80 series front axle rebuild tools (and supplies)?

[landcruiser3DP]

can anyone help me with what i need for a knuckle rebuild? also a link to any good list for supplies.
also please. is the "birfield" the funky gear looking thing? is the "knuckle" the concave bell housing thing? what's the "trunion" or the "spindle" please?
and what is the reason to use a fish scale for the preload and or a conventional torque wrench please?
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also i still find the terms confusing. slee was saying they do a "Hub Service" at 30K and "Front Axle Service" at 60K. are "birfields" part of the Hub Service and "knuckle rebuild" part of the Front Axle Service? anyone know?

 

[ajax1]

10mm, 12, 14, 17 and 19 and 24mm sockets 6 point
54 mm socket for wheel hubs, @cruiseroutfit sells
I use a brass hammer and I have brass drift
Seal driver kit,
Seal remover tool
Tie rod end puller, or leave them attached to the steering arms
Grease
Towels
I also use my impacts 3/8 and 1/2 for some nuts s cause I’m lazy
Rebuild kit from cruiser outfitters, new spindles, new hardware for knuckle and hubs, you might want birfs as well. Might as well do brake rotors if you need them as the hub comes off to do that.
Wheel bearing kit from them as well. Set preload on wheel bearing with torque wrench not fish scale. On my stockish 80 with 34s I go 25 ft lbs or so was where they felt good. On my 80 with 37s it is closer to 35 40 ft lbs on old bearings and spindles.
Read up plenty of front axle rebuild threads and one in the faq

 

[Azca]

• 
  
• Towels - Get at least 6 rolls of shop towels - forget paper towels
• large plastic concrete mixing trough from Home Depot to place under the work area, especially useful if inner seal has failed.
• Large sheets of cardboard to place under the work area.
• 4 gallons of mineral oil and a 5 gallon bucket to clean the birfs.
• Another spare 5 gallon bucket to hold parts
• Box of latex gloves, I like the Diamond gloves sold by Autozone, less prone to ripping.
• Royal Purple to clean areas around the knuckle.
• 6 large cans (min) of brake cleaner.
• Diff fluid
• Read up on tightening of steering arm studs and nuts. The witsend nut huggers, or other option, are a good idea as well. I don't recall who identified it but tapping the knuckle as you are tightening also works well for me, mine have not loosened since using this method.
• New 555 TRE? Paint before installing, they will rust otherwise.
• 

OTRAM knuckle rebuild video:

 

[lexustruck]

Ajax basically covered it all, I’d watch the knuckle rebuild videos from OTRAMM, 6th gear garage, and Adv4x4 to get a better idea of what the job looks like.

The birf is the outer half of your axle shaft. It’s the metal hemisphere with a shaft sticking out of it. Pop your dust cover off and take a look at the splines - that’s the end of your birfield. The plate that those splines slide through is your flange (is that the weird gear thing?)
Look at the inside of your front wheels, the knuckle is the chunk of metal that’s wrapping around the spherical ends of your axle housing.

A day or two before the job go and pull your hub covers off and spray the 6 nuts and cone washers with whatever penetrating fluid you swear by. Taking the 5 minutes beforehand can save you an hour or two when you go to start working.

I ordered these drifts and this brass hammer which both worked great, but the smallest brass drift would slip off the race notches as the face deformed. Have a grinder on hand to flatten it out so it’s not slipping off every time you go to hit it. I bought these guys after the fact - the thinner shafts will fit better into that notch and won’t slip but you run the risk of gouging your race seat if you’re not careful. Definitely only use brass when installing the new ones.

Also picked up this race driver kit from harbor freight, worked great for the wheel bearing races and inner axle seal. And freeze your races.

Another tool: HF ball joint separator. Slightly destructive to the rubber boot on your TREs but it’s the only separator that actually fit.

More links: this thread talks about the fish-scale for setting pre-load. Most don’t use it.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Pretty good lists above.

Will also reccomend watching Otramm youtube videos if you've never done this. His videos are outstanding.

Birfield joint/axle and drive flange.
Birf is a term I've only found on ih8mud. Pretty much the rest of the world knows them as CV joint/axles.

As suggested, pop the little dust cap off the end before ordering parts so you can inspect the splines were these meet. If you rotate a jacked up tire, there'll be a small amount of play at the spline. The outer edge of the tire should not rotate more than a couple of inches back and forth. If your tire rotates 6" before the play is taken up, time to replace both as a set.
Also, look at the shape of the splines. The exposed end bit, the splines will have sharp geometric corners. Where they are visible inside the flange joint, the shape should be the same, if they are rounded off triangles, time to replace.

To save you asking later, the dark spots on the brand new birf pictured are 100% normal.

Also, you didn't say what year your truck is. Length of the CV axle changed in late '93/94, and the flange also changed to suit.
If you order new birfs and new flanges order both for 94 on. The longer flange means they last A LOT longer.

I'd highly recommend all new hub studs, nuts, cone washers and flat washers. The cost is worth it for ease of servicing, now and in the future.
Particularly if there's dents around the edges of the drive flanges from some grease monkey beating the edges with a hammer.

Learn how to release the cone washers without beating on the side of the flange, or on the end of the studs. You'll thank me later