Hey, been squeezing in my first knuckle rebuild in after work and around family commitments, and it's going "OK."
I'm doing this mainly due to some braking problems--pulsing/vibration when braking hard or from freeway speeds, and a fairly strong pull to the left (just when braking.) I changed out w/ new fluid and bled the lines which firmed up the pedal nicely but the pulsation and pull remained, so onto the next thing...
No records on when the last front end service was but the PO I bought the truck from last month had it for four years and 30K miles and didn't touch it so it seemed prudent to do the knuckle if I'm going in as far as the rotors anyway.
The passenger side looked OK grease wise, the driver side less good (drivers side was also greenish slightly slimy grease vs passenger side grey decent looking.)
Driver side--does this look like oil seal failure or just old grease? I will be replacing the oil seal on both sides, have the Cruiser Outfitters kit w/ new bearings...so I don't think it matters, but just curious.
Next Q--there are some marks on the Birfields that look like burn marks around where the balls are inside. Is this normal? No clicking or other indications of problems.
(Still need to finish getting the old grease off of the joint and those gear teeth.)
Lastly, would you reuse these brake pads? I have new OEM ones plus new rotors so was planning to swap all of it, but the pads look to be in really good shape to me--considering only changing the rotors but not sure if that's foolish. I was thinking I could reuse the pads and if I still have trouble I'll swap pads then, but maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts?
Only major unexpected thing was discovering my brake lines were not in as good shape as I wanted them to be, so stopped by @NLXTACY yesterday and picked up the full stainless steel line kit (this project keeps growing lol.) Thanks for the support Joey!
I'm thinking I should wait and bolt it all back together and then deal with the brake lines individually once the front end is back in place, but if I'm missing anything LMK.
I appreciate any advice--thanks!
I'm doing this mainly due to some braking problems--pulsing/vibration when braking hard or from freeway speeds, and a fairly strong pull to the left (just when braking.) I changed out w/ new fluid and bled the lines which firmed up the pedal nicely but the pulsation and pull remained, so onto the next thing...
No records on when the last front end service was but the PO I bought the truck from last month had it for four years and 30K miles and didn't touch it so it seemed prudent to do the knuckle if I'm going in as far as the rotors anyway.
The passenger side looked OK grease wise, the driver side less good (drivers side was also greenish slightly slimy grease vs passenger side grey decent looking.)
Driver side--does this look like oil seal failure or just old grease? I will be replacing the oil seal on both sides, have the Cruiser Outfitters kit w/ new bearings...so I don't think it matters, but just curious.
Next Q--there are some marks on the Birfields that look like burn marks around where the balls are inside. Is this normal? No clicking or other indications of problems.
(Still need to finish getting the old grease off of the joint and those gear teeth.)
Lastly, would you reuse these brake pads? I have new OEM ones plus new rotors so was planning to swap all of it, but the pads look to be in really good shape to me--considering only changing the rotors but not sure if that's foolish. I was thinking I could reuse the pads and if I still have trouble I'll swap pads then, but maybe I'm missing something. Thoughts?
Only major unexpected thing was discovering my brake lines were not in as good shape as I wanted them to be, so stopped by @NLXTACY yesterday and picked up the full stainless steel line kit (this project keeps growing lol.) Thanks for the support Joey!
I'm thinking I should wait and bolt it all back together and then deal with the brake lines individually once the front end is back in place, but if I'm missing anything LMK.
I appreciate any advice--thanks!