Front Axle Service - Time Budget

[jcope]

Can anyone give me a rough idea how much time I should expect to spend servicing the front axles, including:
- disassembly
- cleaning
- bearing replacement, including trunion bearings
- seal installation
- lube
- reassembly

I've done work like this before, but not many times. It looks to be a pretty straightforward job. I admit I'm paranoid about getting the hubs tightened appropriately at the end. The last thing I want is for it to work loose or to be too tight.

My expectation is that the maintenance is due, but there shouldn't be much damage if any. The mileage isn't high, and it was never taken off road as far as I can tell.

Also if there are any areas that could trip me up that aren't highlighted in the FAQ thread, I'd appreciate a heads up.

Thanks.

 

[bhmmapping]

a full weekend if it is your first time doing it. Most of that time will be spent cleaning. It is very straight forward, just messy and tedious.

 

[cody c]

The hubs (spindle nut) are fairly forgiving if you over tighten or undertighten them slightly, as long as the star washer has enough tabs to hold the nuts well and you get the washer with the tab into the spindle back in the right place.

As per above, a full weekend if your inexperienced with the front end of an 80 or have limited experience wrenching on stuff. Once you've done a couple and have some impact tools and sockets ready to go you should be able to do it in half a saturday.

But, do yourself a favour and pressure wash the crap out of the front knuckles/ball and exposed seals before you dig into it, and drop your knuckle into a container of cleaner right away so you can throw some paint on them and reassemble them without having to wait on paint.

Also, lots and lots of rags, and some decent rubber gloves.

Do you have a bearing greaser tool (dont need it but will speed things up if youve never worked grease into wheel bearings before), and 54mm socket?

 

[Michael Hanson]

If you have everything you need already rounded up. A full day. Just get a good fish scale for the tighten down. Also the large toy. socket and a good set of beveled snap ring pliers. Small childs awimming pool and rolls of paper towels to catch the crud. Brass hammmer or brass punch. Mike

 

[cody c]

If you have everything you need already rounded up. A full day. Just get a good fish scale for the tighten down. Also the large toy. socket and a good set of beveled snap ring pliers. Small childs awimming pool and rolls of paper towels to catch the crud. Brass hammmer or brass punch. Mike

Ya, actually one full day is quite doable for a first timer, 2 days is a bit on the high side, but you never know how thorough and careful some newbs are.

I used some cheap large plastic halloween candy bowls from walmart last time, but they cracked a bit when I dropped the hub in them, still, kept the grease off the floor. Cheap and disposable though.

Oh yeah, my neighbour gave me a cheap old office chair on castors/rollers. Made things alot quicker/comfortable last time I did knuckles.

 

[FloridaCruiser813]

we dissasembled everything the first night and put everything in buckets of deisel to soak over night then spent most of the next day cleaning with a wire brush. then a few hours to reassemble if nothing goes wrong. on my truck something always goes wrong !

 

[HGiles]

we dissasembled everything the first night and put everything in buckets of deisel to soak over night then spent most of the next day cleaning with a wire brush. then a few hours to reassemble if nothing goes wrong. on my truck something always goes wrong !

^---Sounds like me! I seem to always have twice as much trouble with things and seem to take 4x as long to do stuff. Even on jobs.

 

[Benson]

Plan on two days,

I am definitely a mechanic and it took me the better part of a weekend to do the whole job. Part of that was taking time with my son so he could be part of the process and changing out the brake calipers and pads at the same time.

Lots of good advice on the forum here, but the best help I found was purchasing a dvd from elmariachi (Jim Reiss). It detailed the whole process and was very helpful. Considering the costs in shop rags and paper towels alone, the $25 was a good investment.

Good luck.

 

[1morebike]

i was worried about the preload also but it turned out to be pretty easy. mine came lose because i was worried about them being to tight. after a few hundred miles i went back in and torqued the inner nut to 10lbs and out to 45lbs then used the fish scale and it seems all good now. i recommend a seal installer i was pissed with out one and once i rented one from autozone things went well.

oh and if you live in the rust belt a big ass hammer is a must.