Front axle overhaulin' questions!

[cruiserdan]

Allow two days if you have not done this job before. I did a front axle housing swap with a complete knuckle job, alone, in just under two days.

 

[scottm]

Two days for cdan, and I'm just a rookie with 4 posts. I'd better start tonight.

 

[cruiserdan]

Seriously Scott,

I started Friday night by getting the front axle up on jackstands and removing the front wheels. I hit it hard Saturday morning. I did spend a couple hours during the job shagging trunion bearings because I did not expect them to be bad (dumbfawk me).

Realisticly you should be able to pull it off easily over the weekend provided that you have all the tools and goodies in place before you start. I already know that you have the proper parts on-hand.

 

[scottm]

Hope you're right, I did discover an unused parts washer at the shop, that might speed things a bit.

 

[Scamper]

Scott,

Dan's on target. When I did it, I spent a weekend, but I had run into problems too. So if I can do it in a weekend--including problems found and resolved--then a run of the mill front axle serivce should take no more than two days. Your newly found parts washer should help too.

Tom

 

[Doc]

Hmm... I didn't quite follow, since I thought your rig had been sitting around a couple of weeks while you were waiting on brass drifts and what-nots.

It was, but then I got my 54mm socket and brass hammer! I dug into the hub and tightened up the very loose lock nuts. The wheel rocking stopped, so I deemed the pig road worthy.

When pulling back into the driveway after a short (10 min) road trip to the grocery store I started to dissasemble the drivers side front hub, it was hot- so I checked the other side, not as hot.

Sometimes I tend to skip over small details in my stories like that!

 

[GXO]

I averaged 4.5 hours per side for the first rebuild...then I found the housing stripped for the driver's side caliper and the PS bearing pre-load was wrong per a post here (arrrg).

Had the driver's side knuckle housing off, replaced, and repacked/reassembled inside of 3 hours.

Passenger side was just a drop of the tire, tear into knuckle, set the pre-load, and back together.

In other words, the more you get familiar and the cleaner it is...the faster you can go.

 

[scottm]

"In other words, the more you get familiar and the cleaner it is...the faster you can go."

Good to know since I'm doing two trucks! My brother's suggestion of blasting the area clean at the car wash before starting should save much time.

 

[sleeoffroad]

45 miniture birfield change on Rusty Nail last year

 

[GXO]

Did you use the shortcut off dropping the arm and top cap and then the whole knuckle vs. tearing in?

That is an excellent field repair approach I use on the other TLC models when doing field repairs.

Gets you back to camp ASAP.