Knuckle Rebuild Kit

[RDub]

Reviving an old thread. This may have been answered already but I haven't found it. My assumption is the gasket goes between the backing plate (dust shield) and dust seal per the FSM schematic. My reasoning is brake pad dust. The dust seal is likely there in large part to keep brake dust out of the spindle/hub bearing seal. The backing plate does a good job of keeping brake dust away from the backing plate/spindle interface, and the gasket keeps brake dust from getting behind the dust seal. I could be wrong. Thoughts, please, I'm in the middle of this job and have seen several videos with the gasket installed both ways.

 

[Gretsch]

I did it like the picture in the FSM (included earlier in this thread), not the printed steps. Its been fine for me for a year and a half.

 

[RDub]

Thanks, Gretch. Mine had gaskets stuck to the spindles on the backing plate side when I took them apart. I think I will do what you did when I put it all back together.

 

[Gretsch]

Thanks, Gretch. Mine had gaskets stuck to the spindles on the backing plate side when I took them apart. I think I will do what you did when I put it all back together.

I think mine did too, which was why I was confused. I reasoned that it would be harder to mess up a diagram than some words suggesting the diagram is more accurate. Could look at it the other way that the diagram is harder to fix so they didn't, and fixed it in words. Not sure. I have seen diagrams for both so maybe at some point Toyota figured out a better way to do things. I reasoned that if its good enough for OTRAMM, its good enough for me. With all that, I did it the way of the picture and its worked fine for me. At the end of the day I am not sure it matters. HTH.

 

[RDub]

With you completely.

 

[Major Nelson]

You'll need external snap ring pliers with angled tips to remove the snap ring looks like this:
View attachment 2025698

I wish I had these on the first day I tried with regular snap ring pliers. THese are circlip pliers...and for me a must.

 

[RDub]

Oh, yeah. I bought that exact tool after struggling through with heavily modified snap ring pliers. Working on these rigs is always a great excuse to buy more tools.

 

[g-man]

If only we could here from someone who rebuilt a knuckle that was never taken apart to see what toyota did with this gasket.

 

[Gretsch]

I wish I had these on the first day I tried with regular snap ring pliers. THese are circlip pliers...and for me a must.

I don't know how or why you would do this without circlip pliers.

If only we could here from someone who rebuilt a knuckle that was never taken apart to see what toyota did with this gasket.

While I cannot be 100% certain mine had never been taken apart before I did it, its a pretty good bet it hadn't based on the low mileage of the truck and the state of the 'grease' (modeling clay) in the knuckle when I opened it up. Assuming here that I am correct, there was an outline of a gasket on the spindle suggesting the gasket from the factory was placed on the backside of the backing plate against the spindle counter to what the diagram says. Not sure how I would definitively prove someone else hadn't been in there in my trucks life, but it certainly wasn't recently. I don't do any water crossings with mine so not sure the potential issues with doing this like the FSM diagram in terms of keeping water out, but as for keeping grease in, the FSM diagram is working for me.

You could always just get four of the seals and put them on both sides of the backing plate. Covers all your bases and helps out @cruiseroutfit . Maybe Kurt and crew could kindly chime in here and settle this once and for all. As I mentioned, I am not sure it much matters which way you do it. HTH

 

[RDub]

I was able to easily remove the axle clips using heavy duty snap ring pliers by flipping a set of 90-degree inserts around so the bends were against the ring lands. Just for fun I tried to reinstall one of the clips as a test and that method not work at all for installation. So I fooled myself and got lucky on disassembly, and ended up with a shiny new cool tool for reassembly and future wrenching.

 

[Gretsch]

I was able to easily remove the axle clips using heavy duty snap ring pliers by flipping a set of 90-degree inserts around so the bends were against the ring lands. Just for fun I tried to reinstall one of the clips as a test and that method not work at all for installation. So I fooled myself and got lucky on disassembly, and ended up with a shiny new cool tool for reassembly and future wrenching.

I think this was exactly how things went for me. Got it off easily then realized the advantage of having the right tool for the job. Ordered circlip pliers shortly after that.

 

[WSOPgold2012]

'

 

[g-man]

I'm not sure if putting 2 sets of gaskets in place is a great idea. One thing is that it will move the spindle further away from the hub. There is a shoulder on the spindle that it has to ride on. It's prob just a mm and maybe doesn't matter.

One more reason I think the schematic is wrong ...is that the image is just easier to draw with the smaller gasket in front of the larger dust cover. I mean if they draw the gasket behind the dust cover, they would have to have made broken lines for part of it that was behind the dust cover and that would lead to confusion. Just a guess.

 

[iansplatinum]

Just adding a data point that my 100k mile 60 with no major services (according to the family that's owned it since 1988) had the gasket between spindle and shield, which is not what the diagram shows. I put it back together how it was from factory. Two gaskets probably more robust but also probably unnecessary.