It starts tomorrow!!!

[JDubble]

Just dropped my DS's off at Fleet Pride here in Tacoma. Getting U-Joints pressed in, having both shafts re-phased and balanced as well. Another chunk of change but trying to get everything knocked out and done right so that I don't have to worry about it for a while.

William,
Nice read and glad it all is back together.
To help the thread for local guys, I went to NW Driveline in Fife and had them install OEM spider kit. I wanted the zerk fittings, are your new spiders equipped with the zerk fittings?
A chunk of change is right! Hopefully you spent less then I did.

 

[yohavos]

Round two is complete... William and I knocked out both sides of mine in an evening. We started around 5, stopped for dinner and his birthday cake, then worked until almost 1. We ran into a few hiccups and I'll definitely need new birfields here eventually, but overall it went pretty well.

It feels great knowing its done!

My neglected knuckles and such:

Who's next??

 

[yohavos]

Morning after pics... my first time seeing the job in the daylight.

Obviously we didn't get super zealous with the cleaning of outside bits, but the before/after is amazing.

If anyone is hesitant to do this job, get off the fence and do it! I'm stoked that mine is done.

PS - parts washers are $40 at HF. It might be time.

 

[JDubble]

I had to put mine off for a year and planning the end of this month. I might get that parts washer, thanks for the tip.

 

[yohavos]

I had to put mine off for a year and planning the end of this month. I might get that parts washer, thanks for the tip.

I'd spring for a seal puller before a parts washer, but both would be wonderful.

The brass drift and rubber mallet were helpful too.

 

[JDubble]

For sure those tools are needed for adequate self maintenance during ownership of these rigs.

Did you and William pull apart the birfs and repack/inspect them? What was the evidence that gave the thought for replacing them (did I miss them in the pics)? I know my wheel bearings are due for grease, got the wobble/vibration happening.

 

[JackZilla]

For my birfs, they came packed from Longfields so didn't have to do much there. Mike plans on replacing his axles here pretty soon so we gave them a quick once over. Had to repack the long side because it was full of gear oil. The main objective on Mike's was to replace the oil seal that was leaking. I think this summer when he has more time, he plans on getting back in there and doing an axle replacement.

 

[JDubble]

Ah, forgot that you replaced the birfs with Longs. (I remember reading it now).

I was curious to Mikes as to what lead to the thought/decision to revisit and replace. Scoring, worn out races, just because.... if there were pictures for reference. I don't know what to expect when I tackle mine, the front and rear.

 

[JackZilla]

His driver side oil seal was bad. Knuckle was full of 90W. It was leaking everywhere. Figured while we were in there might as well rebuild it.

 

[Polar Bear]

For my birfs, they came packed from Longfields so didn't have to do much there.

Did you end up going with the part time hubs, or just keep the drive flanges?

 

[JackZilla]

I kept the drive flanges for now. When I have time to figure out the complete part time kit, I might go that route.

 

[JDubble]

I got the bad seal and all would lead to that service. I thought he said ( Mike ) wanted to replace the axles/birfs because it/they were worn?

Forums, internet and text are difficult to convey questions. My apologies for my redundancy and no worries, knowing its all buttoned up. I'll be sure to share my experience if I remember.

 

[JackZilla]

No worries. He does plan on replacing his axles. His vehicle has nearly 300K on it and it looked as though the service we did to the axles was the first since leaving the factory. The outer grooves on his PS axle where the drive flange goes, were rusted and pitted pretty badly. Both Birfs were were worn and pretty loose.

 

[yohavos]

No worries. He does plan on replacing his axles. His vehicle has nearly 300K on it and it looked as though the service we did to the axles was the first since leaving the factory. The outer grooves on his PS axle where the drive flange goes, were rusted and pitted pretty badly. Both Birfs were were worn and pretty loose.

Yup.

Interestingly enough, my passenger side oil seal was in good shape and as such the knuckle itself was free from 90W intrusion. Instead, it was obvious that it had been run without enough grease and/or with some water ingress. The result was a lot of corrosion on the outer axle shaft (as William mentioned) and on various surfaces in the steering knuckle and on the spindle.

My drivers side, where the axle seal failed, was full of nasty "birf soup" but all of the components were in great shape with minimal corrosion.

My inner shafts were in great shape. We didn't break the birfs apart, which was an easy decision based on the corrosion on the outer splines of the outer shafts. I didn't have anything else to replace them with and it needed to go back together, so I shoved new moly in the birf after spraying it out with brake cleaner and hitting it with the air nozzle.

We figured it would be prudent to replace them after 300k anyways. I see longs in my future.

The real take away is that a leaking oil seal looks much worst than it is, and a dry knuckle is much worse than most other things.

 

[JDubble]

Pits, rust and groves! Ah yes, warranted indeed.

That's what the info I was looking. I'm impressed that (what seems like little wear and not catastrophic we need to replace before putting it all together) they lasted as long. Sounds like I'm in the same boat, save up for replacements.

Good work fellas, thanks for the feedback.

 

[yohavos]

Pits, rust and groves! Ah yes, warranted indeed.

That's what the info I was looking. I'm impressed that (what seems like little wear and not catastrophic we need to replace before putting it all together) they lasted as long. Sounds like I'm in the same boat, save up for replacements.

Good work fellas, thanks for the feedback.

No problem!

I'll also say that this is an excellent time to do brakes and tie rod ends. I buggered one of my TRE's popping it off (it needed to be changed badly) but I didn't have a new one yet, so I had to cobb a solution for a day until I could get my hands on a new one.

Now the rig has a front end service and two new tie rod ends.

 

[JackZilla]

The axles would probably last another 200K, but that's not really something you want to risk out on the trail. Speaking from experience, axle problems suck out on the trail. Especially when you're a few hundred miles from home.