Pitted / Rusted swivel hubs - What would you do? (3 Viewers)

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My truck came from Virginia, and Michigan before that with lackluster maintenance history. I am rebuilding the front axles now and am stuck trying to decide what I should I do about these pitted swivel balls. I cleaned them up the best I could and used some rust converter on them.

I am trying to decide if I should use some JB Weld to fill in the pits and sand smooth or just leave them be. I feel like they will not seal as well and increase potential for dirt intrusion if left pitted. JB Weld seems like it should be strong enough and hold up fine, but still the idea seems iffy to me.

What would you do and why?

 
Have painted them with good results. The wipers wear it off down to the peaks, but it stays in the pits, reducing leakage.
 
What paint did you use?
 
You are not the first to consider jb as a filler. May have some luck searching as i recall amember who did this and it came up a good while later and was still holding.

Edit. Did a search. Found several recerences but not one i recalled

Otherwise im in the same boat as pin head


However if you wanna get froggy source some new ends and its a great time for a cut and turn to fix that castor.
 
Use a wire wheel on a drill to remove the scale and smooth it a little, use brake clean and paper towels until it's greaseless, use ospho or another phosphoric acid based product to convert the remaining rust to Iron phosphate and then paint with an epoxy paint. As long as you paint the pitted areas with an initial coat or two and don't paint the rest of the areas, the pitting should fill in just fine. Then paint the rest of the area. Clear as Mud instructions.
 
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Used a sandable primer on mine(painted and sanded several coats to fill in pits) and so far so good- no leaks. Mine looked about as pitted as yours. Left my hubs bright because I thought the paint would just wear off anyway.

I like the idea of these: Split CV Boots For Toyota LandCruiser 78/ 79/ 70 / 80 Series | Gearing Dynamics but I think they might just trap the road salt and make things worse. Still, might be cool to try!
 
The seals tend to drag filler out of the pitted areas, as there is insufficient surface area to hold it in place. Go with @LandCruisinMy93, I did the same on a customers car and the epoxy paint held up well. It was a Spanish brand and was cited as being better than the Hammerite anti rust products.

Regards

Dave
 
Thanks for all the replies! I tried to search for others using JB Weld, but mostly found Land Rover guys doing it. At the very least, it seems I can worry a bit less! So just painting them seems like it will be fine, but nobody thinks JB Weld is a BAD idea, right? Maybe I will only use epoxy paint on one side and JB Weld on the other and see which one holds up better. Ya know for science. I'll post up the finished product.

@artech - those boots look like a cool idea! This truck will probably never see salt again, so those might be fun to try. Any idea how much they want for them? I didn't see a price on their site.
 
Used a sandable primer on mine(painted and sanded several coats to fill in pits) and so far so good- no leaks. Mine looked about as pitted as yours. Left my hubs bright because I thought the paint would just wear off anyway.

I like the idea of these: Split CV Boots For Toyota LandCruiser 78/ 79/ 70 / 80 Series | Gearing Dynamics but I think they might just trap the road salt and make things worse. Still, might be cool to try!


I like the idea of the CV boots myself, but if you installed them, How would you know when you have Birf Soup????
 
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@Stevensnj - I used that exact filler primer! After 2 coats and some sanding this is what I had:


After some black epoxy paint:


I decided not to JB Weld. If the primer/ epoxy paint holds up well great. If not, I might try JB Weld the next time I do this job.
 
JB Weld is good stuff, just a lot of work it get it smooth on a round surface. Spray paint is comparatively easy and does the job.
 
[QUOTE=" @artech - those boots look like a cool idea! This truck will probably never see salt again, so those might be fun to try. Any idea how much they want for them? I didn't see a price on their site.[/QUOTE]

No idea on price, I just found the site and filed it against future need. I have to admit I am curious, but maybe not enough to bother going through the hassle of importing a set from AUS just to try. Besides, I think the rocks on the trails around here would eat those pretty quickly in my case.
 

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