Birfield joints still making noise after greasing heavily. (1 Viewer)

[ICY80]

I wanted to post on here and see if I can get any pointers. I believe it is my birfield joints that pop in 4 low at full lock left or right. Took the square bolt out of the top of the knuckle on both sides and started greasing. They clear up but eventually always start popping again. They do not leak grease. About to go on a six hour trip so I wanted to get some info from all of the professionals. Thanks fellas.

 

[thedoughboy]

How many miles do you have on them after greasing heavily? Mine popped, I greased, and it took ~100 miles to stop. Depending upon how dry they were it could take some time, and re-greasing, to fix the problem. You may want to bring a tube or two of moly fortified grease on your trip.

Best of luck.

 

[White Stripe]

How many miles are on your birfields overall?

 

[jpoole]

Another possible factor could be a viscous coupler that's become stiff or locked up. If you have a later model 80 that shipped with the VC it can, and likely will, stiffen over time leading to the 80 essentially having a locked center diff all of the time. This will accelerate wear on the birfs/drivetrain during hard turn and high traction situations and will make birf clicking more likely and more pronounced. Search the forum for more info on how to test your VC and remove and/or replace it if needed. Many of us have removed ours with little/no downsides for our typical driving conditions.

If you've removed the VC or it tests good you can ignore this as a current factor in your CV clicks but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Clicking Birfs/CVs indicate wear and beyond flipping them side to side, keeping them lubed and making sure they aren't under excess stress (from a failed VC, or other heavy use) there's not much you can do but get new ones to stop the clicking. If/When you replace them get the surface hardened ones, equivalent to the OE birfs, for typical road use and consider the non-hardened/softer ones for more intense off-road use.

 

[ICY80]

How many miles are on your birfields overall?

241k! I’m sure they must be original

 

[ICY80]

@jpoole- Thank you for the information. Much appreciated. My 80 does not have the center lock button on the dashboard. It is triple locked but doesn’t have that button installed yet. Is that something I should look into so I can have 4 low with an unlocked center diff?

 

[ICY80]

@thedoughboy. — I’ve put a lot of miles on them since the last greasing. But I felt as if I filled with too much last time lol. Guess I’ll check again and keep filling. Thanks.

 

[ICY80]

thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[jpoole]

You can often get a rough idea of grease level by inspecting the pivot balls from the outside.

• If grease is pushing out at all points they may be overfull and the grease pushes out when heated and it expands.
• If grease is running out closer to an oil consistency, particularly on one side, the inner seal may be bad and gear oil / grease may be mixing.
• If you have dry balls then there isn't enough grease
• If you have a nice even consistency of grease on the ball, perhaps with a level line evident near the top of the ball you are probably just right.
• etc.

For US spec 80s the center diff lock on later 80s is automatically engaged. Shift to low range and the CDL locks, in high the CDL should always be unlocked in stock form. You add the button to be able to manually lock the center diff, say if you want it locked in high range. If you do the pin 7 mod (think I have right number...) then the CDL no longer locks automatically so you'll need a button to manually lock the CDL in high or low. Add the button before you do the pin 7 mod or you'll always have an open center diff.

The viscous coupler that I was talking about is a separate device/control. If the VC goes bad it locks up and acts just like the CDL but it is not the same thing or connected in terms of operation control. The VC is supposed to be fluid coupling that only engages as the speed of the front/rear driveshafts start to vary. The idea is that if shaft speeds start to vary a lot that the VC would smoothly try to tie them together and balance out torque delivery so that you retain more traction. As a VC gets used hard and ages the silicon fluid inside gets thicker and can eventually cook into a solid form thus locking the VC permanently. You have to do tests to see how fluid/easy your VC allows the shaft speeds to differentiate to see if it's still "loose" and thus likely good or if it's failed and locked up. You can for instance lift a front tire off the ground and spin it to see what happens. If the VC is fluid the single tire should rotate and also rotate it's corresponding axle's drive shaft. You'll feel some resistance from the VC but at low spin speeds it should be minimal. Shifting the transfer to low and allowing the CDL to lock (key on, rotate things a bit to let it engage) you should be able to see how things work when the center diff is locked. If things behave the same way when cdl is locked/unlocked then you likely have a seized VC or are doing the test wrong.

There are other VC tests you can do to establish it's engagement strength, etc. but related to clicking birfs you just need to make sure your drivetrain isn't binding due to high traction and a seized VC.

