Felt knuckle seals caught fire

[NCFJ]

You have been found guilty of Cruiser Abuse. You are ordered to surrender your truck to the closest Cruiser Head. You will be permitted annual visits. I'd say a full front axle rebuild is in order. Call Onur, He is in your neck of the woods and knows Cruisers as well or better than most.

 

[Code Red]

Both wheels at the same time sounds like brakes. There were obviously pre-existing problems with the front-end. but I can't see wheel bearings getting to that point on both sides simultaneously. But once you heat up a brake line or caliper enough it can boil the fluid and the vaporized fluid can create enough pressure to cause the calipers to drag, thus creating even more heat. If you have old fluid that has absorbed a lot of water over the years, it would happen much faster.

I have had a dragging caliper create enough heat that it wouldn't completely release until it cooled down. It never locked up the wheel, but it started pulling to one side. I stopped to check it out before it got hot enough to ignite anything. I wouldn't have thought that was possible, but who knows? When it happened to me, it only impacted one side, but theoretically, if you boil enough brake fluid on one side you could increase the pressure in the whole front circuit and cause the other one to start dragging. From that point it is creating its own heat.

 

[Hammer45]

My locked up brake calipers caused my first (only) wheel fire after new pads and topping off the fluid. Fire extinguisher.. never leave home without it now.

 

[Spike Strip]

This thread reminds of 'The Doors' song:

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

and both sides on fire at the same time? ..... absolutely amazing!

“it was acting a bit sluggish like something was holding it back”

Yup. It was one and then just as I got that put out, the other one caught fire.

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

@bullsheadcruiser
Your knuckle seals have been leaking for far too long and the thick grease that used to be in the knuckles is a slushy mix with your differential fluid. You need to do a full knuckle rebuild with new bearings and the bronze bushings. You may get lucky and not need new spindles but that's in question given how you've abused it and lack of maintenance.

Just opening up the grease fitting on the knuckle and putting more grease in will not solve your problem. Address the front end before you blow the front differential. I bet you're low on diff fluid too.

Regarding annealing. You gotta get up to 500°F and hold that for awhile or up to 1400°F for a short period. I doubt you annealed the knuckles. The front birfields and spindles may be upset given the lack of lubrication.

If you can catch the front felt on fire then we can only guess what kind of condition your front end is in....

Coming back to all this now as I've only just got the truck back in my own garage. I will have a look at it and take some pics to see what I'm faced with; do a damage assessment. Thank you all for your great input.

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

You have been found guilty of Cruiser Abuse. You are ordered to surrender your truck to the closest Cruiser Head. You will be permitted annual visits. I'd say a full front axle rebuild is in order. Call Onur, He is in your neck of the woods and knows Cruisers as well or better than most.

Isn't @onur in Australia? I'm in the mid-Hudson Valley - NY State

 

[DEADSALT]

did you get the fire out

 

[gregkline55]

Isn't @onur in Australia? I'm in the mid-Hudson Valley - NY State

Where are you at? I'm in hudson, not that I can really help with this issue LOL but cool to find some local 60 owners

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

Where are you at? I'm in hudson, not that I can really help with this issue LOL but cool to find some local 60 owners

Further south - closer to Millbrook/Verbank area

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

Both wheels at the same time sounds like brakes. There were obviously pre-existing problems with the front-end. but I can't see wheel bearings getting to that point on both sides simultaneously. But once you heat up a brake line or caliper enough it can boil the fluid and the vaporized fluid can create enough pressure to cause the calipers to drag, thus creating even more heat. If you have old fluid that has absorbed a lot of water over the years, it would happen much faster.

I have had a dragging caliper create enough heat that it wouldn't completely release until it cooled down. It never locked up the wheel, but it started pulling to one side. I stopped to check it out before it got hot enough to ignite anything. I wouldn't have thought that was possible, but who knows? When it happened to me, it only impacted one side, but theoretically, if you boil enough brake fluid on one side you could increase the pressure in the whole front circuit and cause the other one to start dragging. From that point it is creating its own heat.

I still have not got to this and the temperature is now in the teens so I am not too inclined to be outside dealing with this. I did notice that the brake fluid is very low and that it almost feels as it did when the booster packed up several years ago. I need to top it up with the right fluid and see if that improves the brake pedal action.

