the grease plugs every week and get a nice blob of grease on my finger.. the fact I used Redline CV-2 which is red it makes it a bit easier to tell how bad its contaminated.

I also don't have anything dripping on my control arm bolts which would lead me to believe something is amiss how bad unfortunately you would have to open her up again argh
 
I'd say your wiper seals are shot. Did you replace them when you did the rebuild? Easy fix. Did you clean the back sides off when you did the service or is all of that grease on the backside new deposit? If it is all new, I would say your inner seals are not doing their job.
 
smell is your best indicator, IMO. 90w oil stinks like sulfurous yuck. Grease smells like... grease.

also check your diff fluid- if it looks like anything other than dark honey (or even fairly black honey) then you've got some cross-contamination happening @ the axle seals.

having said that, I don't really share the level of paranoia that some have regarding a little oil in the birfs. I think that the danger there is that the oil will eventually wash the grease out, leaving no protection.

if you're screwdriver test resists a gentle flick of the wrist (ie: there is still grease on the driver after you try to flick it off) then you have a reasonable amount of protection... worth 'fixing' if nothing else is broken, but not a high priority, again, IMO.
 
I'd say you're contaminated !

I could not live with myself if I noticed this and I'd have to tear into everything... even if I'd just done the job.

Just my 2 cents !
 
do keep in mind that grease is just oil and soap (basically) the soap keeps the oil from falling out of the greased part


so if you are having trouble keeping grease in the birf, then you have a problem. Otherwise you just have something that could become a problem.

or you just have shinier grease in your birfs than most. viscosity is important. shiny-ness isn't important. Is your grease thin? does it stink like 90w? if so, you have an axle seal leak. If not, then add some fresh grease and drive somewhere interesting.
 
The grease gets churned pretty good by the birf, this along with temp change (thinner when hot, summer) makes it sometimes almost a semi liquid. This is good, allows for better lube action. Moly is somewhat thinner that most other greases, depending on brand. Some greases give up their oil easily, especially synthetics are known to be messy.

A small amount of gear oil isn't going to harm anything, it's commonly added to the moly on rigs run in extremely cold climates as a thinner. The big problem is when the seal leaks bad enough to cause birf soup, washout the moly. From the pix, yours looks fine, IMHO. Maintain the correct moly level and run it. :hillbilly:
 
I would keep a close eye on it because clearly that grease is contaminated with gear oil. Your seals may have been damaged when you installed the axles or, the axle vent may be plugged forcing out a bit of oil each time the axle heats up.

Obviously you have enough consistency to the grease that it isn't a major flood of gear oil, but still, that isn't a knuckle you can ignore for years. If it were mine, I would go in and replace the seals.

ANd...check the oil in the diff for grease contamination.
 
Hmmm, I appreciate all the replies but no consensus either way.

To answer some questions:

I did check gear oil it is greenish slightly brown but still translucent.

Knuckle grease does not smell of gear oil. I updated the first post with grease type. Valvoline Palladium.

The knuckle and all parts were clean, clean, clean before reassembly. All new parts includes wiper seals. These were all Toyota parts from CDan.

Marlin seals don't seem to be recommended for the AWD 80 series.
If there is a groove I may go the speedy sleeve route.

You know thinking about this a bit more I do put grease in every oil change and the last time I thought the knuckles were a bit dry on the outside, at least the drive side so I put in a fair amount more than I usually do, on both sides. They did not look close to what they do now on the outside. I wonder if some of the wetness on the outside is the grease separating. I know it drips out of my grease gun a fair amount between uses. Hmmm....almost seems like more questions. Yes my newbieness to Cruisers is apparent.
 
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Have you perhaps over filled the knuckles with grease? I just did a complete tear down and rebuild on the passenger side of my 80 and the one thing I'm still somewhat worried about is the amount of grease I put in my knuckle. Was thinking about pumping more in; as of a few hundred miles I have no visible grease (and oil thankfully) on the exposed part of the knuckle.

If you over fill the knuckles, perhaps it can put pressure on the inner oil seals causing a small leak. It does look a bit wet to me...
 
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Ok for some closure here is a pic of the right side. Worst looking of the seeping knuckles. I found one stud slightly loose, about 1/16 of turn before torque reached. The grease on this side was definitely wetter than the left side. Seal springs were still in place on both sides. It didn't look like axle grooving was an issue either. Hmm...

On a side note I could really use some help on another thread regarding my steering wobble. I have checked everything I could think of, yes searched a lot, read LandTanks thread etc.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-...en-loaded-checked-everything.html#post5732093

birf.webp
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Did you use molly fortified grease? That stuff looks really runny to me. After a good cleaning and new seals, fill the cavity 2/3 full and bolt it up. Make sure you get behind the birf. Womack and I did two front end rebuilds last month and the grease stuck in place just fine. No runs, no drips, no errors... Took 2 1/3 tubes for each side. Good luck.
 
My 2 cents; if you tear into it again definitely go with the new Marlin HD seals as others have said. They are wider, beefier, and as someone above has said the lips sit in a different spot on the axle shaft than where the OEM seals sit which helps if you have wear grooves on the shafts. My shafts did have wear grooves, but no leaks after 4000 miles with a complete front axle service using all new OEM parts but with the Marlin HD seals and Valvoline Palladium. Now there is just a thin smear of grease present on the knuckle balls.
 
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