Successful knuckle rebuild -- now a couple questions

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Outback

Outback

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Joined
Sep 17, 2003
Threads
60
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589
Location
Edmond, OK
I successfully rebuilt my knuckles this weekend on the '93! Everything went as planned -- messy :D I did find some things that didn't make me too happy though...

The driver-side knuckle was kinda dry. All the grease had been spun out of the birf and was getting thick and crusty on the housing. There was some grease still in the birf and the axle seal was holding.

The passenger-side was different. Pulled off the spindle.... Birf soup came pouring out :rolleyes: Well crap. The axle seal gave up the ghost. Funny how the two sides were so different. No wonder the driver-side was clicking...

The knuckle bearings looked VERY GOOD on both knuckles with little wear. It seems a knuckle service may have been performed in the past. I don't know, but the bearings looked good. If I didn't have new ones I wouldn't have replaced these. That's how good they looked.

Okay, the questions... When checking the knuckle bearing pre-load I got ~6 lbs. on the driver-side and ~7 lbs. on the pass-side. Is this within spec? My Haynes manual didn't specify the pre-load range -- at least that I could find. No, I don't have my FSM yet :flipoff2:

Also, when tourquing(sp?) down the wheel bearings to 48 ft/lbs. they seemed to have a bit more resistance than I am used to. You see, I have never tourqued wheel bearings to spec before. I just did it by "feel" in the past. Yeah, bad as it gets, I know. So, should they feel "tight" but not so much that I couldn't turn them without straining with both hands? What is your experience?

Beyond that the rebuild went well and took a combined 2-day total of 12 hrs. Thanks for the advice on removing the tie rod and relay rod from the steering arms. That was so easy it was stupid. I only really needed the puller on one of them! The other ones came off with a tiny bit of resistance.

Talk to y'all later...

Jody.
 
I'm not sure about the wheel bearings but I helped someone rebuild their knuckles this past weekend and I seem to remember the range for the knuckle bearing preload to be 5.5-9.9 lbs. Hopefully someone will confirm me on that. How many miles are you at? I'm about to do my birf repack/knuckle rebuild for the first time at 130k.
 
Man you have your bearing set way too high. You do a pre load on the wheel bearings to 48ftlb then back the nut off, retorque to 48 inch pounds then put the lock washjer in the the jam nut and torque the jam nut to 48 ft lbs. If your toruqed to 48 ftlb then lock washer then jam nut to 48ftlb you will fry your bearings real fast. need to redue it ASAP. get a FSM before you really screw up your cruiser. later robbie
 
>> Also, when tourquing(sp?) down the wheel bearings to 48 ft/lbs. they seemed to have a bit more resistance than I am used to.<<

Also you should check the resistance with a spring fish scale. After tightening the jam nut sometimes the preload is off. As Robbie says it's in the FSM.
 
Woah!!! I guess I didn't read very carefully!! I'll rectify the problem this evening!

What does 48 in/lbs. equate to in ft/lbs? Do I really need an in/lbs torque wrench?

I felt of my hubs after driving a while and they were only slightly warm, not hot to the touch at all. Am I doing a LOT of damage with them tourqued like this?

Any advice will be appreciated today as I need to fix it tonight.

Jody. Soon to order the FSM...
 
[quote author=MGBYLR link=board=2;threadid=14786;start=msg138958#msg138958 date=1081956084]
the range for the knuckle bearing preload to be 5.5-9.9 lbs.
[/quote]

Matt, you were right.., about your memory that is :D.

This is all from the 97 FSM: the 5.6 to 9.9 lbs is the pre-load for the knuckle arm. The pre-load for the hub is 6.4 to 12.6 lbs. And I needed every bit of it.

The initial torque on the adjusting nut is 43 ft-lb, turn hub several times left and right, re-torque to 43 ft-lbs, loosen to hand tight, and torque to 48 in-lbs (fyi, to go from in-lbs to ft-lbs, divide by 12). Install lock washer and torque "lock nut" to 47 ft-lbs.

The torque settings for the 93 may be slightly different. I'm sure Robbie knows, but what's a few ft-lbs between friends anyways.

:cheers:
Rookie2
 
I've always used the 43 ft/lb spec for the initial seating of the bearing. Then back it off, and re-torque it until the pull on the lug nut tangent is about 10 pounds as measured on a Zebco fish scale. Then install the star washer and torque the OUTER nut to 48 FOOT/lbs. Then check that the preload is still within the 6-12 pound spec. For me, this method has worked perfectly. I don't think you can set the bearing preload just by a torque setting on the nut. I could be wrong though, but the FSM specifies the pull on the lug nut as the final setting.
 
Here's an anecdote some masochist may find funny:
when I did the birfield repack a few months ago, and I got to the "loosen and torque the hub nut to 48 in-lbs (4 ft-lbs)" part, I had a difficult time getting that low. In fact, I completely REMOVED the hub nut, and I *STILL* measured over 48 in-lbs.
Um, I should mention that I did this all at around 10 below zero F. The viscosity of the grease at that temperature prevented the hub from turning freely. So, I decided to go to plan B, loosely-hand-tight.
I also learned that at that temperature the felt scraper doesn't stretch over the end of the axle knuckle, but instead tears. You first have to warm it up to 70 F to allow it that little bit of stretch.
Ahh, the little pleasures of living in the Great White (except when it's Brown) Midwest. Where 'snot icicles' are an accepted measurement of dew point.
Kenton
 
Outback,

FYI - use "right" and "left" when discussing your knuckles as many countries put the driver on the wrong side when compared to us here in the US (heh). I'm guessing you're in Australia as your description of the state of your birfs was opposite what we normally see. Resetting things so the LEFT one was full of birf soup and the RIGHT one was dry makes your experience typical. If I'm wrong and your RIGHT birf was wet/soupy I'd like to know about it.

Also, I'd fix that overtight bearing ASAP. As in not even going to the corner store with it.

DougM
 
[quote author=Rookie2 link=board=2;threadid=14786;start=msg139462#msg139462 date=1081999573]
Matt, you were right.., about your memory that is :D.
[/quote]
And while you're measuring that preload make sure you're reading the fish scale in pounds not kg's! (Ask us how we know :slap:)
 
I'm in the US and was referring to the RIGHT (pass-side) birf as soupy and the LEFT (driver-side) birf as dry. Sorry for the confusion. I didn't know there was a "common" problem with dry vs. soupy birfs... Please advise.

Will fix the wheel bearings tonight. Thanks for all the info...
 
Aaaaahhhh... Gotcha. Makes sense.
 
Yep - thats where this come from on mine :o

birf_2.jpg


Tucker
 
Jody described is as dry; meaning to me that the seal on that side failed first, it had already passed the soupy stage, all the soup leaked out and the diff fluid level was so low it couldn't get into the left birf. Just a guess though.

-B-
 
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