Knuckle Shims question (4 Viewers)

[badsamaritan]

I have a 12/73 and I am swapping from Drums to FJ60 discs. I bought a OEM centering tool and used the FSM and watched OTRAMM's videos to help guide me through the process. Here's my numbers (in inches):

A=6.587
B=6.496
C=.091
D=.045 (this seems really low)
E=-.029 (this shouldnt be a negative number)
F=.12 (not reliable).

I've re-measured a couple of times and these numbers are more or less repeatable. I'm not sure why "D" is such a low value. Only thing I can think of that I am doing wrong is maybe I need to flip the tool around in the knuckle and see if that gives me a higher value. Any other suggestions? I have no shims to compare to.

 

[Alex Waddell]

I just did this myself on an FJ40 axle using FJ60 knuckles.
Your numbers and my numbers are close except for the D dimension which I think are low.
I would suggest redoing the D measurement.
And put some Dykem on the shaft you are scribing so you can see the marks better.

.

 

[Fast Eddy]

E=-.029 (this shouldnt be a negative number)

I don't think it's that it shouldn't be a negative number, but that you can't correct for a negative number without machining something. You can call it a zero and the seals will take up that amount of slack.

 

[badsamaritan]

I don't think it's that it shouldn't be a negative number, but that you can't correct for a negative number without machining something. You can call it a zero and the seals will take up that amount of slack.

I reset everything up and got a similar number. Are you thinking no shims? Or split the C value as close as I can between the top and the bottom caps?

 

[Fast Eddy]

You can't have a negative shim, so E becomes 0 and all the shim thickness goes on the other side. You could take .029 off the knuckle side of the bottom race and re-run the numbers if you want it to be perfect.

That said, did you use a Japanese knuckle kit? Are you sure the races are seated fully?

 

[badsamaritan]

Kit was from Marlin as I really wanted to use their axle seals. Bearings were Japanese. I'm going to re-run the numbers again see what I come up with. Thanks for the help

 

[badsamaritan]

@Fast Eddy, sorry to bring this up again, I had to disappear for a few days for work. So "E" (lower knuckle shim) goes to 0, and the top knuckle cap would get the full .091.

Then if I wanted to I could subtract .029 from my top shim thickness to make it perfect (which would be .062)?

I ordered a couple of shim packs from Cruiser Outfitters so I could make this correctly.

 

[Fast Eddy]

I don't think you can make it perfect without removing .029 from somewhere. I'd really have to do some thinking before committing to where that would be, and I may have had a couple , so I don't want you getting out the grinder on my recommendations.

According to the measurements, where the E shims go (bottom, as I recall), -0.029 says you need to remove some material to make it perfect. IMO.

Since all your parts didn't come on the same rig, or even the same axle, it doesn't surprise me that you might have to do this to make it perfect. I'm pretty sure the axle seal will be fine taking up this tiny amount of difference. Again, IMO.

 

[pbgbottle]

I post this kind of info years ago on my thread somewhere. I was disappointed in the tool it is not that accurate I got quite a bunch of different numbers also. Does everything fit right in the knuckle and the bushings mine was a bit loose like miniscule I snugged up the fit of the sst. In all places it fit to finally get some consistent readings. And went with what I thought made sense I did have negative numbers at first also
I can’t remember what was causing the inconsistency,there was ever so slightly slop for lack of better words that through it all out of whack. I feel your pain. I got it done got some consistent measurements that made sense and also decided to add Marlin crawlers heavy dusty axle seal and haven’t had a leak since. I also had to go to Toyota and buy oem shims as the generic cheap ones that come in rebuild kits didn’t offer what I needed
The oem Toyota shims are actually quite sexy. ,,lol. Good luck you will figure it out. I was just always a little let down by the sst. I thought it was going to be a magical tool. It wasn’t. It left to much mystery in the equation ,need no slop anywhere in sst spacers

 

[Alex Waddell]

You can buy just the shims you need here.

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[badsamaritan]

I set everything back up again and thought maybe my lower bearing race looked a little cockeyed. I knocked it out and re-seated it and got better numbers. D is no longer a negative value. I think the top shim thickness is a bit much (.08x) but the numbers I got were mostly repeatable.

I also found the original shims in the bottom of my catch pan buried under oil. I measured the top stack of shims and they were .07x with the drum knuckles.