In the process of restoring my '74, I pulled the front axles to replace the bearings and axle seals. I asked in a previous post how to determine if the knuckle bearings need to be replaced as I was not eager to get that deep into the job. The general consensus was that if you felt something other than smooth operation when turning the knuckle, they probably need to be replaced. I thought mine felt fine so I proceeded with cleaning and POR-15'ing the axle and knuckles. After removed the tie-rod for painting, I noticed that now there was indeed some catching when rotating the knuckles. I also noted that my nice paint job had dried. After debating it for a few days I decided to go ahead and finish the job and repaint once it was complete. Seems everyone likes to post knuckle rebuild images, I suppose to share in the misery of the job or as proof of some right of passage. To uphold the tradition, here are mine.
I was dreading removing the cone washers more than anything else. I found a removal recommendation that worked great. Using a brass drift, I struck the top of the studs a few times with a hammer and the washers popped right out. Couldn't have been easier.
Removing the steering arm and bottom plate. These required more strikes with the drift than the cone washers did.
35 years of grease can never look good. And yes, I kept up with shim locations.
Driving out the races.
After initial cleanup.
Here's the interesting part. Look how bad the races are. No wonder they didn't rotate smoothly. The worse wear was on the bottom races. I would have thought the top ones would receive more load.
Rebuild kits are on the way from Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters (a great guy to purchase from btw).
I was dreading removing the cone washers more than anything else. I found a removal recommendation that worked great. Using a brass drift, I struck the top of the studs a few times with a hammer and the washers popped right out. Couldn't have been easier.
Removing the steering arm and bottom plate. These required more strikes with the drift than the cone washers did.
35 years of grease can never look good. And yes, I kept up with shim locations.
Driving out the races.
After initial cleanup.
Here's the interesting part. Look how bad the races are. No wonder they didn't rotate smoothly. The worse wear was on the bottom races. I would have thought the top ones would receive more load.
Rebuild kits are on the way from Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters (a great guy to purchase from btw).
