Is there an effective method (other than the steel pipe trick) to disassembling the birfields? More'n likely, I'll be pulling mine apart and inspecting them when I do the knuckle rebuild, and I really don't like the idea of doing the pipe trick.
Birfield disassembly
- Thread starter Spook50
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Spook50 said:
Why not? The only thing that holds them together is a little piece of metal ( c clip). The pipe trick does the job nicely. Your not going to hurt anything.
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Man Jerk said:
What I'm actually worried about is shattering the cage. From what I've heard, it's rare, but I don't want to end up truckless for several days waiting for a whole new birfield to be delivered cause I buggered something up.
Two things:
1. If the cage is going to shatter just from whacking it to separate it from the inner axle, then you *don't* want that birfiled inside your axle.
2. You should already have a spare!
1. If the cage is going to shatter just from whacking it to separate it from the inner axle, then you *don't* want that birfiled inside your axle.
2. You should already have a spare!
euclid
SILVER Star
I have done about 10 axle rebuilds without tearing the Birf down. You can do a very complete inspection and cleaning without taking it apart.
Don't be afraid it is not that hard. And as mentioned above if they break while trying to break the clip, you didn't want that thing in there in the first place.
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euclid said:
x2. You don't actually have to separate it to clean it. But again, it won't hurt it.
but a great technique while you have it apart is to seperate the axle, use something like a 18 or 19 mm deep socket, backwards on a long extension. Then pack the birf full of grease, and use the socket as a plunger to get more and more grease in there until it starts just oozing with grease past the balls. You then know that you have a completely greased birfield with years of life ahead of it, provided it doesn't break of course... Agreed that you should have a spare though if you make it out somewhere and they do break...
I take a big hammer and a piece of cardboard.
set the cardboard on the floor and place the birf/inner on that. Step on the inner. Smack the bell with a sledge..
pops right off
set the cardboard on the floor and place the birf/inner on that. Step on the inner. Smack the bell with a sledge..
pops right off
Also I have used all sorts of techniques, using my bumper etc. But nothing works like the tried and true pipe trick unfortunately...
if you shatter the cage just swipe a humvee for a couple days, i'm sure no one will notice
