Knuckle ball housing wear scoring ??

[mudgudgeon]

I would guess the trunion bearing cap and/or knuckle studs were loose at some point, or maybe a busted birf

Put in new spindles for sure.

The damage in the housing, just clean up sharp edges and burrs with a Dremel.
The birf looks fine, also deburr it, and tear it down and clean it fully

 

[MissahPapaJ]

Yeah if I can’t find anything then I might be up for it depending on price and location. Down south where about and do you know asking price for it by chance? I have some space I could possibly store for tear down if part out is the route I end up going.

for sure, I live in Santa Barbara county, think the guy wants 3500 for the vehicle but if he’s not getting any part out inquires by now I’d bet he’d take 3k. But I’ll keep my eye out for a decent axle housing. I bought one for 1500 shipped recently easy to install.

 

[Broski]

I would say excessive wear to the brass bushing in the spindle.

 

[LC95]

I would guess the trunion bearing cap and/or knuckle studs were loose at some point, or maybe a busted birf

Put in new spindles for sure.

The damage in the housing, just clean up sharp edges and burrs with a Dremel.
The birf looks fine, also deburr it, and tear it down and clean it fully

At this point iI’m considering just trying that out possibly and giving it a shot. I just don’t want to damage the new spindles over time once I put those in. Especially if I got a new birf for it. I think I’m going to take the passenger side apart , inspect it throughly for any damage and possibly try to repair, clean , and just send it .

 

[Broski]

The spindles ride up and down with the hub so I don’t see any chance of them getting damaged. The one you showed pictures of both bearings had spun on the spindle.
Did you find any shims when you remove the trunnion bearings.
There’s usually one on the top and none on the bottom.
Even if your knuckle bolts came loose, I can’t see that allowing the knuckle to move up enough to do the damage.
The brass bushing in the spindle is what keeps the axle and Burfield centered. Yours looks like it has excessive scarring.
I still think that’s your issue

 

[LC95]

The spindles ride up and down with the hub so I don’t see any chance of them getting damaged. The one you showed pictures of both bearings had spun on the spindle.
Did you find any shims when you remove the trunnion bearings.
There’s usually one on the top and none on the bottom.
Even if your knuckle bolts came loose, I can’t see that allowing the knuckle to move up enough to do the damage.
The brass bushing in the spindle is what keeps the axle and Burfield centered. Yours looks like it has excessive scarring.
I still think that’s your issue

Yeah I found factory oem .20 shim on top for trunnion bearings and none on the bottom. Knuckle bolts were not loose at all upon removal. I do believe the inner nut torque/ wheel bearing preload wasn’t set correct from previous owner due to the grooves found in washers and excessive play from 12-6 o’clock when tires were mounted before disassembly.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I do believe the inner nut torque/ wheel bearing preload wasn’t set correct from previous owner due to the grooves found in washers and excessive play from 12-6 o’clock when tires were mounted before disassembly.

This sounds typical for damage caused by loose bearings, spindle damage is also typical.
I don't see the damage to the bossing being related to the loose wheel bearings. I think they are two different issues.

If @Broski is right and the spindke bushing is totally trashed, maybe this combined with extremely loose wheel bearings caused the housing damage, but at that point, driving the vehicle would be like trying to walk a drunk hippopotamus through a roadside sobriety test

 

[Malleus]

I think you're past the point where root cause analysis is valuable. Just replace all the trashed parts, clean up the housing and forget about it.