I decided to do a knuckle rebuild after seeing my knuckles go from bad to worse. At first, the knuckle housing seemed to be wet with grease/oil. Then, I started to see really thin oil dripping off of the knuckle housing screws on the bottom. Marlin Crawler sold a knuckle rebuild kit and from reading mud I went ahead and purchased their knuckle rebuild kit.
My auto mechanic experience stems from owning a cruiser since early 2012. Lots of work, but damn I love it. Installed a tranny cooler, did the rodney flush (learned from you guys, an indispensable wealth of cruiser knowledge), replaced fuel pump (gas everywhere!), replaced drive shaft u-joints, and did regular maintenance stuff. Even then, I was kind of nervous when diving into this project--so during my holiday time off I decided that I should just take the plunge and pull that axle apart. I get a lot of my help from my dad--who doesn't have a lot of mechanic experience BUT he does have a garage, lots of tools, and beer he needs help with. So, that's where I do most of my work (plus, they don't allow you to do anything to your car in the parking garage where I live
)
Day 1
=====
Previously, I read up on mud and took a look at these guides (which are good but some nuances here and there):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3CI4mmEv6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-rJRpjVEs
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/AxleRebuild.shtml <- fantastic guide
I had doubts about using the brass drift on the cone washers but it really did work, and only after a couple strikes. But, then again, this cruiser has been in Southern California all it's life and doesn't have rust where it hurts the most.
Pulled the locking hub and pulled the wheel hub (deal with this later.)
Everything was going smoothly until we got to the backing plate. There's a brake line bracket that is riveted onto the backing plate preventing removal unless you remove the brake line. Seemed like a silly design but a bolt for the bracket (which was perhaps designed AFTER Toyota designed the backing plate) in that position would not clear the brake rotor. I didn't want to remove the brake line and add work to an already lengthy job. So, we decided to drill out the rivets and replace them with bolts. Mind you, we replaced them with button head type bolts to clear the rotor once it's put back on.
We got to the axle and pulled it. The knuckle hub was a bear to remove. Firstly, the top arm piece did not want to come off. Even with the nuts and cone washers removed, something was holding it in place. So, we move to the bottom piece and it came off in a jiffy. I used a punch from the bottom hole to punch the top out. Sure enough, it came out, with the inner part of the top knuckle bearing. It took forever and a lot of pb blaster to remove that inner bearing part off the arm stud. Oh, and we marked the shims and reused them (even though there were quite a few shiny new shims in the Marlin Cralwer kit). Off the knuckle hub came.
Now, I expected this job to be messy (and stinky). It was messy, VERY messy. Make sure that you have extra shop towels. You can never run out of those. Grease and grime will be everywhere. Everything cleaned up fairly nice.
Popped out the knuckle races, removed the old seal and installed the new Yukon bearing races and the new Marlin Crawler provided seal. Made sure to add grease to the backside of the seal. Installed the felt (greased it up), rubber wiper, and metal ring in that order onto the knuckle and then installed the knuckle hub (with the new Yukon bearings that seated nicely in their new races). I was surprised how easy everything went together. Torqued the nuts on top and bottom to spec and tested the pre-load at the arm with a fish scale.
Onto the birfield. I couldn't quite get the birfield apart with the pipe I had (2" diameter) so I called it a night.
Day 2
=====
Managed to get a 4' x 1.5" pipe from home depot (which didn't want to take the previous pipe I had bought from them back but I pressed and they relented). First try, picked the pipe up while holding onto the birfield with the axle in the pipe dropping it from a foot off the ground onto a piece of wood, off the axle came. The c-clip was destroyed and broke into two pieces during this process. Had to fish it out of the birfield cup (if that's what you call it). I didn't take it down to it's finite parts, just to this point and filled it with moly grease (Red Line Synthetic CV-2). I had a replacement c-clip I ordered from SOR and clipped it into place. At first I tried the pipe clamp method to compress the clip far enough to fit into the birf. The hose clamp tightening screw kept hitting the side of the birf, which allowed the c-clip to expand prematurely. Gave this a couple more tries (about 10-20) and gave up on this method. Then we tried the zip tie method. But, our zip ties were fairly narrow and the c-clip kept popping out. Had about 100 zip ties in the package but I wasn't prepared to try it 100 times. Did a bit more research and tried the method where you use a pipe clamp to compress another pipe clamp without the tensioning mechanism to get the necessary clearance for the birf. Did not work either. Also tried the FSM screwdriver method but it seems like you have to have 10 hands just to compress that c-clip using that method. Gave up out of frustration.
Decided to take the other end down and install the races/seal at the axle and call it a night.
