Front Axle Question, What broke

[norcalvws]

Hey all, I don't know Jack bout 4wd front axles. Still finishing up the roadworthniess of my new 60. F&R AAl's 2.5" rear shackles 31X10.5 Yokohama's, Head gasket & .050" Mill, Yadda, Yadda.
Here's my question. After greasing one of the knuckles, I locked the OE hub & rotated the hub. Shouldn't the driveshaft turn when one tire's on the ground or if I'm spinning either the Driveshaft and or the Wheel in the air (I'm used to verfiyng posi's ot open diffs this way)
What should I look for, Stripped out Lockign hub, Busted Birfield?
Can I remove the Locking hub & determine if it's the Birfield & or the Hub without making too much of a greasy mess?????
Thanks in Advance,
Dave.

 

[weak-link]

Did you lock one hub or both? If you only locked one hub then everythings ok.


While in 2wd lock both hubs, both tires on the ground and try to turn the driveshaft. If she don't move more then 1/4" then your good.

 

[norcalvws]

Yup, I did A Rookie Move, Didn't lock both hubs! Ain't nothing wrong with the Diff. Now to gauge the Knuckle bearings. The 60 has 152,something miles on it and came from colorado to Nor-Cal (The Real Nor-Cal that is). I used about 28 Ounces of wheel bearing grease to fill up the knuckles!
Outer Edge of the tires are bald inners have about 3/16-1/4" of tread left.
I'm having a allignment done with the new tires to get readings on Camber Which I know is way positive (knuckle bearing rebuild?) And to know the amount of Caster I have right now so I know how much to add. Anyone have the Factory Camber specs for a 60? I'm probabally going with 3 or 4 degrees of caster in the front end.
Thanks, Dave.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

A couple of comments.

Nor-Cal is a state of mind. We claim most of the state north of, but not including Bakersfield. Lost Coast area is definitely NorCal. Maybe even Northern NorCal.

Your axle-Nothing is adjustable but toe-in. The Caster can be adjusted with shims between the spring and the perch, but your average tire place won't want to do that. Camber is NOT adjustable. If it's off-spec-you have a bent axle. It is seriously easy to set the toe yourself. It takes about 20 minutes to do, and you'll never have to pay for an alignment again. Getting numbers isn't a bad idea, but unless you are willing to replace the axle, why bother? If they charge you more than $50 for an alignment on a solid axle cruiser, you are being taken for a ride.

More on Camber-It really doesn't change unless the knuckle bearings are completly destroyed rather than just worn. If they are that bad, you would have other problems. If your camber is off, start looking for a new axle housing because yours is bent.

Your tires wearing funny can be anything; wrong toe-in, worn out shocks, worn spring bushings or worn tie-rod/drag link ends. Probably a combination of all.

Grease-You know the knuckle is supposed to be packed with moly grease, right? Regular wheelbearing grease is not the right stuff. 28 oz sounds about right.

 

[lowtideride]

If you just filled the knuckles with grease from the fill plug at the top, it really dint grease anything. The outter and inner bearings have to be packed with grease by hand along with the birf. The fille plug at the top just fills the knuckle with the birf in it and it just fills in around the birf ( not in it where it needs to be) a small amount of grease is needed around the birf.

 

[norcalvws]

Thanks Guys. I used my grease gun to pack the knuckles & I stopped when the grease pushed out my grease gun & oozed out the wiper seals on the axle. no grease has been seeping out that I can see so I "think' the seals are in good shape. Used Valvoline's Toyota, Mopar & something else knuckle grease.

The other reason that I had it alligned @ a shop, The steering box was waay off center (about 3/4 of a turn) & My 2nd son was born yesterday (04/13/06) so there is no time to mess with that. The tire wear was waay bad (Never rotated)
Luckily, the axle camber is not even 3/4 of a degree positive. now to install 3 degree caster shims to get some stability in the front end. I hear that that is about max for a 4X4 axle?

Later,
Nor-Cal Dave.
I've Been using that name from my days as pres if Nor-Cal VW's (A VW car club out of Santa Rosa Ca) before those Napa boneheads stole the name after the club dissolved in SR. Now I live in the true Nor-Cal of Eureka, Ca. Everything north of Sacto can be called nor-cal IMHO. Kind of like how Santa Rosans call ourselves members of the San Francisco bay area.