Birf End Shaft Sliding Out (1 Viewer)

[atomicshawn]

My 16-year-old picked up a 94 a few months back. Pretty nice little rig. It’s a little beat. It’s been painted, and it has a crap lift, and the Jeep bumper somebody put on the front is a travesty, but it has e-locks, runs like a champ, doesn’t leak or burn a drop of oil, and he only paid $7k for it so…

A few weeks ago we drove up a winding canyon road to go skiing. I noticed my guy seemed to be struggling to keep it on the road. I drove home and could tell something was wrong. We put it on the rack and found 1 FREAKING STUD AND NUT holding the left steering knuckle arm in place, AND IT WAS LOOSE!!! We could have died.

Anyway, the the steering knuckle/birf housing was buggered so we picked up a used one, got new hardware from Toyota, and got birf rebuild kit from CO. Over the last 15 years I’ve got probably 10 or so axle rebuilds under my belt so not a huge deal. Went together smooth, good way for us to spend a Saturday morning, and a good way my son to cut his teeth.

BUT, when we were pulling it apart I noticed the left hub cap was missing. No biggie. Had one in the junk drawer. A day later the cap is missing, and the shaft’s poking out.

 

[atomicshawn]

Trying to figure out how this would happen. Because the hubcap was missing before we started working on it, I suspect the problem was there before we touched it. But we had everything apart, cleaned thoroughly, and nothing looked amiss

 

[ppc]

Looks like the drive flange is the older narrow thickness (91 to early 94) with a longer birfield of the later 94 and up models

 

[atomicshawn]

Ahhh. Didn’t know that was a thing!

 

[OffRoadScott]

My 16-year-old picked up a 94 a few months back. Pretty nice little rig. It’s a little beat. It’s been painted, and it has a crap lift, and the Jeep bumper somebody put on the front is a travesty, but it has e-locks, runs like a champ, doesn’t leak or burn a drop of oil, and he only paid $7k for it so…
View attachment 2923030

A few weeks ago we drove up a winding canyon road to go skiing. I noticed my guy seemed to be struggling to keep it on the road. I drove home and could tell something was wrong. We put it on the rack and found 1 FREAKING STUD AND NUT holding the left steering knuckle arm in place, AND IT WAS LOOSE!!! We could have died.

Anyway, the the steering knuckle/birf housing was buggered so we picked up a used one, got new hardware from Toyota, and got birf rebuild kit from CO. Over the last 15 years I’ve got probably 10 or so axle rebuilds under my belt so not a huge deal. Went together smooth, good way for us to spend a Saturday morning, and a good way my son to cut his teeth.

BUT, when we were pulling it apart I noticed the left hub cap was missing. No biggie. Had one in the junk drawer. A day later the cap is missing, and the shaft’s poking out.

View attachment 2923035

The previous owner might have put the wrong drive flanges on. 95 and older have bigger/thicker drive flanges. I would source those and put them on.

 

[atomicshawn]

That’s it! And I have one!

 

[cahill]

I think there were different length axles on the earlier years. Maybe they put the wrong one in. Glad you guys made it back safely.

edit: Someone else beat me wit ha response while I was thinking and put the better answer with the drive flange. Glad you got is sorted.

 

[OffRoadScott]

Also, @NLXTACY sells some pretty trick hardware to keep those nuts on the lower part of the knuckles tight. Nut Huggers

 

[atomicshawn]

 

[atomicshawn]

Thank you gentlemen!!!



…I love mud

 

[cahill]

I love that you had one laying around already for the easy fix. Glad your son was able to pick this one up. Any joint camping trips planned so that you can enjoy dispersing gear between 2 vehicles instead of everyone and everything piled into yours?

 

[REKCUT]

Nice find. Lucky man

 

[atomicshawn]

I love that you had one laying around already for the easy fix. Glad your son was able to pick this one up. Any joint camping trips planned so that you can enjoy dispersing gear between 2 vehicles instead of everyone and everything piled into yours?

Even though I'm still running full-time 4wd on my 95, I like the idea of manual locking hubs. I figure they come in handy if you ever have a front member issues, you can lock the cd, pull the front drive-line, and unlock the hubs to get home. And locking hubs can be an easily repairable weak link, a fuse in the system so to speak. So I put manual hubs on my 80 years ago. Then like the dummy that I am, I misplaced the old flanges, so in case of hub failure, I didn't have a spare "fuse" in my tool bag. They were cheap so I ordered a couple. Then of course I found the old flanges in a box of junk. So now I have 4 of the buggers floating around.

Yes! we've got two Southern Utah trips on the calendar this spring/early summer with my boy and his friends. I'm excited to take him. It'll be fun to see how he does solo. When he was a baby, still in the car seat, we would pack blankets around his head so's not to scramble his brain when we were out, lost in the desert in our old Mitsubishi Montero. And I've been putting him behind the wheel for years now. So it's in his blood, or his brain is damaged in that way... Should be great!

 

[atomicshawn]

Nice find. Lucky man

Lucky indeed! I freaking love the collective mind on this forum. I'm sure I would have figured it out, but likely would have taken forever, and would not have been the "easy way"! You all are great! Thanks again!