Did the knuckle rebuild. Took two long afternoons plus a full day. Thanks to the FAQ and some youtube videos, including OTRAMM's, it wasn't too hard. Pays to do your homework first! Also helps to have a father-in-law who lives nearby and has every possible tool you could need!
So much cleaning. I used about 4 cans of O'Reilly's degreaser and several cans of brake cleaner, and 3 rolls of paper towels. Birfields and axles looked good. Had never had any clicking, so I left them alone, just cleaned them well and loaded them with new grease. Splines did not seem too worn. There was a lot of grease in my diff oil and the left side knuckle was full of oily grease. I'd replaced and relocated my clogged diff breather last week, and I suspect the left inner axle seal was bad.
About 3 years ago I started hearing grinding sounds from the left knuckle and it was out of grease, so I filled it, and had no more noise since then.
There were a few metal shards on the left side ABS sensor. No metal bits on the diff drain plug magnet.
I got the broken knuckle stud out with an ez-out, after drilling a 1/4" hole in it. It had broken off below the knuckle surface.
(what are these star-shaped gaskets for? An older model vehicle? Mine's a 1996. I could find no reference to these anywhere)
The other knuckle studs were tight but easy enough to get out with channel locks. I did not have to remove the ball joints (that made it a little tricky to line everything up for reassembly, but it wasn't too hard). I used the same # of knuckle shims (1) that were on there before. I could only check the steering preload on the left side, and it was fine. Got wheel preload set. No play in the wheel at all. Everything torqued to spec.
Nice to see this whole thing with all of its parts instead of a big greasy blob!
Test drove and everything seemed great. Steering was smooth, no weird noises.
Then I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before (maybe I wasn't paying attention): Hitting a bump, only when there is no load on the drivetrain, there's a clunking sound. If I'm just coasting, or in N, it will make the sound, but if I am accelerating or if I've downshifted, I don't hear it.
Jacked up the front end again - no play in the wheel - and realized I'd forgotten to grease my drive flanges/splines. Did that. There is probably 1/10 or so rotational play in the wheel before the driveshaft turns; from what I've read, that's OK. I do hear a bit of a mechanical clunk when I rotate the wheel with some force - sounds like maybe it's in the center diff or driveshaft CV joint. When the wheels are on the ground there is no play in the front driveshaft/CV joint. Any clue what this could be?
