80 series CV replacement questions

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CruiserMan17

10 Year
Joined
May 8, 2015
Threads
1
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Hello all! First of all I'd like to say its great to be a part of the forum. I've had a ton of fun just reading the old posts and learning all about my Cruiser. I recently purchased my 1993 80 series back from my Father ( who had been holding onto it for me while I was a poor college student).

Its in remarkable shape overall, and just turned 190,000 on the clock (happy to share pics if anyone wants). However I'm growing concerned with possibly needing a CV joint replacement. While in tight low speed left turns I am hearing a slight repetitive clicking noise from the front left wheel. I am told this is a traditional sign of immanent failure, however it has no other symptoms of any kind. My questions are : Is this the proper assumption? If so, what should this sort of repair cost? Finally, how will I know if I suffer a failure (think I know the answer but dont want to assume). I apologize if this has already been asked. This is my first post, and while I have seen the subject danced around in many forms I was hoping everyone wouldn't mind me asking this specific series of questions. Thanks for your understanding.

I am no mechanic but I am no stranger to DIY's and fumbling attempts to fix things, and with the proper amount of cursing and time I usually figure things out. I am trying my best to learn as much about how to repair and maintain this particular vehicle as I intend to keep it permanently. (tried wranglers once, wont go back lol) Thanks for any and all advice!
 
Welcome aboard. Congrats on FINALLY getting the ol'mans LC-80. Im new here so I dont have much in site. But I will tell you what I know for sure. I have a receipt for the front axle rebuild and it came to $2800.00 and that was for everything. (Ouch). I will say that I have rebuilt similar axles and its not that hard with a few tools, a good work space, and some patients. Alot of good info is to be found using the search bar on the forum as well as viewing some of the tutorials on youtube.
 
I have the same issue right now but with my passenger wheel. I've redone all the gaskets and seals on the axle once before and it's really not difficult. I've guess at a cost to rebuild my CV joint on my own and it's ~$300. You can get the joint itself from cruiserparts.net. I also found these videos to be extremely helpful. If you follow their steps, you won't get anything wrong and it'll all work out fine.

CV joint: http://shop.cruiserparts.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6_73_236&products_id=36367



 
First thing I would do is check for grease in your knuckles
 
Easy enough to do. I had very limited mechanical experience when I did my front axle. It is messy. Like incredibly messy. Like 4-5 boxes of shop rags messy. But it's fun and easy enough to do. Check with @beno or @CDan (depending on where you live). They will get you everything you need so you don't get it torn apart and have surprises.

Have a couple of five gallon pails with diesel fuel in them to clean parts. And a bunch of rags. Like a lot of rags. Did I mention a bunch of rags? :)

Have fun!
 
1st. check grease and add to see if the joint was just dry. Clicking might go away.
2nd. By parts from supporting vendors, as mentioned, and do yourself over a couple nights or weekend. Its easy, just messy. The only stressful part is installing the inner axles seals. But with the proper tools its easy.
 
As @profro stated about the grease. There is a square head bolt on the top back side of the knuckle. Take off the wheel and its right there. Take it off and you can buy the squeeze tubes of CV grease at OReillys for $4 each for 4oz. It will take two tubes per side. I just did this.

On the front diff (the big pumpkin on the front axle) there are two drain plugs. They are 19mm I believe. They are super thin heads and strip easily. So be careful! Order the torx head fill plugs from @beno and have them ready to replace so you don't have to worry about stripping the heads. They are about $2 each. Take out the top plug (this is the full plug) and see if any fluid comes out. If it does it's probably thick and diarrhea like (this is called birf soup). Open the bottom plug and drain in to a drain pan so you can take it to a parts store for them to recycle. If it's thick let it sit for a while to ooze out. It gets thick because it is pulling the grease from your knuckle in to the oil of the axle. (This is because the seal is bad between the two or because your diff breather is plugged. Extending your diff breather is easy peasy and will take 5 min. Do a search on reverse birf soup to see a write up on it). After done draining put in the new plug in the bottom. Then fill with 1.8 qts of 75-90 gear oil. It's kind of difficult to fill so buy the pump attachment to get the gear oil in the diff (see also reverse birf soup thread). Put the new plug in the top fill hole.

After you have done this. Drive it and check the diff periodically to see if it is getting soupy. And see if the clicking goes away.

Have fun!
 
x2 on checking for grease. My driver's side was clicking on the tight turns. Filled it up with moly and no more click.
 
Hey everyone thanks a lot for the replies info was really helpful ! Im gonna get on this as soon as I can find a spot to do it (I dream of a day when I will have a garage to work in lol) I feel like if I read enough on here I'll get a PHD in land cruiser maintenance pretty quick. My list of projects is long but after this Im gonna try to figure out how to get front and rear lockers and install the OEM center diff lock button in the dash, a couple new window motors, a winch with winch bumper, roof tent....oh god what have I started...
 
