Front axle rebuild ? Use gear oil ?

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In a perfect world I think that either grease or gear oil would work, but we don't live in a perect world. The whole gear oil idea only works if the seal is intact. What happens if you driving down just a two track and a stick or sharp rock comes in contact with the rubber/felt seal and compromises the seal. Bye bye gear oil and your running dry. Grease will stay in there and get you home. Gear oil will be gone and leave you standed. Maybe the Toyota engineers aren't so dumb and thought of this when recommending grease in the birfs, knuckless, and wheel bearings.
 
"One note of clarification after re-reading the previous posts: I was pushing for grease and my trusted mechanic was pushing for gear oil on the front axle rebuild. The agreement was that if the front had to be rebuilt because gear oil didn't work out and converted to grease, the rebuild to grease would be "sponsored" time wise from his end."

I am coming in at the tail end of this but it sounds like your "mechanic" made a decision based on what he says happened to the grease. Wheel bearing grease will not "convert" to gear oil. What happened was, the inner axle seal leaked gear oil into the Birfield bell and washed the grease out. In another post, you said that the grease had packed out all around the Birf and become hard. This is the reason that we repack the Birfs themselves out of the housing once in a while , to keep this to a minimum.
Let me say this Cahlic, the idea you have is good, and makes sense in some ways, but this has been done, many times before, and there are still mechanics out there that swear by your gear oil theory. It will not last. A mechanic in Colorado this last summer tried to tell me that Toyotas are supposed to have gear oil in the outers, so your guy is not the only one misinformed. The seal design was not for viscous fluid, Kurt addressed that. Be prepared to by an axle rebuild kit with Birfs and do it the right way. Take a FSM to your mechanic.
As far as the Pinz and Mog, yes they have gear oil in the outers....its beacuse they have gears in the outers, and were designed from the beginning to run gear oil in them. Seals. bearings, etc.
Gary
 
Can I run wheel bearing grease in my motor? My oil pan leaks oil real bad, it leaves a foot wide puddle anywhere I park it. My driveway is now so slippery, I have to engage 4WD to drive up and my mom now has to park her Buick on the street and the mailman has sued us twice for falling. I'm tired of buying a quart of motor oil every week!

My motor is starting to smoke really bad and lately I hear loud knocking when it runs. The cashier at the corner gas station says putting grease in the motor will take care of all my problems except for the mailman's lawsuit. He says his dad is a TV repairman and he's got an awesome set of tools.

Dave
:flipoff2:
 
Anyone try running handsoap?
Seems like a low cost solution. And the best part- when you need to rebuild the clean up is easy- just add water to the pumpkin run it for a few miles and drain it. Viola- clean as a whistle - no grease under the fingernails!
 
cahilc said:
The rubber wipers are one piece, followed by a spring metal support, followed by the felt wiper.
Cheers,
Cahil
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Um, I thought it was steel split ring against the knuckle, rubber ring against the steel split ring, then felt ring against the rubber, all held in with the two big C's and the eight little bolts.

Am I doing it wrong, or did you type it wrong?

:confused:
 
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The steel goes against the knuckle ball, so Rigger has it right.
 
Thanks Drew. You and I are agreed.

I'm gonna check my FSM when I get home, but I'm sure it said to place them on the ball in this order: felt, rubber, metal. Since metal is the last one on, he goes against the knuckle. The diagram shows it like that, too.
 
Outside to in. Half moon retainer plates, felt wiper, rubber wiper, metal split ring :D
 
CRAP! I read this whole idiotic thread and realized that it's ten minutes of my life wasted that I can never get back. What a stupid idea, gear lube in the Birf, excuse me, "planetaries." That is a sure sign that a new machanic is needed post haste.
 
lehiguy said:
CRAP! I read this whole idiotic thread and realized that it's ten minutes of my life wasted that I can never get back. What a stupid idea, gear lube in the Birf, excuse me, "planetaries." That is a sure sign that a new machanic is needed post haste.
Click to expand...

It's an idea that has been done many, many times successfully. Just not as common on LC stuff ;)
 
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