Partial Birf Job

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Brentbba

Brentbba

Former Golfer
Joined
Mar 27, 2003
Threads
427
Messages
10,821
Location
OC, CA
Anyone with more confidence than I have with birfs have any time Saturday? Check out my 'Thunk' thread in the 80's section. I don't know a tie rod from a steering stabilizer, etc. nor how far I may really have to to into the birfs to check the tighness of the hub.

I"ve got the truck up on jacks right now but can't say I feel any play in either wheel that would cause the 'thunk' I kept hearing on the way back from Anza. Unusual thing is that I heard it on the curves up Montezuma grade, but not on the curves of Ortega Highway.

Need someone with enough expertise to point out all the necessary places to apply a torque wrench.

Will also pull the tires off and caliper and go in just far enough to check the hub w/o doing a full on job. Doable???
 
I dont really have time per say, but have you checked the control arms and their bushings? I've had the same come loose before and thought i had an axle problem, but just come to find out it was just the control arm bolt that was lose.

?
 
I have done it at least 5 times over the last week but I don't think anyone want's my services! HAHAH... But to check your hub tightness it's right behind the grease cap and that first plate. And now for my famous MUD quote; "15 min per side, it's easy."
 
Dave - control arm is the one behind the axle isn't it?

Mark - that's about as far in as I 'want' to go - far enough in to check the tightness of the big 54mm nut and that's it!

My problem is that I don't know the difference between the control arm, tie rod, etc. so I can torque all the bolts correctly!

I have to change the diff oil also as I've got it cooking out the top of the front breather tube - must've got water down there when I paused in the creek in Lower Coyote so Kim could get the poser shot of Stan coming out the end.

Going to order the allen head magnetic bolts since I'm draining the fluid anyway! Will make sure I can get the fill nut off before the drain plug!
 
Success!!!

Tie rod/control arms were just fine. All the bolts everywhere were nice and tight to torque specs.

What I ended up doing was removing the calipers and taking off the outer flange to expose the two locking nuts, lock washer and thrust washer. PS was fine. Carefully slide off the rotor and inspected the oil seal and visually inspected the inner bearing. Plenty of grease that still looked close to brand new. Stuck a little more grease in for safe measure, did a quick palm of the hand repack of the outer bearing and put it all back together to FSM spec right down to the preload.

DS was a different story!!! Removed the flange and found the locking nuts HAND LOOSE!!!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: :censor: :censor:

That had to have been the source of the thunking!!!

Performed the same procedure on the DS. One thing I did notice on both sides is that I hadn't bent the locking washer down both ways. I'd bent one tab down against the outer locking nut but not one against the inner locking washer like the FSM says you are supposed to! :whoops: I'm betting that's why the DS worked itself loose. :doh:

Next moved onto draining the front diff because I knew water had to have gotten down in thru the breather tube. I've been thru the Lower Coyote Canyon creek crossing a dozen times or more, stopping before too, but never any water issue.

I removed the fill plug first and got a very distinctive hissing of compressed air escaping! :eek: Removed the drain plug and the diff oil looked like green syurp! I was aweful! It took quite some time for that gunk to drain. Once it did installed brand new magnetic allen head low profile drain plug from Marlin Crawler and filled the diff with brand new diff oil. Pep Boys had Castrol, Lucas Oil an Mobil 1 in stock. Castrol was the least expensive and as I figure I'm going to let the new oil stay in there for a thousand miles or so and replace it again to get rid of the remainder of the contaminated oil, I'll put in better (?) oil next time.

Proceeded to do the rear diff oil next figuring that it may have been contaminated also. Well it wasn't but replaced in anyway. Only issue I ran into on the rear was that the last grease monkey to put the fill plug on must have used an air gun because that plug was on so damn tight I rounded off the head. Jammed on a 6 point 7/8 socket instead of the 12 point 24mm socket I had and got it off. Emergency call to Capo Toyota. In luck, they had a fill plug!! Got down there and they actually had both the OEM and allen head plugs. Went with the allen head since that's what the new drain plugs were. Replaced both the front and rear fill plugs with the new allen head plugs. Damn they are shiny against 15 years of dirt and grime on the pumpkins!

Got done in enough time to head out Ortega Highway to have dinner with the scout troop out at Camporee this weekend. Good test drive for the cruiser as well on the windy road. NO thunks and everything was very smooth. Scoutmaster had bacon wrapped filets, sauteed mushrooms with onion and garlic and a ceasar salad for dinner. Topped that off with an angel food cake with strawberries for dessert! All in all a very successful Saturday!!

I'll be hitting the FAQ's for the diff breather extension write up as my next mod!!! :D
 
Too wierd Brent. I just found that my drivers hub nuts had loosed as well and was causing a varying severity steering wheel wobble. Had about 1/4" play at the tread! :eek: COINCIDENCE?













































Yeah, probably. :flipoff2:
 
Yea, well, now I'm getting a sound like the coils are trying to reseat themselves when I hit the brakes.

I did notice that one of the rubber dust boots on a caliper was torn. Probably means a caliper rebuild in the near future.

Mo - I know you've done it...how bad is it?

Sorry to hear about your loose nuts too! :eek:
 
Add another loose nut to the list. I just hit 100 miles today since my birff nightmare and was going to re-check things but I was hitting up John at SD Trux to get new pins for my e-brake and a front shim kit. And when John and the boys got it up on the lift, the passenger wheel was wobbly. So they went in and took care of the pre-load. The DS was fine for now but I will check for wobble before heading up for the Meet & Greet this weekend.

Major props to John and the boys at SD Trux!
 
Wow.

This new sound has me worried. It really does just sound like the coils reseating. I just don't know. Friend is a master mechanic at Tustin Lexus and I'm tempted to give him a call for a test drive. He likes to leave work at work, so only one time have I ever called for help was with his blessing when I mentioned that I was tackling the rear rotors with NO prior experience. That was when I f'ed up taking a rear rotor off before knowing about that little sprocket and did the same thing you did Mark!
 
Shoot brent, I knew I shouldnt have come and read these posts, now I'm feeling motivated to dig into my truck too...:D Got some assorted front end issues to "search and destroy":

-Nasty pull on braking
-'Pop' noise when turning hard either direction and going up hill (parking garage turns)
-Inner left tire wear which is a mystery (alignment is in spec)
-Left pull despite toe being good

Havent touched her since last August, so its time for some love anyway!

Hope you got your mystery pop sorted out :cheers:

B
 
Haven't driven her since last weekend - will tomorrow at our get together...we'll see then and perhaps with a few expert ears around, we can isolate it...maybe.
 
I had to put in an 8 hr OT day today but when I got home I wanted to make sure my DS was still OK since Monday when John had it up on the rack and fixed my PS. I also wanted to check and make sure my diff breathers were clean. Anyway, when I first jacked it up it seemed to have the slightest bit of wiggle to it. But when I put the wheel back on after checking the breathers I didn't notice anymore wiggle. So I don't know what to think?
 
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