Knuckle Backing Plate Oddity?

[Stickboy]

So I'm doing my first knuckle/wheel bearing rebuild and going along fine when I get to step 2. Remove the brake cylinder but don't do like the book shows and disconnect the hardline but undo the bracket from the backing plate (12mm bolts x3) and hang it up on the spring. Sounds great, that's how my jetta's work but maybe I have the odd 60 here.

The little bracket that holds the brakeline is riveted in 2 spots through the backing plate and bolted (12mm) in the other. So what I had to do was undo the hardline this once to remove the components and when I got down to the backing plate I cut the rivets off and will weld some low profile bolts going through the other side so I can remove in the future w/o this PITA.

I've seen several folks mention not removing the brake line in write ups on knuckle rebuilds. Do they have a different setup?

Am I missing a really simple solution that I turned into a bigger issue?

thanks,
-mike

 

[Jim_Phillips]

Mike

I am in the process of doing this job myself. I have the exact same set up on mine - the calliper is riveted to the dust shield. You can work around this. The calliper will come off the rotor and there is just enough room to slip out the spindle through the dust shield to get into the knuckle. I am just waiting for new rotors before finishing the job and have managed to get the spindle back onto the knuckle. I hung the calliper with dust shield attached on a piece of string to the top of the shock.

one other thing.. I found it a real ball ache fitting the felt, metal ring and rubber seal. Basically, when the felt is new, the bolts only just poke through which means it is difficult to line them all up with the holes on the back of the knuckle.

What you really need is to get the bolts lined up, then jiggle the seals around to get them in place before tightening up. I discovered that the bolts for the free wheel hub are the same thread but about twice as long. I used these bolts to poke through the felt and then just turned a couple of times into the holes. Once everything is seated in the right place, just remove the long bolts and replace one by one with the proper ones. This might make more sence when you get to this part...

Good luck, Jim

 

[Landpimp]

I recall there is a rubber hose that you can use to bypass the metal hard line. Its a silly disign and the 80 series uses just a rubber line.

 

[jesterb]

I went ahead and took my calipers off. My brakes needed to be bled anyway.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

I went ahead and took my calipers off. My brakes needed to be bled anyway.

I totally agree. Just open up the system and disassemble. I ran new and longer rubber lines directly to the caliper on my FJ40. I put the 60 back to Toyota specs. Both work fine. Bleeding the brakes is a 5 minute job. You should probably replace the rubber soft lines anyway if it's more than 5 years old.

 

[Stickboy]

Ended up with a good fix. Welded 1/4-20x1 bolts through the backing plate and ground them down. Now the little bracket that holds the brake line can be removed from the back of the backing plate in the future w/o disconnecting the lines.
-mike

 

[jesterb]

Very cool idea. Now go bleed your brakes

 

[KLF]

You really should be replacing all your brake fluid every 2-3 years anyway, so this is a good time to do it.