1997 FZJ80 Rehabilitation (1 Viewer)

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Yeah, I think you and I are thinking of this in the same way. Mentally I just envision the inner shaft turning the birf that then turns the wheel. That image orients in my mind which surfaces on the star and the outer bell are engaged when the truck is accelerating. I think those bell/star surfaces, more than the cage, are what wear out, get grooves and then start to cause clicking particularly when turning as the balls jump in and out of the groove. Clicking or audible noise indicates you are entering the period of increasing wear/damage.
 
Fortunately, I didn't have any clicking and hopefully I won't after I reinstall them. Based on the wear pattern though I do think I'll swap sides. They've been used both ways before but there's more wear with the current orientation.

Edit: just rechecked the cage orientation and it appears correct. I'll edit this again if someone ends up telling me otherwise.
 
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Holy smokes, I thought assembling the knuckle would be easier than cleaning everything up. Wrong. Not because it was terribly hard but because I was stupid and made mistakes.

I installed the wheel bearing seal in the back of the hub without dropping the inner wheel bearing in....twice :bang: I did it the first time and realized my mistake, cursed, pulled it out and then grabbed another one. Couple minutes later I did it AGAIN because I got distracted. Not my day, apparently. So the THIRD time, I finally put the bearing in and then drove a fresh seal in on top of it. Embarrassing but true. So learn from my mistake - follow the procedure and make sure what you're doing makes sense.
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Been there too. :lol:

I put the knuckles on the wrong sides last time.

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Got the passenger side together today. Went quicker since the light was better and it was the second one so I started to work a little quicker. The only hiccup was that I stripped two of the drive flange studs when torquing the nuts back down. I'll have to remove and replace them but I'm glad two have the front end back together. :bounce:
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No offense but glad I didn't do that. Did you button everything up or just place them on the wrong sides and catch it early?

I caught it as soon as I bolted the one up an realized the caliper mount was pointed in the wrong direction. :lol:

I was just in the groove of getting it all put together after a long R-n-R which included a lot of painting. I started rushing and well ...
 
Did you fill the cavity between the wheel bearings with wheel bearing grease? Or nearly full?

Did you pack the rest of the knuckle housing with Moly?

Did you use a dead-blow hammer and pound on the bottom of the steering arm while torqueing the nuts to 71 LB-FT?
 
Did you fill the cavity between the wheel bearings with wheel bearing grease? Or nearly full?

Did you pack the rest of the knuckle housing with Moly?

Did you use a dead-blow hammer and pound on the bottom of the steering arm while torqueing the nuts to 71 LB-FT?
Yes, yes, and no but I made sure it seated all the way and torqued it properly.
 
I caught it as soon as I bolted the one up an realized the caliper mount was pointed in the wrong direction. :lol:

I was just in the groove of getting it all put together after a long R-n-R which included a lot of painting. I started rushing and well ...
Looked absolutely beautiful that’s for sure.
 
I followed OTRAMM's procedure for the tear down and assembly. The only thing I changed was the bearing preload portion. I tightened the adjusting nut to the 43ft-lb required in the FSM, spun the rotor both directions several times, checked torque, spun again, loosened the nut, then retorqued to 30ft-lb. Torqued the lock nut to 47ft-lb.
 
Your thorough cleaning made for some nice photos :) Nice work and congrats on getting it all back together.
Thanks! I wish I had a parts cleaner but a 5 gallon bucket and some gasoline ended up working out OK. I appreciate all of your input and the input of the others that have been following along. Brakes are next after I replace two stripped drive flange studs. I haven't decided on the best method for cleaning up the calipers before I rebuild them.
 
After opening the axle I was happy to find no damage and only expected levels of corrosion on the parking brake components and hub. The hubs did have plenty of surface rust (as you can see in the last post) so I decided to paint them as an attempt to ward off more rust. I know my rattle can job probably won't last but anything is better than how they were.

Out came the wire wheel.
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Then it was time for paint.
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Let them dry overnight before removing the masking. They aren't perfect but I think the result should slow the rust down.
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Since this was the next day and the paint was cured, I went ahead with reassembly. Drove new bearing races in, placed inner wheel bearing in and drove hub seal in behind it. These rear seals have a rubber collar that protrudes out of the hub (towards the diff when assembled on the axle housing). Because of this, you can't use a normal seal/bearing driver. I used a brass drift and a small sledge to tap around the circumference of the seal (which is metal). Worked like a charm and didn't crush any of the rubber bits.

I had a terrible time finding a good picture of these seals installed. So I took a few to put here for others. Here you can see the rubber "collar" I was talking about.
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Here are few other shots to show some detail.
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Next step was to put everything back on/in the axle housing. I wasn't 100% sure what the best procedure was for bearing preload. And before anyone goes "the one in the FSM" - I read that one but 1.) I don't have a fish scale 2.) I'm not getting a fish scale...add to that the fact that there has been great debate on this topic for the front axle and the bearings are identical...and you can see why I had questions. Ultimately I decided to torque the lock ring to 43ft-lb per FSM, spin the hub, recheck torque, and loosen. I then torqued the ring to 25ft-lb, spun the hub, rechecked, and then turned the lock ring to align the closest set of reference marks. (You line up marks on the spindle lip with the grooves in the lock ring pins. Look in this thread on the second page for a picture: Rear axle job and pics. )
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The marks are NOT aligned in the pictures I took. I wasn't done with the install when I took them.
 

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