Got my kit a couple weeks ago from Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters (THANKS KURT, great product, great service!) and i finally started it a couple days ago. Well I finished installing everything a few hrs ago and i have to say, i was nervous about it beforehand for no reason. To anyone planning this job, its EASY, I promise, and im no master mechanic. The hardest, most time consuming part, besides waiting for paint to dry, was pounding the trunnion bearing race into the bottom of the knuckle.
So before i started, this was the deepest i had ever been in the axle (right behind the manual hub body)
Ankur already getting messy.
So after removing the rotor, you find this dirty dust shield with a little metal ring thing in front.
It took me a little while to figure out that i needed to take these stupid little pins off the brake line before i could get the dust shield out of the way.
(Anyone know what this circular one in the first pic is called? My herculean strength snapped it in half on accident...)
Guess what happens when you hit this spindle...
...It barfs up a nasty mixture of grease and diff fluid, duh..
Bare knuckle sort of cleaned up.
Aidan, my younger brother, in our "painting booth".
That damn bearing race acting like a little bitch not wanting to go home.
Knuckle Housing painted and installed, steering arm connected, ready for the axle to be packed and slammed into that bitch.
During this time we decided to try and figure out how to change brake pads. so we took all the springs/pins out swapped in the new pads and got it all ready to put back on... until we realized that the side spring retainer thing had snapped right near the bottom... I thought, "this one stupid little piece of metal has stopped my entire operation
... until Aidan found this piece of wire in the barn.
5 minutes later...
YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was actually a little surprised Aidan would have been able to bend it exactly right like that.
The barn, its a little dark and dirty: full of spiders, mice, bats, cave crickets, etc. But its gonna be where we work on the cruiser from now on cuz its PERFECT!!
(dont mind the jeep, i was young...)
"Almost" finished product.
Im going to go back over and sand/paint the entire axle housing to finish it off to make it look as good as the knuckles.
Id like to thank Ankur for coming out for a few hrs to lend a hand, Asher for answering my questions, and Middle Mike (from ACC) for for answering my REALLY dumb questions. Y'all are pretty decent folks.
into some mud and make them look like they should!
