Greetings from sunny WA state! (1 Viewer)

[mrldcty]

I picked up a very stock 1980 40 series a couple of months ago with 49K original miles. I wanted to give it some extra clearance, and rebuild the front knuckles (leaking). I have been getting some help from Torfab and from Cruiser Outfitters, which is great. I have some experience, having run my own race car for a while (sold it to buy the 40!). I've got the EMU lift kit installed, with flipped U bolts. Rebuilt front and rear brakes. Rebuilt the locking hubs. I replaced the studs in the front knuckles and will be running 33x10.5 tires on the new 16" Al wheels from FJCo. (should arrive next week!).

I have a question for the forum: On the first knuckle going back together, I set the knuckle bearing preload to 15 lbs. But after installing the heavy duty wiper seal, it doubled the preload to 30 lbs. What is the "all-up installed" preload I should be going for? 30 sure seems tight to me, and from my forum scanning, it sounds like I could expect a bit more once the axle nuts are torqued. Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[Slapshot]

Welcome to Mud. I don’t have the answer to your question but I’m sure someone will chime in. Sounds like a nice rig, lets see some pics!

 

[mrldcty]

 

[Slapshot]

Wow that looks nice.

 

[Mark Jennings]

Where in Washington? I’m in Kennewick and can help if neede.

 

[mrldcty]

Thanks Mark! I'm in North Bend, so bit of a fur piece for ya. I ended up adding back 0.5 worth of shim to get it back to stk load... came out about 9 lbs (without the ball wiper seal). With the ball wiper, it's still high... near 20 lbs, but I figure once that seal is broken in, it will loosen up. Any further suggestions? I have that knuckle (passenger side) fully re-assembled now, and will work on the driver side tomorrow. Any suggestions welcome!

 

[SNLC]

Never measure with the ball wiper seals installed.

Really should setup the knuckles with the axle centering tool.

Cheers

 

[mrldcty]

Thanks for the input! I measured with and w/o the seal. I think what you are saying is that the published specs for the preload should be measured without the seal, right? Will measure again now that it's all back together and I'll have numbers for bare knuckle, with wiper seal, and with adjusting nut for future reference.

I did look into the centering tool today quite a bit. Since I was working on the "short side" I took the long axle (without the CV on it), inserted it through the short side into the diff and mounted the spindle. It looked spot on to me (i.e., equidistant between the axle and spindle. That said, there is at least a mm of play in the axle seal too.

My logic for skipping the centering tool this time around in favor of making my build and tested deadline (Sept. 22nd) is as follows: This is a very stock truck with only 49k miles on it. I doubt these knuckles have been gone through before now... everything looked pristine, even the brake rotors and pads. So, getting back to within 0.5 of stock shims seems pretty safe to do without re-measuring with a centering tool. Sound reasonable?

This is my first experience working on the 40, so by all means, correct me if I'm going the wrong direction!