Hey all,
I'm in the process of rebuilding the knuckles on my '85 FJ60. I've got everything apart right now, but while separating the birfield joint from the axle, the snap ring that keeps them together, well...snapped. I apparently didn't do enough research to know this was common so I unfortunately don't have a replacement ready.
This is my daily driver so it needs to be running again by Monday. So the questions are:
I'm in the process of rebuilding the knuckles on my '85 FJ60. I've got everything apart right now, but while separating the birfield joint from the axle, the snap ring that keeps them together, well...snapped. I apparently didn't do enough research to know this was common so I unfortunately don't have a replacement ready.
This is my daily driver so it needs to be running again by Monday. So the questions are:
- What alternatives (if any) are available for this snap ring? After hunting for these clips, an immediate, local replacement doesn't sound possible.
- Can I put the knuckle back together without the axle and drive her for a week without it? I've searched around and haven't been able to find a definitive answer but I vaguely remember reading mention of this somewhere. Obviously no 4WD until I can take everything back apart to put the axle back in. There's the issue of gear oil from the diff leaking into the knuckle; any better ideas than simply stuffing a rag there in the meantime? I would be opening her back up next weekend so I'd expect around 200 miles in this configuration. The only parts I plan on not installing would be the birfield and axle, is there anything I'm not thinking of?