Knuckle/Axle rebuild... er pop pop???

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Dan_J-spec_fj62

Dan_J-spec_fj62

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Jun 25, 2003
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Okinawa, Japan
well hmm..

I got my order from Cdan!!! great service!! and i tore into my left front knuckle yesterday. I replaced all the seals, bearings and bearing races... including the inner axle seal. i troqued everything to FSM specs. now i did NOT seperate the inner axle from the birfild joint, because Cdan did not include the clip in his "Knuckle Kit" because most people don't seperate when they are just replacing bearings.... anywhoo as i was cleaning the birf (unseperated) i noticed that the cage that holds the balls inplace had some chipping on the very edges of the cage. after a quick call to Cdan for advice i packed grease into everything put it all back togeather. Mind you the chips were very small and i couldn't find any of the chips. I got it all assembled and took it for test drive... nice in high range quiet no clikking at full left or right turn.

now for the big question LOW range... clikkity clickkety even in shallow turns.... so how much cliking i normal in low??? i realize that the trasfercase is now locked... but hell i've driven a fully factory loocked fj62 and not a peep from the birfs ... or anywhere eles... (by fully locked i mean standard split case with factory cable lockers in each diff).

ok so point as follows

1. 1996 FZJ 80 with factrory lockers.. no lift and P265/70R16 tires. 161,*** miles on the clock

2. Cdan sells great stuff and had i asked would have happily included the C-clips. they just arn't in his standard kit.

3. i still need to to the right side knuckle. but no sound from the right.

4. replacement birfs are $$$$ wow (even from cdan) has anyone tried the Newfield from MAF others??

5. Christo at slee sugested swapping sides with the birfs... and since i still havn't done the right side i still may do that....


6. last point ... my wife had the digital camera... so no pics as of yet... but when i do the right side .... I'll have the camera!!!!

thanks
dan
 
oh one other thing i was having a little popping from the left front in high range before the rebuild... but i think that was more from diff oil getting into the brif and making a nice soup.

dan
 
Dan,

>> so how much cliking i normal in low??? <<

"Normal" would be no clicking in low and no clicking in high.

-B-
 
ahh yes i guessed that.... hmm now what... bite the bullet and buy new birfs???

dan
 
Dan,

I'd do the side to side swap before dropping the money on new birfs. I'm planning to do this next time I repack the front end. I am actually curious if anybody's actually done the swap on noisy birfs and had them quiet down? Obviously it's working because Christo's doing it successfully. Christo? Anybody got an actual report? Thanks.

DougM
 
I have tried both MAF and Newfields.
I couldn't get the ABS ring on the MAF, after alot of pounding I got it on but it would fall off. The replacement that MAF sent out didn't work either.

I now have the Newfield in HI range hear a slight click in the right wheel once in a while when turning sharp.
In low with the front diff locked I get a lot of clicking on a hard turn.

As they have a Life Time Warranty, I am not toooo worried at this time.

As for your chips, if you are going to swap them side to side, get the clips.
You can't get ALL the grease and worn metal out from birfield unless you take them apart.

When you take the other one out, clean it as good as you can. Then take it apart and see what is left in there.

When you order new clips, get a Life Time Supply, that way you will NEVER be short.
 
Thread hijack to start a poll


Should I add those in all the time? they are not a lot of money but some folks don't like extra stuff hanging around and they feel like they were sold something they "didn't need" Since most jobs do not include birf removal I'm trying to kep the cost down.


Opinions?
 
I vote you throw them in for free. :D

-B-
 
Dan,

If they're only a few bucks, I'd toss them in. Many of the 80 series are now up in mileage to the point where if they haven't had the birfs apart, the next repack would dictate it be done. Especially if people are going to start swapping them side to side as I am. Still looking to hear from someone who's done this (or had Christo's shop do it) and gone from clicky to no clicky?

DougM
 
I say toss 'em in. I always need that sort of thing, usually whem I'm working on a project Sunday afternoon. It's nice to have seals, paper gaskets, c-clips, unique bolts etc around to save an emergency run to the parts store. At this point, my inventory is better than my local dealer.

Now for a question-Is there a point at which it makes sense to change the birfs? Mine don't click and have been greased twice since 40k (almost 90k now) but If they always get noisy at 120k, I could see just replacing them at the next re-pack and keeping the old ones as spares. Sort of thinking along the lines of Rick's pre-emptive headgasket repair.
 
>> Still looking to hear from someone who's done this ... <<

Doug,

Rogue swapped sides. As I recall, his were already clicking pretty bad. The swap helped for a while. He'll have to give us specifics as to how "bad" they were clicking before the swap, how many miles since the swap, and how they're sounding now.

-B-
 
IMO everybody should disassemble the birfs, it does not add much time or cost compared to the rest of the job, there is a large cavity inside the birf "bell" that would be hard to fully clean and repack without disassembly, this also allows for swapping sides, I do not think that swapping sides will fix a bad birf maybe quiet the symptoms but the birf is still worn, swapping sides will spread the future wear out if your birf is still good, kind of like rotating your tires, each position puts a different wear pattern on the tire, (especially front vs rear) rotating is not going to fix a already worn tire but will slow down/spread out future wear for an overall longer lasting tire

Cdrew, why would you want to replace a good well maintained birf? Seams like they usually give warning before blowing is there is no major wear or symptoms it can go until there are problems, perhaps if you have the cash you can buy new birfs and keep them as spares, replace them only when they start clicking? I guess if you wheel hard with larger tires and/or gearing you might run into a sudden catastrophic failure taking the spindle and possibly other parts with it, the rest of us seam to get some warning first

Just my opinion take it for what it is worth (not much)
 
sooooo... the general feeling is swap sides and buy an extra set if i can't stand the cliking anymore ... or i blow a birf...

ok
one other question ... does the new birf come with the star and balls and cage... or do you need to swap them from the old birf??
 
A new birfield comes with the star, cage, balls, and bell. Everything in the assembly.

-B-
 
If my birfs were noisy I wouldn't bother servicing the knuckles until I was ready to replace them. Which is a backwards way of saying that I wouldn't go to the trouble of servicing the front end and then reinstall worn birfs. If you go off road you will be glad to have spares.
 
CDan - I vote you add the clips as a standard, i'll be buying the kit from you as soon as i get my spares sent to Bobby Long, Brad.
 
Wow, there is always a timely post here every time I do something. I just did a further birf swap on one side this weekend because my ds rebuilt oem birf started clicking after a repack in nov. I don't believe there was any old grease in the birf because it was soaked overnight in solvent and it had plenty of grease when I got it out of there. Maybe swapping sides would have helped, but since birfs can be inverted anyway, I am not sure. The real problem is that once they start clicking, it is probably too late for a repack to stop it and, for me at least, a rebuilt oem birf has a high chance of premature clicking. The only real solution I can see is to go with new oem, although I think Bjowett here was trying out the MAF japanese aftermarkets.

I strongly agree that Dan should include the clips in the standard kit. The birf/axle separation is way easier than I thought. Just watch your head if you use an 8' hollow galvanized fence post like I did (actually just don't do that ;) ).
 
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