 

[BILT4ME]

Without the CDL button, you can lock in the CDL in either position or make it unlocked in either position, but there is a bit of futzering around.

Basically, to lock it, start the truck, place transmission in neutral, move 4WD lever to LOW. Wait for the switch and light to show it is locked in.
Shut off the truck.
Pull the fuse in the lower right of the fuse panel by your left knee (USA).
Start the truck and shift back to high or whatever you want, as the CDL will remain locked at all ranges and speeds. Try to avoid doing turns on pavement in this condition.

it's the opposite if you want to not have it stay locked in.

Start the truck.
Transmission in N
4WD shifter in 4H (HIGH range.
Shut off truck
Pull the fuse in the lower right of the fuse panel by your left knee (USA).
Start the truck and shift back to low or whatever you want, as the CDL will remain UNlocked at all ranges and speeds. Try to avoid getting stuck or being on slick surfaces in this condition. This is useful if you want to drive your truck on your lawn, pulling a trailer or doing tight turns at slow speeds and NOT tear up your grass, or backing your boat into your garage on a paved driveway. it will prevent binding in the driveline and keep the tires from scrubbing.

 

[Kernal]

"birfield joints that pop in 4 low at full lock"

What type grease are you using? A MOLY (Molybdenum) fortified grease is required, IME at least 3% Moly, 5% is better if you can find it.

What happens with normal wear is the left Birfield generally develops wear faster than the right so often the left side is the first to click. The six large ball bearings inside the bell or cup of the joint are making the noise while skittering inside the grooves on the inside of the bell. They skitter/scuff/snap less with the higher Moly content grease IME.

IME if you swap the Brifields side-to-side, left CV joint to right side,
right CV joint to left side, that can help stop clicking, depends on how much wear there is.

When you do that the CV joints are now running in what used to be their reverse direction so the contact/wear/stress points inside the bell or cup of the joint are to some degree at different locations internally.

This all may help with the clicking but if there's significant wear those CV joints are more likely to fail (break) under extreme stress (like when in 4LO and full lock, not a good combination). Of course, you shouldn't drive in 4LO on a dry solid surface if you're doing that.

 

[ICY80]

Thanks for all of the information. I’ll have to check mine out and keep greasing those joints

 

[robnicko]

i use one of these for the spindle bearing and find it better than using the square plug on the knuckle housing. gets grease into the bearing which can also get noisy if left to get a bit dry. The grease also finds its way up over the Bifrield - be sure to use Moly grease too as Kernal said

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[veiloctane]

replace with gun drilled birfs and use the spindle greaser tool.

depending on what version you have some have a needle bearing inside vs a large copper spindle washer

VERSION 1

VERSION 2

comparison

 

[Kernal]

@ICY80 : What brand/type/spec grease have you been using for the steering knuckles?

 

[LandLocked93]

Wow what a load of golden nuggets of knowledge shared here.
All I have to share is simply to swap the birfs left to right side. This will shut up the popping for a time but it is not a permanent fix.
Your birfs are worn. Swapping will buy you time w/o popping to get new birfs.
That is all.

 

[Kernal]

I thought the clicking Birfs in my 96 model were toast but swapped them side-to-side to get more miles out of them, that was 13 years and 95,000 miles ago.

They're now at 386,000 miles total on the original birfs and no clicking since swapping them side-to-side in 2010.

I did however have those Birfs drilled to make them greasable and pumped in a mixture of 60% Moly grease (Honda grease for motorcycle driveshaft splines) along with Valvoline Palladium 3% Moly, around half and half (they were compatible). I ended up with a ~30% Moly (grease) inside the birfs originally. I've added a small amount of Moly grease as needed over the years via the zerks. FWIW

 

[veiloctane]

I thought the clicking Birfs in my 96 model were toast but swapped them side-to-side to get more miles out of them, that was 13 years and 95,000 miles ago.

They're now at 386,000 miles total on the original birfs and no clicking since swapping them side-to-side in 2010.

I did however have those Birfs drilled to make them greasable and pumped in a mixture of 60% Moly grease (Honda grease for motorcycle driveshaft splines) along with Valvoline Palladium 3% Moly, around half and half (they were compatible). I ended up with a ~30% Moly grease inside the birfs originally. I've added a small amount of Moly grease as needed over the years via the zerks. FWIW



View attachment 3392046

I’ve got a set of terrain tamer ones there also drilled with zerk!!!

 

[ICY80]

Hey man. I’ve been using Mobil 1 moly grease. Not sure of the exact specifications