front knuckle (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Threads
26
Messages
315
Location
Lewiton, Idaho
Well being a proud member of this forum, I watch my front knuckles pretty closely along with everything else, heh. Anyways I was under the front axle looking up at those fun to reach bolts on the underside of the intake manifold when I caught a glimpse of what appears to be a "dry" knuckle.GASP!
The lowdown: 95,000 miles and no birf service yet. Recently had some fun in the mud with everything locked. We recently had several inches of snow over about a 2 week period and with it all the D.O.T. de-icer on the roads and what not.
Now I notice the front side of each knuckle is dry and even has a lil bit of rust on each one. The back side has the typical grease layer but not the front, hmm. I don't ever recall seeing this before. Is this normal? I think not. I haven't checked the lil plug on top of the axle yet but will in the morning. Could just fillin this resevoir solve my problem or is there something bigger goin on here?

Thnx , Vince
 
It shouldn't matter whether or not filling at the plug will fix your problem with 95k on the clock and no service yet. You should just do the service and stop worrying about it. 60k is the mark. You are at 150% of what is recommended.

There is always enough money to do something twice, but never enough to do it right the first time...
 
Ya I was hoping to wait til spring but maybe I better start thinkin about doin it now

Thnx, Vince
 
Vince,

As an immediate fix, stick the head of a grease gun in the square plug hole and put in a half dozen squirts. It's unlikely the birfield is dry, or you'd already know it ($1200 BANG). But if the area the seals on the outer knuckle you're describing get rusty then the new seals will be quickly trashed by the rough surface. Get some grease in there to keep them moist - especially if you're in the Rust Belt winter.

DougM
 
Doug, Thnx for the advice. I'm in clarkston, Wa. right next to lewiston Id. and it is real wet and slushy right now.I'll get the grease gun in there tommorrow, pronto.

Thnx again, Vince
 
Don't over do it. If you're pretty confident there's no/little grease in there though, you might do a dozen full squirts. You can use something straight to stick in the hole to see if there's much grease. Frankly though, it has been so unseasonably cold here that your already age-impaired grease in there may have simply stopped flowing. That would explain it if you find there IS grease in the plug hole. In that case, a half dozen squirts would do.

DougM
 
This is not good to admit but I haven't serviced mine yet 173K and my friend hasn't serviced his 230K. My excuse is I got mine recently but my buddy has had his since new! I will go check mine now ;)
 
lagwagon,

And for every 80 that goes to 170k miles without having a front axle service, we hear of 5 that break a birfield at 100k. Count yourself and your friend as lucky.... not smart.

-B-
 
The thing about it that struck me as odd is that BOTH knuckles are dry in the front, yet the normal thin lair is on the back half. Doesn't this seem strange? I can see maybe one or the other but BOTH?

Vince
 
[quote author=lagwagon link=board=2;threadid=9925;start=msg88075#msg88075 date=1073704658]
This is not good to admit but I haven't serviced mine yet 173K and my friend hasn't serviced his 230K. My excuse is I got mine recently but my buddy has had his since new! I will go check mine now ;)
[/quote]

Same here, know 2 owners that have never done any service too the axle. They both have around 200K miles on their cruisers. I never knew you were suppose to service anything but the wheel bearing. Guess I'm inline for one of these services now that I'm at 130K+ miles. The s*** you learn on the internet is just great ain't it. :whoops:
 
Vince,

I'm thinking you have grease in there then, but the recent harsh conditions ( extreme cold, deep slush on the roads, etc) have blasted the front half clean. If the grease were fresher in there, it would continue to flow properly most likely. I suspect now that temps are getting back to normal you'll see grease again. But it's time for you to repack.

DougM
 
As others said before:

You are just, plain lucky if you haven't serviced your front axle yet.

Mike
 
[quote author=Asiarider link=board=2;threadid=9925;start=msg88232#msg88232 date=1073749206]
As others said before:

You are just, plain lucky if you haven't serviced your front axle yet.

Mike
[/quote]

Mike you are right. But I bet that only maybe less than 5% of the 80 owners even know they are suppose to service the front axle (other than repack the wheel bearings per the manual) I bet 95% of the 80's driving around with over 150K miles on them have never had any front axle work. This is just based on observation from talking to LC owners over the past 8 years and asking them what they have done to their LC's from a maintance standpoint, hell most of them didn't even know that the wheel bearings needed to be repacked. Obviously based on the input from the people on this site and 80scool, this is something that should be done.
 

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