Knuckle repair ? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter atlshaun
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Hokie LX
SILVER Star
I don't clean out the actual axle tubes when doing a knuckle job. However, the knuckle ball should be cleaned inside and out once you get the knuckle off. I generally stuff a rag into where the axle seal is and go to town with towels to make sure all of the old grease is out.
- Thread starter
- #3
Thx for the reply. I planned to do that but was curious if there was a way to remove the diff cover and push shop towels through the tubes to push as much of this nasty green sludge out of my system as possible. If not no big deal I had already planned to “flush” the front axle a few times with new diff oil before filling it until the next scheduled change.
Hokie LX
SILVER Star
I think if you just drain the oil out and refill you’ll be fine. The oil seeps out of the knuckles more than the grease seeping into the center section.
Realistically you’d need to remove the center section and axle shafts to really clean the tubes out.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thank you. I’ll just stick to my original plan to flush out the grime at 500 mile intervals then get back on the regular interval cycle.
Hokie LX
SILVER Star
If you’re not running with your front locked then that won’t do much good and there’s no reason to drain and refill over and over.
You’ll need to run with the front hubs locked so the internals actually spin if you want to spin the oil up and perform any flushing action inside. I would just drain and refill and leave as is until the next service interval after you get some wheeling/off-road miles in with the front driveline spinning.
- Thread starter
- #7
Yep I should have clarified that part.
kevin in okinawa
SILVER Star
Like Hokie said, don't waste new gear oil on the front diff by "flushing" it, it's not a radiator or engine...not the same concept. Search for the 60 series chassis FSM on this site, download and read, it's what you are looking for as far as instructions on how to do the knuckle repair/service.
If you're worried about the condition of the gear oil in the housing, you'll have to disassemble the knuckle/hubs and pull the third member.
If you're worried about the condition of the gear oil in the housing, you'll have to disassemble the knuckle/hubs and pull the third member.
- Thread starter
- #9
I have the FSM but I can see how my post was not clear on my end. I am doing the knuckle repair I was curious if there was a cure/SOP for the remaining gray/green sludge in the axle housing and front diff when I pull / replace the seal during the knuckle rebuild.
As others have said, to really clean the interior of the axle housing you'll need to pull the front diff. With that out of the way you'll have good access to run a rag through. Front axle housing does not have a diff cover and even if it did the guts of the differential would prevent you from pushing a rag or towel through the axle housing.
If the gear oil is contaminated with grease check your axle breather for a clog. I recently went through this on an 80 series and a clogged breather, and perhaps overfilled knuckles, allowed grease to be sucked into the axle housing. Since I had the differential out and was rebuilding the knuckles I sprayed brake cleaner into the axle tube and shoved shop rags through to the diff cavity using a section of PVC.
If the gear oil is contaminated with grease check your axle breather for a clog. I recently went through this on an 80 series and a clogged breather, and perhaps overfilled knuckles, allowed grease to be sucked into the axle housing. Since I had the differential out and was rebuilding the knuckles I sprayed brake cleaner into the axle tube and shoved shop rags through to the diff cavity using a section of PVC.
kevin in okinawa
SILVER Star
for the nasty MolyB grease in the hub area use rubber gloves and lots of paper towels. Past the knuckle/hub, there shouldn't be any grease in the actual axle housing; usually if there's a seal problem there it's the gear oil from the diff making its way into the hub, not the other way around. If for some reason there might be, just use a stick/rod and wad up a rag onto the end and "plunge" it...I hope you get the idea. If you're talking the knuckle all the way off, do you intend to replace the inner oil seals? you should while you have it all apart. Be sure to have a torque wrench, a brass drift for the hub cone washers, and a fish scale to measure bearing preload.
Last edited:
