front knuckle lube

[toycruiser72]

what type of lube is used for the birfields an amount .Thanks

 

[teapot]

i use hi temp wheel bearing grease.pack it really good.

 

[woody]

birfields themselves need a moly grease...molybedendum (spelt wrong, but you get the idea) Comes in a round tub.

I use marine wheel bearing grease on the trunions and other bearing surfaces, but the moly is better suited for the shock-type loading a birfield goes thru.

 

[toycruiser72]

so whats the inspection plug for on the knuckle?
i thought it may be an inspection plug to maybe check leval of lube.
gear oil?so how does the top knuckle brng get lubed?

 

[woody]

when you rebuild the knuckle, you hand-pack the bearings and then pack the upper and lower cavity of the area around the trunions....I use a 1" rubber spatula for the process.

The inspection plug is to fill the knuckle....IIRC, it's supposed to be 2/3 full....personally, I don't put nearly that much in mine but instead do a teardown/repack of the front axle once a year.

 

[Degnol]

I found some Molybdenum Disufide grease in a tube, have a needle adapter for my grease gun , put the birf in a vise and shot grease in every cavity, rotating the birf as I went. The needle adapter comes in handy for refilling through the plug, too.


Woody, I like the idea of the spatula...next time, huh.

GL
Ed

 

[toycruiser72]

thanks...

 

[teapot]

thanks for the info on marine grease and spatula,that alot better protection

 

[drohweder]

So what happens if you inject the knuckle more than 2/3 full? Cause I just did..eek!

 

[drohweder]

So am I screwed or what?

 

[IDave]

Well, Dan, looks like I've been overfilling mine for years. Doesn't seem to have made a bit of difference! Everything works fine.

 

[drohweder]

Thanks for the reassurance. Man, I need an FSM and a brain, there is so much I want to do to both my rigs...oh yea, another job and a fairy god mother to zap all my debt would be nice too

 

[folsom50]

Chiltons said that the front knuckle should be packed, so that what I did. I haven't had any problems yet...

 

[miker]

For years (at least 15 or so) I've been packing the birfield and and knuckle with as much grease as I can fit into it. I do this once a year. Once everything is cleaned and ready for the repack, I start with the knuckle bearings. I pack these in place by pushing grease into them just like you would a wheel bearing. You know you have packed them full when you see the grease coming out the other side of the bearings. I then pack the outer circumfrence of the knuckle housing with enough grease so that the center hole is about the size of the birfield. I then pack the birfield and finally install the birfield. If I've done it right, I have to remove a small amount of grease that oozes out when the birf goes in. Once the spindle is on, the knuckle is pretty much 100% full of grease.

The only thing that happens when they're this full is that you will see some grease oozing out from the knuckle wipers when the wheels are turned. I just wipe off this grease after I've cycled the steering a few times.

It takes about 4 lbs of grease to do 2 knuckles and the wheel bearings. I've never had any issues with water getting into the knuckles with this method and I regularly cross water deeper than the knuckles during my spring/summer wheeling.

It might be overkill but it works.

 

[poseidon]

There are also a bunch if things like this that make it easy:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...tem=4503736057&category=43993&sspagename=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...tem=4503687907&category=35625&sspagename=WDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...tem=7934949737&category=42614&sspagename=WDVW

There are several styles but for les than $20 it is WELL worth it. Doen in seconds and no mess. I like the style of the first oen with a grease zert on the post. They work like magic.

E

 

[Desertdave]

My thoughts

for what they are worth. I used to really pack the knuckles by using a grease gun into the port on the top. I stopped doing this after I found a lot of diluted moly grease inside the entire differential, when I pulled it to install the air locker. If you pressurize the knuckle cavity it has to go somewhere...

I use the moly grease inside the knuckle, including the knuckle bearings and the birfield.

On the 'outside' of the spindle,(wheel bearings) I use the marine grease. If you read up on lubricants I think you will learn NOT to mix base-types of greases, because that causes the lubricant to fall out of suspension. Moly greases I have found are lithium-based, and the marine grease I use is aluminum-based, and so I do not want them mixing.

I also like the marine grease for the shackles, it tends to not wash out so easily.

my $.02, maybe worth $.015

 

[LT]

Any of you guys got a picture of what your knuckle looks like packed with grease? I'm thinking mine doesn't have nearly enough grease

 

[Duster]

when you rebuild the knuckle, you hand-pack the bearings and then pack the upper and lower cavity of the area around the trunions....I use a 1" rubber spatula for the process.

The inspection plug is to fill the knuckle....IIRC, it's supposed to be 2/3 full....personally, I don't put nearly that much in mine but instead do a teardown/repack of the front axle once a year.

Less is more is the overwhelming response to this one, even if not echoed within this thread. A few squirts through the plug every 3K or at least when you remember will help keep it at 1/2 to 2/3 full.

 

[CruisinTiger]

hey let me know when you find that fairy god mother. got some debt she can zap away too

 

[LT]

hey let me know when you find that fairy god mother. got some debt she can zap away too