Front axle seals

[Eric Winkworth]

I posted a thread asking how to grease my ball joints a couple of weeks ago, I got a reply saying something about if the axles seals are bad, oil from your diff will leak into your ball joints. It will cause problems, of cousre. Well I opened up the fill hole on my front diff and oil started coming out with a little grease in it, looked milky. Now I wanna get a rebuild kit and fix her up, any suggestion on where to get it or tips on any difficult parts of the job. Also will I need any specail tools.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Greg_B]

Here's an excellent photo review of a rebuild: https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=43497

Here is another link with an excellent review:

http://www.birfield.com/~morgan/tech/axle/index.html

hth's

gb

 

[silvercrusher]

How did it come out the diff fill hole. You must have some foreign liquid in there from somewhere but i doubt its from the knuckle. I'd suggest to you that you need to either check your vent lines or raise them a whole bunch. You are making fluid somehow! The seal stops the fluid from entering the knuckle not the otherway round. Oil and water looks like concrete is that what you are seeing?

I'd drain that quick and refill also check your vents!

 

[crushers]

i would say the axle seal is gone and the knuckles are being contaminated with diff grease..
a rebuild is in order, you can get the kit from either Steve Tetu, Rob, or Dan at 4 wheel. the kit comes with new king pin bearings but no wheel bearings. you should check the wheel bearings for wear and if in decent shape then repack.
cheers

 

[Eric Winkworth]

Well the knuckles arn't getting contaminated with diff grease ( i think you mean oil ) it seems like the other way around, it doesn't look like oil and water it looks like grease and water. Anyway, I would like to get a rebuild kit, do you have a phone # or email, I can conatct them at?

 

[Eric Winkworth]

Holy that looks like it will be a bit of a PITA.

 

[silvercrusher]

hey i'm kinda confussed are you talking about your diff(pumpkin) or your steering knuckle.

 

[beanz2]

It sounds like Eric is talking about knuckle grease getting into the diff. Well, remember the square knuckle fill plug people always talk about? Imagine filling the knuckle with a hydraulic chassis luber and then some . . . Where is that grease going to go?

Dave

 

[crushers]

holly crap that would take a LOT of grease...

 

[Devils Paw 80]

It sounds like Eric is talking about knuckle grease getting into the diff. Well, remember the square knuckle fill plug people always talk about? Imagine filling the knuckle with a hydraulic chassis luber and then some . . . Where is that grease going to go?

Dave

It's going to slowly drip out the bottom of the knuckle. If knuckle grease is finding its way into the diff, it seems to me that the more common problem of diff fluid in the knuckles would also be present. Eric, how about draining and refilling the diff first off?

 

[crushers]

i would say, once he pulls the spindle off he is going to be saying Hello to a real mess.
make sure you have some newspapers down on the floor under the Knuckle before you remove the spindle... makes cleaning up afterward much easier...
cheers

 

[silvercrusher]

so he has an axle full of grease? wow that is a new one for me!!!!!

 

[crushers]

actually i find this hard to beleive considering that the grease would ooose out the dust deals long before pushing past the inner seal...
cheers

 

[Eric Winkworth]

ummmmm, Well I dunno I checked my vent hoses and they look fine, and my ball joints are full of grease that looks very uncontaminated.

dunno where the fluid came from, thats too weird. Only thing I can think of that it was always over filled. I am going to do a fliud change in both diffs and see if I run into a problem again.