Occasional nasty clicking, and maybe 1/2" of free play in rotation all added up to front axles that had reached the end of reliable life. After checking out the junk that passes for reman axles [tri-lobe inner joints that somebody rightly suggested were Honda Civic grade at best, and leaking CV boots in a few thousand miles] I went to Onur for a pair of new axles and associated oil seals.
This was all booked up to happen a week ago, but the parts didn't arrive until last week. Started out to do this Friday night, before the huge storm came through Friday night. Saturday morning arrived with no power [so no air tools or power tools] and crazy high temperatures. I did this outside, so it was a brain baker!
Got off to a great start when all but two of the lower plastic pan bolts sheared off! Need to go back and drill/tap them one day soon, so its running withour the pan for the moment. The CV boots were in remarkably good shape, although the inner looks like it had dumped some grease [shocker!] Tie rods were also good to go. No other surprises along the way either.
The LCA & UCA ball joints came apart easily with a little heating and a few taps. The ball joints them selves were in great shape - smooth range of motion and no free play. Cleaned 'em up, re-greased and rebooted.
The spindle inner was spectacular. Took a while to figure out that the regular pattern of grease balls was probably the way the factory grease injector laid the grease in there, and it was still untouched [until I fat-fingered a little of it on removal]
New axles in, new seals on, and ready for the hub to go back.
All done by mid afternoon. Truck runs smooth as silk.
Utahfj62 told me about a rebuilder in Utah that does nice work on these axles:
This was all booked up to happen a week ago, but the parts didn't arrive until last week. Started out to do this Friday night, before the huge storm came through Friday night. Saturday morning arrived with no power [so no air tools or power tools] and crazy high temperatures. I did this outside, so it was a brain baker!
Got off to a great start when all but two of the lower plastic pan bolts sheared off! Need to go back and drill/tap them one day soon, so its running withour the pan for the moment. The CV boots were in remarkably good shape, although the inner looks like it had dumped some grease [shocker!] Tie rods were also good to go. No other surprises along the way either.
The LCA & UCA ball joints came apart easily with a little heating and a few taps. The ball joints them selves were in great shape - smooth range of motion and no free play. Cleaned 'em up, re-greased and rebooted.
The spindle inner was spectacular. Took a while to figure out that the regular pattern of grease balls was probably the way the factory grease injector laid the grease in there, and it was still untouched [until I fat-fingered a little of it on removal]
New axles in, new seals on, and ready for the hub to go back.
All done by mid afternoon. Truck runs smooth as silk.
Utahfj62 told me about a rebuilder in Utah that does nice work on these axles:
I contacted them, but they don't have cores and I couldn't have the truck down long enough for the remove-ship-rebuild-ship-replace cycle. I now have two rebuildable cores. They are free to any Mudder who wants one [or two], you pay freight from 22101. Cheers!
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