Day 3
=====
Attempted to compress the c-clip for the birfield a couple of times and gave up again. So, I decided to get some outside help. Pep boys stared at me like I was some kind of alien holding an inner axle in one hand and a birfield in the other. Finally, I decided to go to the auto hobby shop at the Naval Station. Put the birf in a vice and started to use the screwdriver method. A couple of guys got interested in seeing me try to push this axle into the birf using elbow grease and a screwdriver. Before I knew it, I had all sorts of help. At one point, 4 guys were trying to compress the clip with screwdrivers while another guy (standing on the table) was trying to push down on the birf. Finally, with the help of a gentleman I'll be eternally grateful to, we compressed the clip to a manageable state while maintaining pressure on the axle. One hit on the top of the axle from a dead-blow and the axle seated. Relief.
So much work and so much time were dedicated to that single birfield that I decided not to take apart the other side and pack it with new grease as best as I could.
Installed everything up to the spindle and ran into another problem. After installing the new races and new inner wheel bearing, I went to install the new Marlin Crawler provided wheel hub seal. On the videos listed above, they seem to tap the hub seal in easily. However, I couldn't do so. It's like my wheel hub is distorted... but I had no problem with hammering in the races. That, or the seal is way too big for the hole I'm trying to hammer it into. I'm using a race driver set BTW. Then I started to use just the hammer. One side starts to go in and then it gets to a point where one side of the seal gets so distorted that it's not a perfect circle anymore. Here's a picture of the seal after I pulled it after not accepting it as final work (with the assortment of pipe clamps from the birfield fiasco):
Trying to hammer it into this guy:
I'm planning on getting a couple of seals from an auto hobby shop tomorrow so I can finish this thing up. So I'm at an impasse at the spindle. The only things I have left are the wheel hub and then locking hubs.
At any rate, this is going to be a four day job and I think I'm on the homestretch. A couple of snags here but nothing that couldn't be solved.
A couple questions:
Why won't my wheel hub seal go in? Am I doing it the wrong way? I tried using a block of wood instead of the race driver set but I was getting wood chunks everywhere.
How tight should the small bolts that hold the felt and wiper onto the back of the knuckle hub be?
Should I be worried about packing one birf withe the axle separated and the other with the axle on?
Oh and here's a couple more pics of the finished job. I don't have any pre-job pics because I wasn't thinking and I didn't want to touch my cell phone during this dirty job. Oh and check out the buttonhead bolts in place of the rivets that hold the brake line bracket onto the backing plate.
Bonus
My auto mechanic experience stems from owning a cruiser since early 2012. Lots of work, but damn I love it. Installed a tranny cooler, did the rodney flush (learned from you guys, an indispensable wealth of cruiser knowledge), replaced fuel pump (gas everywhere!), replaced drive shaft u-joints, and did regular maintenance stuff. Even then, I was kind of nervous when diving into this project--so during my holiday time off I decided that I should just take the plunge and pull that axle apart. I get a lot of my help from my dad--who doesn't have a lot of mechanic experience BUT he does have a garage, lots of tools, and beer he needs help with. So, that's where I do most of my work (plus, they don't allow you to do anything to your car in the parking garage where I live
)Day 1
=====
Previously, I read up on mud and took a look at these guides (which are good but some nuances here and there):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3CI4mmEv6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-rJRpjVEs
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks/AxleRebuild.shtml <- fantastic guide
I had doubts about using the brass drift on the cone washers but it really did work, and only after a couple strikes. But, then again, this cruiser has been in Southern California all it's life and doesn't have rust where it hurts the most.
Pulled the locking hub and pulled the wheel hub (deal with this later.)
Everything was going smoothly until we got to the backing plate. There's a brake line bracket that is riveted onto the backing plate preventing removal unless you remove the brake line. Seemed like a silly design but a bolt for the bracket (which was perhaps designed AFTER Toyota designed the backing plate) in that position would not clear the brake rotor. I didn't want to remove the brake line and add work to an already lengthy job. So, we decided to drill out the rivets and replace them with bolts. Mind you, we replaced them with button head type bolts to clear the rotor once it's put back on.
We got to the axle and pulled it. The knuckle hub was a bear to remove. Firstly, the top arm piece did not want to come off. Even with the nuts and cone washers removed, something was holding it in place. So, we move to the bottom piece and it came off in a jiffy. I used a punch from the bottom hole to punch the top out. Sure enough, it came out, with the inner part of the top knuckle bearing. It took forever and a lot of pb blaster to remove that inner bearing part off the arm stud. Oh, and we marked the shims and reused them (even though there were quite a few shiny new shims in the Marlin Cralwer kit). Off the knuckle hub came.
