Can you just do an "oil seal" and not a full knuckle rebuild? (1 Viewer)

[crispy21]

So I was up under my cruiser changing the oil and I saw what is the beginning of the diff oil seeping from my wipers on both knuckles.

I rebuilt them two summers ago so the wipers are still wiping etc. Can I dig in there and just do new oil seals and give everything else that was new 2 years ago a good re-lube?

Thank you,
John

 

[bhmmapping]

Search for "Camo Method" I don't remember the full details but you can pull the knuckle off intact and change the oil seal.

 

[mesa man]

How to Remove a Birfield Joint (The fast way) aka The Camo Method ...
I was just reading about it. seems like a good short cut. @crispy21
mine need replacing also .I just got my marlin crawler ecoseals and amsoil moly grease.

 

[Tools R Us]

If I'm not going to replace the wipers, etc, would rather not mess with them. We pull the hub, spindle that gets to the axle and seal without disturbing the knuckle. Have done several this way, pretty quick and easy.

 

[dcguillory]

too bad i hadnt seen this day before yesterday . . .

 

[shocktower]

Can I take a big wet dump and not wipe my ass, , yes on both but if you leaked oil in the birf and washed out grease you are gong to have to go back in soon, just do it right 1x it's is more fun this way Oh yeah OEM and Joey's seal jammer

 

[Tools R Us]

Can I take a big wet dump and not wipe my ass,

Whatever floats your boat!

, yes on both but if you leaked oil in the birf and washed out grease you are gong to have to go back in soon, just do it right 1x it's is more fun this way Oh yeah OEM and Joey's seal jammer

Why would you go back in? Pack it with moly, good to go. The birf is easy, use a hypodermic type grease needle, work it between the cage and star, into the cavity, pump moly until fresh grease comes out. The new/thick grease will push any thinner stuff out. Wipe out the knuckle and repack. Have done this several times with 100% success, most of this practice came courtesy of Marlin seals.

 

[shocktower]

Whatever floats your boat!



Why would you go back in? Pack it with moly, good to go. The birf is easy, use a hypodermic type grease needle, work it between the cage and star, into the cavity, pump moly until fresh grease comes out. The new/thick grease will push any thinner stuff out. Wipe out the knuckle and repack. Have done this several times with 100% success, most of this practice came courtesy of Marlin seals.

Well if the gear oil has washed out the grease I have found that trying to just grease them properly, makes them last a lot longer, and like some people said just pull the whole knuckle and spindle out, and just put a new seal in, yes you could regrease it and just put it back, but if you washed the wheel bearings too, they need to be repacked . I just do not like going back to fix something I just did and if you are successful, by your way more power to you

 

[ccslider]

It's like and extra hour to do it the right way. If you just did aka 2 years ago...you might be able to reuse the wipers.

Do it right or do it twice

 

[Gabriel 71]

Replaced my cheap trail gear seals with oem last year like tools was saying. No issue at all. And I've since then put tens of thousands of miles since. Yes you can just change the seals and yes if the rest of it is ok in there run it .

 

[80t0ylc]

Note that the mini axle shown in the video has the steering arm on the top side of the knuckle and our 80 has the steering arm on the bottom - where the infamous knuckle studs are. I've got both - an 80 Series and a '81 mini and started having weird flashbacks when trying to visualize what they were doing....until I went out and compared them...whew!