If you do need to do the knuckle rebuild, don't be afraid of it. The video that BGMachine posted above is exactly what you need. I just did this job a few weeks ago over a weekend and followed that video exactly. I'm no mechanic, but love to learn and turn a wrench. The one think I screwed up during the job was I installed the races in backwards. DON'T MAKE THAT MISTAKE! He doesn't mention it in the video and that's probably because most people realize they only go in one way. This was my first time doing it and I just didn't realize they tapered. I had to spend hours getting them back out by cutting and pounding them back out.
 
Did I do something wrong? I only used a roll of paper towels on each side, including disassembling the birf to clean and repack...

Either way, it is messy. My method was to put down a cheap plastic painters tarp and then placed a cheap, aluminium foil turkey pan under the knuckle. I just let the bolts and rust fall on the tarp(I'm replacing all the hardware anyway). I took the roll of paper towels and tore the sheets ahead of time and had a pile ready to go. It was like surgery in the driveway. All the crap falls in the turkey pan, any other stuff lands on the tarp. Once it is all clean, just bundle up the tarp and toss it in the bin.
 
CruiserMan17 said:
Hey everyone thanks a lot for the replies info was really helpful ! Im gonna get on this as soon as I can find a spot to do it (I dream of a day when I will have a garage to work in lol) I feel like if I read enough on here I'll get a PHD in land cruiser maintenance pretty quick. My list of projects is long but after this Im gonna try to figure out how to get front and rear lockers and install the OEM center diff lock button in the dash, a couple new window motors, a winch with winch bumper, roof tent....oh god what have I started...
Click to expand...

I completed mine last night (spread over 5-6 nights). The first side was a tedious painstaking learning experience, the second side, I kid not, took 1/5th the time. It's just a learning experience. Now that I've gone through it once, I could probably do both sides in 4-6 hours, with breaks.
 
I also had this issue. Slight clicking while exhelarating out of a corner. I was guided to put a tube of grease in each knuckle and it went away after about 2 miles or less. Going on a few weeks and its still fine.
 
CruiserMan17 said:
Hey everyone thanks a lot for the replies info was really helpful ! Im gonna get on this as soon as I can find a spot to do it (I dream of a day when I will have a garage to work in lol) I feel like if I read enough on here I'll get a PHD in land cruiser maintenance pretty quick. My list of projects is long but after this Im gonna try to figure out how to get front and rear lockers and install the OEM center diff lock button in the dash, a couple new window motors, a winch with winch bumper, roof tent....oh god what have I started...
Click to expand...

Adding moly to the knuckles can be done on any flat surface. It isn't messy. The hardest part is jacking it up and taking off the wheels. In theory you can do it without taking them off but I've never tried it.

Take the wheel off, use an open end 15mm (if I remember correctly) wrench to loosen the square head bolt. But your moly grease in the 4oz toothpaste tubes of CRC CV grease like this: http://www.amazon.com/CRC-SL3174-Constant-Velocity-Grease/dp/B000CPAWOC?tag=ihco-20

When you get the square head bolt out you can use a straw or zip tie to test the depth of the grease. It's probably pretty empty. 8oz is what each knuckle holds. So two tubes. The nozzle of the tube fits right in the hole. Just squeeze it in. Easy peasy.
 
The correct grease for the knuckles is a NLGI #2 lithium based Molybdenum fortified grease (like Valvoline Palladium). The CV joint grease mentioned above is generally used with the type of CV joints that are sealed with a rubber boot like what's found on independent front axles, that's a NLGI #1 and a bit too thin for our knuckle design (unless maybe you live in a very cold environment), IMHO.
 
Kernal said:
The correct grease for the knuckles is a NLGI #2 lithium based Molybdenum fortified grease (like Valvoline Palladium). The CV joint grease mentioned above is generally used with the type of CV joints that are sealed with a rubber boot like what's found on independent front axles, that's a NLGI #1 and a bit too thin for our knuckle design (unless maybe you live in a very cold environment), IMHO.
Click to expand...

NOW you tell me. Where have you been the past 23 years?!??? :)
 
Hi all,

Im about to rebuild my front axle and I’m putting the parts list together. The cheatsheets and the info on this forum are invaluable! A big thank you for the authors!
For my 1991 HDJ81 birfs, Toyodiy gives me 43405-60030. If I place that part # in the ordering platform it says discontinued and the original replacement is 43405-60120. However part # 43405-60070 from the cheatsheet can also be ordered and the price is significantly higher than 43405-60120. I’m a bit confused here, should I go with 43405-60120 or 43405-60070. Is there any difference between the two?

Thanks!
 
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