Now, I expected this job to be messy (and stinky). It was messy, VERY messy. Make sure that you have extra shop towels. You can never run out of those. Grease and grime will be everywhere. Everything cleaned up fairly nice.
Popped out the knuckle races, removed the old seal and installed the new Yukon bearing races and the new Marlin Crawler provided seal. Made sure to add grease to the backside of the seal. Installed the felt (greased it up), rubber wiper, and metal ring in that order onto the knuckle and then installed the knuckle hub (with the new Yukon bearings that seated nicely in their new races). I was surprised how easy everything went together. Torqued the nuts on top and bottom to spec and tested the pre-load at the arm with a fish scale.
Onto the birfield. I couldn't quite get the birfield apart with the pipe I had (2" diameter) so I called it a night.
Day 2
=====
Managed to get a 4' x 1.5" pipe from home depot (which didn't want to take the previous pipe I had bought from them back but I pressed and they relented). First try, picked the pipe up while holding onto the birfield with the axle in the pipe dropping it from a foot off the ground onto a piece of wood, off the axle came. The c-clip was destroyed and broke into two pieces during this process. Had to fish it out of the birfield cup (if that's what you call it). I didn't take it down to it's finite parts, just to this point and filled it with moly grease (Red Line Synthetic CV-2). I had a replacement c-clip I ordered from SOR and clipped it into place. At first I tried the pipe clamp method to compress the clip far enough to fit into the birf. The hose clamp tightening screw kept hitting the side of the birf, which allowed the c-clip to expand prematurely. Gave this a couple more tries (about 10-20) and gave up on this method. Then we tried the zip tie method. But, our zip ties were fairly narrow and the c-clip kept popping out. Had about 100 zip ties in the package but I wasn't prepared to try it 100 times. Did a bit more research and tried the method where you use a pipe clamp to compress another pipe clamp without the tensioning mechanism to get the necessary clearance for the birf. Did not work either. Also tried the FSM screwdriver method but it seems like you have to have 10 hands just to compress that c-clip using that method. Gave up out of frustration.
Decided to take the other end down and install the races/seal at the axle and call it a night.
Day 3
=====
Attempted to compress the c-clip for the birfield a couple of times and gave up again. So, I decided to get some outside help. Pep boys stared at me like I was some kind of alien holding an inner axle in one hand and a birfield in the other. Finally, I decided to go to the auto hobby shop at the Naval Station. Put the birf in a vice and started to use the screwdriver method. A couple of guys got interested in seeing me try to push this axle into the birf using elbow grease and a screwdriver. Before I knew it, I had all sorts of help. At one point, 4 guys were trying to compress the clip with screwdrivers while another guy (standing on the table) was trying to push down on the birf. Finally, with the help of a gentleman I'll be eternally grateful to, we compressed the clip to a manageable state while maintaining pressure on the axle. One hit on the top of the axle from a dead-blow and the axle seated. Relief.
So much work and so much time were dedicated to that single birfield that I decided not to take apart the other side and pack it with new grease as best as I could.
Installed everything up to the spindle and ran into another problem. After installing the new races and new inner wheel bearing, I went to install the new Marlin Crawler provided wheel hub seal. On the videos listed above, they seem to tap the hub seal in easily. However, I couldn't do so. It's like my wheel hub is distorted... but I had no problem with hammering in the races. That, or the seal is way too big for the hole I'm trying to hammer it into. I'm using a race driver set BTW. Then I started to use just the hammer. One side starts to go in and then it gets to a point where one side of the seal gets so distorted that it's not a perfect circle anymore. Here's a picture of the seal after I pulled it after not accepting it as final work (with the assortment of pipe clamps from the birfield fiasco):
Trying to hammer it into this guy:
I'm planning on getting a couple of seals from an auto hobby shop tomorrow so I can finish this thing up. So I'm at an impasse at the spindle. The only things I have left are the wheel hub and then locking hubs.
At any rate, this is going to be a four day job and I think I'm on the homestretch. A couple of snags here but nothing that couldn't be solved.
A couple questions:
Why won't my wheel hub seal go in? Am I doing it the wrong way? I tried using a block of wood instead of the race driver set but I was getting wood chunks everywhere.
How tight should the small bolts that hold the felt and wiper onto the back of the knuckle hub be?
Should I be worried about packing one birf withe the axle separated and the other with the axle on?
Oh and here's a couple more pics of the finished job. I don't have any pre-job pics because I wasn't thinking and I didn't want to touch my cell phone during this dirty job. Oh and check out the buttonhead bolts in place of the rivets that hold the brake line bracket onto the backing plate.
Bonus
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