Regearing project (1 Viewer)

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Cruiserdrew said:
I like the idea that the cage or star was upside down.
Click to expand...

We have a winner. Cage upside down.

First test drive of about 2 miles with all the guys in the truck was multiple left hand turns. All was OK. Next test drive was a repeat but on the 2nd left turn there was a pop. Went about 100 yards, turned left again... another pop. Hmmm. Not good. Returned after less than 1 mile at low speed. Too much noise for anything good to be in there.

On a positive note, the other birf was assembled identically and survived OK. I opened it up, pulled the axle and took the birf apart. It looks great. I guess the left turns did in the left side.

Lesson 1: Mike's birfield assembly course. How *not* to assemble a birf. :D


-Mike-
Birf_Assembly_Lesson1.jpg
 
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Ouch......

I have new ones in stock if it gets down to that. It sounds like you have other options.
 
cruiserdan said:
Ouch......

I have new ones in stock if it gets down to that. It sounds like you have other options.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dan! I have fed your dogs enough for this month. :D I have 2 spares. One is questionable but will work for a trail spare. The other came from a salvage vehicle about 6 years ago so it probably has less miles than my truck. It felt fine when I lubed it up and threw it in the trail box about 5 years ago. I think I am going to put that one in now that I am pretty sure the right side birf is OK.

I think it was a full lock left turn that popped out a ball and then went downhill from there. I didn't make any full lock right turns.

It is approaching my bedtime so, heeding Greg's advice, I am stopping for the night and will start putting it back together in the daylight. Nice weather though. :D

-Mike-
 
Cruiserdrew said:
I like the idea that the cage or star was upside down. That would cause it to bind and metal fragments would result. I've never tried to put an 80 birf star in upside down to see if it fit. They don't on the earlier ones.
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Yep, the cage will fit upside down with no binding at all. When I pulled the right side (also assembled incorrectly) it was nice and smooth through a complete 360 degree rotation. I didn't have any problems assembling it incorrectly. The assembly process was easier when I put everything in correctly this afternoon.

After looking at it, the correct assembly has the cage and therefore the balls, about 1/8" deeper into the tulip. I believe the upside down cage would allow a ball bearing to pop out with a hard turn (which is exactly when I heard the first pop.) Otherwise, it functioned perfectly during a "bench check." No binding at all.

-Mike-
 
TroutRunner said:
Let's see:hmm:. Mike has broken truck now...Rory worked on truck...Rory's truck is always broken...:idea:Don't let Rory work on my truck.

G
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I know you are teasing Rory, but I still want to say (again) that this was 100% my mistake. I was doing some of the preliminary stuff after work and pulled the birfs apart, disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled. I thought that I was being careful but obviously I made a mistake. Oh well... At least I don't have to bury my mistakes. :D

-Mike-
 
Sorry to hear this Mike, when Ali told me about it first thing I said was "Crap! what did I do?"

At least the break was close to your house and not on the mud soup trails we were on today. When you are ready for re-assembly, let me know. I would be glad to get greasy again :D
 
I think that the FSM states something about the thickness of the cage differs from side to side. One of those side (thicker or thinner side, can't recall which) suppose to be oriented in a specific way during reassembly and sounds like that's where things got confused. Glad you weren't too far away from home!
 
This is starting to get confusing.

Here is a picture of a new Toyota OEM 80-Series birfield.
attachment.php


This is what the right side birf looked like when I pulled it. I will post pics tomorrow of the 2 spares that I have. Both spares are assembled reverse of this picture! I know the 2 birfs we installed on Saturday were assembled the same way. I have been assuming they were both wrong. Now, I'm not so sure.

I am pretty sure the star on the broken birf was assembled EXACTLY like the above picture as it was still on the axle when I removed what was left of the birf. I will check it tomorrow. I think I can tell where I pounded the busted one off the axle.

? ? ? ?

-Mike-
 
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I understand Longfields are soft metal, which means they are malleable and not brittle. It would also mean that if you run them on an AWD rig they will wear out fast. If you run RWD and sometimes 4WD putting them on the front is okay.
 
Onur let me look at yet another 80 birf this morning and it was like the pictured birf. My right birf was exactly the same. The only thing remaining of the left birf was the star and it was correct when I pounded it off the long axle. I am confident that the 2 birfs were assembled the same as I was quite careful with that process.

So now, I am back to the conclusion that swapping sides was the mistake.

I am going to put the surviving birf back where it lived relatively happily for the past 11 years and 170k miles. The spare will go over on the right side (short side) after it gets assembled correctly.

-Mike-
 
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Mike,

The only Birfields I've messed with are mini-truck, but I suspect they are similar to the 80-series. What I noticed when I handled yours on Saturday is they sat flat on the bench. With mine the cage protrudes from the bell so they would rock when set down. See the pic from Bobby as it shows what I'm talking about. Your star might have been in correctly, but I suspect the cage was not.

FJ80BirfPhoto.jpg
 
OEM 80 birfield will sit flat on that end with the cage installed either way. I will post pics of right and wrong later. There are 3 on my bench right now.

-Mike-
 
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Promised gear pattern pics. Ryan or someone else will need to comment 'cause I have no clue what I am looking at. I can tell you that the pattern is in the yellow part and that is all that I know about the subject. Steve is the guy at U-Joints that set up the gears and he said the pattern looked great. I smiled.

I think these are the front. If they aren't then they are the rear. :D

-Mike-
Front488_Pattern1.jpg
Front488_Pattern2.jpg
Front488_Pattern3.jpg
 
These should be the rear. If they aren't then they are the front.

-Mike-
Rear488_Pattern1.jpg
Rear488_Pattern2.jpg
Rear488_Pattern3.jpg
 
Basically what happens is you paint the gears and look for where the paint is worn off. You want to make sure the wear is not on the edge of the gears. As you can see in the pictures, there is yellow all the way around the bald spots on the faces (and believe me I know about bald spots), so the mesh is good.
 
Very nice patten actually.
 
Thats about as good a pattern as you can get. Pinion depth looks right, and the contact patch is nice and broad- which will distribute the load evenly across the teeth of the gear.

Sorry to hear about your birfield issues Mike. Just remember, yours broke in about the BEST place ever. Nice and close to a warm garage to replace them in. Pulling birfs on the trail SUCKS!

Ryan
 
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