Cleaning Birfields

[landtoy80]

I don't know how one can clean out all the grease from a birfield without removing the inner axle. If you did get it all out, how would you get it back in there????

I tried to clean the newfileds that I need to send back,(to see where they are worn) in a bucket of parts cleaner. I did it with the inner axle removed. I couldn't remove all the grease. Short of taking the birfield apart, how do you get all the grease out of the bell of the birfield?

 

[firetruck41]

I sprayed brake cleaner in there, it seemed to get "most" of it out on the second birf (didn't do quite as good a job on the first one), then I just packed it with amsoil moly HD grease, pushing it in and rotating/articulating the axles. Seemed to work pretty well.

 

[cruiserdan]

I cheat and use one of the parts-washers at work. These are the ones with a pump and a brush with a hose on the end that pumps solvent through the brush. I have never split my birfs from the inners. I clean all of the grease out with the brush and then I let the running solvent flush through the joint for a good long time whilst I do other stuff in preparation for re-assembly. After the rinse job I clamp the inner in a vise with the birf "bell" pointed downwards and I squirt a bunch of brake cleaner up in there. I then hand pack the joint while wearing nitrile gloves, I also use a frosting spatula that I pinched from my wife's cake frosting stuff


Works for me..... D-

 

[landtoy80]

With that much work you may as well remove the inner axle.
I got lucky with the 80. It took less than 20 hits with a hammer to get them apart.

The 60 was another story. I used a sludge hammer with the birf in a vice and it still didn't come apart.
I had to take it to work and the guy at work took a small hammer and tapped it right off while holding it his hands.

 

[cruiserdan]

Have you tried the "Robbie pipe trick"?

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Have you tried the "Robbie pipe trick"?

Yep-This is the ONLY way to do this chore. Highly reccomended but I don't think Robbie can claim credit-maybe Jeff Zepp.

 

[RavenTai]

Have you tried the "Robbie pipe trick"?

that worked great for me,

find a pipe who's ID is slightly larger than the inner axle shaft and isat least 2" longer than the long side, wrap the top with a rag to prevent maring the inner race of the birf (star) and slide the axle ahft into the pipe with the birf pointing up. put a piece of wood (2x6x6 works good) on the pavement to prevent maring the axle shaft when it comes loose, firmly tap the pipe/birf/axle shaft assy on the wood only took 2 good taps for mine to come apart, the axle shaft will slide down the pipe and have a safe landing on the wood, be ready to grab the now free birf, I did not think ahead when the first came loose the birf toppeled over grazed my head and sholder and hit the concrete, put some nice marks on the outside of the bell and the top of my head :whoops:

you will need new axle clips (cheap) the old ones (if you cna find them) will be streched making reassembly difficult

IMO everyone should do this, there is a large cavity inside the bell, also if you remove them you get to rotate the birfs from left to right and vise versa

another thing you can do after cleaning reassemble the balls and star in the birf, push grease in the middle when you can get no more in with the open end of the bell facing up strike the assy on the price of wood on the pavement repaetibly this will drive the air to the surface, repeat until all the air is out,

Great no office on this machine, now everybody will see all my type-o's and horrible spelling

 

[cruiserdan]

Yep-This is the ONLY way to do this chore. Highly reccomended but I don't think Robbie can claim credit-maybe Jeff Zepp.

I should step up and indicate that I was not infering that Robbie claimed that to be his discovery. I was simply indicating that he was the fellow that told me about it.

 

[GXO]

I hate to tell you, but I can take inners off in less than 2 hits with my brass hammer.

You hold the inner axle in one hand and tilt it to expose the inner race that the bearings ride in.

once you have it tilted so the race is at its highest point, apply large amounts of gravity to your brass hammer on this raised area....POP!

Piece of cake, have done tons this way.

 

[mabrodis]

Actually the 'pipe trick' doesn't even take a pipe, I used a vise, open about 2" (so it's not tight on the shaft, but won't let the birfield go through, just dropped it from about 6-8" high a few times and it popped out, very simple.

Good Luck...

 

[medtro]

You must have a pretty high working bench for the wise to work with the long inner.

 

[landtoy80]

All those tricks should work unless the c-clip gets pinched. That is why even after using a sludge hammer mine didn't come off. What I think happened is I must of weakened that the clip enough that if , I gave it one more big wack, it would of come off. That is way the guy at work poped it off so easy. The clip did c0me out in two pieces.

 

[bkfj40]

It just so happens that the handle of a hi-lift jack will work...no need for looking around for a pipe with the correct ID...

bk
-with the 80 now running

 

[turbocruiser]

It just so happens that the handle of a hi-lift jack will work...no need for looking around for a pipe with the correct ID...

bk
-with the 80 now running

Wow, that's really cool, thanks!