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

park brake only is on the rear drums so shouldn’t be part of this problem (though it is one that should be addressed). you can take out the large square plug on top of the knuckle to see if you have grease in there. either way sounds like it’s time for a rebuild. if you’re out of grease there’s a brass bushing inside that may also have seized up and come loose from the spindle. you should be ready to get a new one of those too if it has. ask me how i know. then get new calipers and while the rotors are off go get them turned (or at least checked). brakes are a system you need to make sure are working properly. don’t put them off. while your checking them make sure your rears are adjusted and the cylinders aren’t leaking.

these jobs aren’t too hard. you’ll learn a ton about your truck if you haven’t done this job before. it takes a while the first time (like most of a weekend) but with pretty basic tools it’s not hard.

@cruiseroutfit (cruiser outfitters) for parts for sure

Do I need to take he wheels off to see the square plug? I couldn't see it from underneath as there wasn't enough room to look on top - being a little dim here but it is one of those days/weeks

 

[franklin40]

it’s definitely easier to get to it with the wheel off but not absolutely necessary. you might not get the answer you want though with out. it’s only 6 lugs so take it off.

 

[Gretsch]

Do I need to take he wheels off to see the square plug?

I don't think you need to worry about the square plug. As others have said it likely won't help you at this point. You need to get into the knuckles with the wheels off to counter the neglect of the front axle that's likely occurred. Sounds like its never been worked on. If true then new inner seals would likely be in order at least so you'll have to take this apart anyway to do that. Might as well get after it. Don't let the special tools required scare you away from this. The C-clip spreader is a cheap tool easily available on Amazon:

Amazon product ASIN B00209ETSS
Keep your shims in the same place/order they came off, and you likely won't need any knuckle centering tools. Messy job but not difficult and really any cruiser owners right of passage. At the very least take it to someone who can fix this properly if you aren't gonna. Please get this right somehow. Hurts to follow. HTH.

 

[gregkline55]

Further south - closer to Millbrook/Verbank area

oh yeah youre not far at all

 

[kevin in okinawa]

Isn't @onur in Australia? I'm in the mid-Hudson Valley - NY State

don't hold your breath on that dude, I don't think he helps people anymore outside of doing business with you.

It's been said already, but it sounds like your truck has been neglected for a long time and requires the front end (knuckles and hubs) and brakes be inspected and repaired. You need a garage with cover for this ideally, not NYS weather, so good luck with that part. Download the FSMs, read several threads about others doing a knuckle rebuild, assemble 'special' tools (brass drifts, 54mm socket, good pair of snap ring pliers, torque wrench, etc.) lots of paper towels because grease is messy, m'kay?!?

We've all done this, it's a rite of passage for a LC owner.

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

I had a local guy have a look and he said it was the brakes that had frozen and dragged. He replaced what was needed including brake line hoses and she runs well now but we have only used her for short trips and very little since July when we got her back. I would like to. Get into the knuckles and have a friend with a lift and a barn who has offered to work on it with me but it’ll have to wait till spring when he’s finished his weekend ski coaching obligations. There are a few other things that need work too and at some point I should work on the transfer case as that is leaky. Id happily outsource this to anyone in the mid-Hudson Valley area if anyone has suggestions although the guy who did the work still has his first FJ40 behind his workshop. He can’t bring himself to sell it even though he hasn’t touched it for years.

 

[reaton]

Coming back to all this now as I've only just got the truck back in my own garage. I will have a look at it and take some pics to see what I'm faced with; do a damage assessment. Thank you all for your great input.

Follow this video. I have zero mechanical experience and had to buy the tools he listed. Took me a week or so of working on it in the evenings for a couple hours here and there. Hardest part was taking things apart as they had been together for 37 years. That an cleaning all the built up gunk off of the parts.

Bought the kit from Cruiser Outfitters and new wheel posts at the same time. Followed the video to the T and felt truly accomplished when it was all back together.

 

[AK RIG]

Seems strange both calipers would seize at once unless pressure in the master was building up. Sounds like a full brake system inspection/repair is in order especially if the brake light has been on for awhile (parking brake indicator and low brake fluid level is the same light). Oooo looks like you did that (I didn't see the most recent posts). Knuckle rebuild isn't too bad and some of the tools you need to do it are a worthy investment.

 

[bullsheadcruiser]

Follow this video. I have zero mechanical experience and had to buy the tools he listed. Took me a week or so of working on it in the evenings for a couple hours here and there. Hardest part was taking things apart as they had been together for 37 years. That an cleaning all the built up gunk off of the parts.

Bought the kit from Cruiser Outfitters and new wheel posts at the same time. Followed the video to the T and felt truly accomplished when it was all back together.

Thank you, this is brilliant. I will share it with my pal with the lift and see what he thinks of it. I would get no end of satisfaction from doing this.