Is this birfield joint worn out or still usable?

[barkbuster]

I started to do my front axle repack this afternoon. I was disappointed to find very little grease in the birfield joints. I've only had the vehicle for almost 3 months and greased it twice since I've had it. It doesn't show any signs of leaking so apparently someone didn't put much grease in it. Just wanting your opinion on whether these axles are usable or if I need to replace them with new ones. The pictures below are the passengers side and they're worse than the other side. However, both show some wear.

 

[chtucker]

Look at my pic

about the same. I swapped sides. My passengere side was clicking pre rebuild. My passenger side was worse than drivers wear wise. My passenger side ever so slightly clicks after the rebuild

I should have just replaced mine.. but did not want to spend the money. I can see myself opening everything again next summer and redoing it...

 

[chtucker]

As for greasing and finding no grease... My understanding is that it is not meant to be greased. You have a leak and there is no way around it. I went with the Marlin seals and they are MUCH MUCH sturdier than stock.

 

[nicholas]

Did you have any clicking before you pulled them?

Mine looked about the same, maybe a little less worn but I did not have any clicking before I pulled them. I just swapped sides about 5K miles ago and I have not had any problems so far.

You will probably be ok just swapping the birfs to the opposite side, especially if you aren't doing any heavy rock crawling or have huge tires.

 

[nicholas]

As for greasing and finding no grease... My understanding is that it is not meant to be greased. You have a leak and there is no way around it. I went with the Marlin seals and they are MUCH MUCH sturdier than stock.

While it is true that if the diff oil seal is leaking, it will wash out the moly grease in the knuckles out through the wipers.

However, Idahodoug proved that filling the knuckle with grease through the square plug will somewhat grease the birfs and the grease will eventually make its way into the bell/star. I would only do it as more of a temporary fix until I could do a full birf job.

X2 on the marlin seals. I wish I would have known about them when I did my birfs.

 

[John Galt]

My understanding is that it is not meant to be greased.

What is your understanding of the correct lubrication procedure?

 

[barkbuster]

When I said that I greased them I ment I put like 10 or 15 pumps in the fill hole, I assumed that they were full. Yes they were clicking. I ordered a rebuild kit from Cruiser Dan.

 

[OGBeno]

Grease them back up, put them together correctly and continue driving.

-o-

 

[fj40z]

Right after I got my 80 the driver side birf started clicking, so I stuck a long skinny screwdriver down the square plug hole to see how much grease was in it, all that was there was about a half inch of birf soup on the end of the screwdriver. I knew I was going to rebuild asap but I had to drive it everyday, so I greased them just to prevent any further damage until the rebuild. I bought a grease needle and put over a tube of grease in each side just to get it to the correct level. It quited the clicking down signifigantly. About a week later they were tore down and rebuilt, I was surprised how much grease had found its way into the birf.

 

[peytonkristen]

Barkbuster

Where in AR are you? If your close to Hot Springs we might be able to lend each other a hand.

I just did my front axle service over the holidays and messed up the DS seal putting everything back together. Be very gentle with these seals. I was using the OEM seals but just got my new seals from Marlin and they are allot heavier than the OEM. I plan on going back in to mine next weekend. My birfs had similar wear with clicking on the PS side and I just swapped them.

Good Luck.

 

[IdahoDoug]

John,

Informationally, I put about 100 pumps into each birf recently to replace that lost in normal operation through the sweep seals (eyelids). So, 10-15 is not enough. The volume is pretty large in there. On my bro in law's I put 3/4 of a tube in each knuckle a few months ago with the hand pump as well. Don't worry about putting too much in - the grease will push the head of your grease gun out the square plug hole. Even at that point since the grease comes out in squiggly toothbrush ribbons there's at least 1/4 air in the pile of grease that will resolve itself into a normal air gap after only a few miles of driving. It's a pretty bulletproof and idiot proof process. The only thing you can do wrong is NOT add grease IMHO.

DougM

 

[axlenut]

Mine were in worse shape than that when I swapped sides and repacked. They were quiet for several months, but it will be time to replace them this year.
I use John Deere HD Moly Grease, by the way. It works great.

 

[barkbuster]

Thanks for the advice. I finished repacking my birfield joints 5 weeks ago and haven't noticed any clicking from the front axle since they rebuild. Of course, it might be hard to hear since I added an Aussie Locker to the rear.