So how far can I go on a failing Birf? (1 Viewer)

[98 SNAKE EATER]

For the past week or so, I've noticed an unusual tink noise coming from the LF wheel every now and then

Usually after coming to a complete semi-hard stop and accelerating while making a turn either left or right

I found that it was even more prevalent with the lockers engaged

Last night, I put her up on my lift for a routine tire rotation and joint greasing, so I had a chance to check it out.

Wheel bearings checked out fine, did a few rotations forward and backward and didn't hear anything, then I did some rotations while steering the wheel left and right and that's when I heard (and felt) a few tinks and pops

The more I steered the wheel side to side, the more force it took to spin the wheel by hand.

Did a full lock in one direction and the wheel stopped, requiring a bit more force to kinda break free and when it did, it made the tink-pop noise and then continued to spin freely

Checked the knuckle grease level and it was fine without a hint of gear oil mixing.

Checked the gear oil level and it was also fine, but had the usual discoloring from typical moly migration

Keep in mind, I'm still running the original birfs at almost 329,000 miles with only a few repacks done over the years, never swapping sides.

The last repack I did was back in February (about ~13,000 miles ago) and both birfs checked out fine.


After rotating the tires, greasing the joints and spot welding a couple of leaks in the muffler, I started her up in the air, engaged all 3 lockers and let her idle in drive with the T-case in Low Range.

While under the truck, I grabbed the drag link and steered the wheels side to side, listening to both sides as the wheels turned

The passenger side remained silent, but the driver's side made a few tink-pop noises the tighter I steered it

Put her in reverse and it pretty much did the same

Now, I'm not one to take things lightly and usually stay on top of my PM work, but replacement birfs aren't exactly the cheapest parts out there

Just wanna get an idea of how long some of you have driven on failing birfs from the point they actually started making noises?

 

[NLXTACY]

About 15k on the DS birf. My PS birf has been clicking for well over a year now. Because I wasn't doing any off roading I didn't worry. Not that my lift is in I've been more adventurous. Time to fix the birf.

 

[CycloSteve]

Ask yourself this; Am I willing to have the birf fail far from home, and pay the consequences? If the answer is yes, then go ahead and keep driving the rig. If no, then get on with it and replace the birfs, and keep the "good" one as a spare. Remember, sometimes they fail gracefully, other times they damage your axle housing.



Steve

 

[scottryana]

And Slee has replacement birfs for like $225 not bad at all.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

And Slee has replacement birfs for like $225 not bad at all.

How do they compare to OEM?

My dealer can get them next day for $525 though my shop account

 

[greentruck]

Keeping in mind it's AWD...

So long as you keep it pointed straight ahead, you can probably put another 100,000 on her.

I was going to suggest pulling the front driveshaft and locking the CDL, but I suspect that may not keep things from binding at the birfs if the axle shafts are still in place even if you're unlocked on that axle???

 

[scottryana]

They are in between OEM and longfields I would guess. Not as strong as longs, stronger than OEM, won't last as long as OEM but longer than longs.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Keeping in mind it's AWD...

So long as you keep it pointed straight ahead, you can probably put another 100,000 on her.

I was going to suggest pulling the front driveshaft and locking the CDL, but I suspect that may not keep things from binding at the birfs if the axle shafts are still in place even if you're unlocked on that axle???

If it actually reaches the point of failure, I guess I could pull the front shaft, lock the CDL and remove the drive plates to get where I need to go

 

[greentruck]

Yeah, I got stuck at the drive plates. I suppose a quick bolt-on of locking hubs might work, but since yours is a 97, you gotta pull the birfs to machine a new lock ring grove anyway IIRC -- and, well, you're trying to put that off, right? So no handy work around, unless you can get duct tape to hold...

Or get an old set of drive plates and machine out the teeth where the shaft goes into. Some old drive plates have already had this done to 'em, but tidying it up probably still needed. In fact, probably a good idea to have a set of these for a quickie trail fix, hmm, hmmm

 

[timer00]

I can add to some experience here. I have had a front PS birf click in turns since I got the truck in Jan 2010 and have gone from 104k miles at purchase/rebuild of front end to 121k now and still have the confidence to drive 500 mile one way vacations.

I just am real gentle in tights turns (basically coming out of the driveway) other turns that aren't 90 degree turns it is still minor clicking that sounds light

I plan replacing of course with OEM probably for next year.

 

[OGBeno]

Regular road driving: thousands of miles..


Off road-- probably not long at all.

 

[SteveH]

My birfs clattered slightly in my dirt driveway when I got the truck at 75K miles, and they still clattered when I sold it at 197K miles. I did swap sides on the birfs and axles (made no difference in the clatter) and kept then well-greased. They got slightly louder through the years. They really didn't clatter much on dry pavement, but in the sandy dirt driveway during a turn, they would clatter fairly loudly.

 

[Tools R Us]

How long is a piece of string? It depends on a several factors, but they are weaker than good birfs.

 

[floridan surfer]

With the miles you put, I'd just leave the birfs alone and go part time conversion.

Pat

 

[TexasJack]

Regular road driving: thousands of miles..

Off road-- probably not long at all.

X2 on what Onur said. I drove mine for a long time on the street with my left front birf clicking. It was only getting worse slowly. It started getting worse very quickly when I started wheeling more. Make sure you avoid locking your front diff, turning hard left into an obstacle and accelerating aggressively or you will likely find out what in am talking about.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

OK, so I've got some good news and bad news


The good news:

For the past few days, the birf was silent

No clicking, no popping, not even when I did figure 8's locked on wet grass

I figured I'd tear it down to repack the wheel bearings and that would give me an excuse to check the moly level by opening up one of the upper spindle bolts and pumping it in from one of the lower bolt holes


The bad news:

Turns out the inner wheel bearing took a $h!t and got stuck on the spindle

I managed to cut the remaining sleeve off of the spindle, but it slightly gouged it up, enough so that a new bearing wouldn't slide on easily

Took some emery tape to it and polished away any marks, then slid on the inner bearing from the passenger side after tearing it down as well and the bearing went on just fine

As you can see, the moly is still fresh with nothing oozing out of the spindle bolt holes

I pumped in more moly from the bottom hole until I saw it moving around in the upper hole (about 3/4 ways)

This was about 3 hours ago and VatoZone had 1 of each (inner/outer) Timken bearings at two of their nearest stores, but they were about to close, so I hopped in the Road Runner and hauled ass over there

Finished packing the bearings and I'm in the middle of torquing everything down right now

 

[bsmart82]

So do you think the noise was the bearing? Good thing you tore it down now.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

So do you think the noise was the bearing? Good thing you tore it down now.

That's what it looks like

I wasn't able to re-create the noise after my initial post no matter what I did

Tested it up in the air again and everything is silent




Played in the mud this morning and did some figure 8's in reverse and still no noise

 

[landtank]

I've yet to not fix a clicking birf by simply repacking them with a good high quality grease.

In one case the axle had been serviced by a prominent cruiser shop just north of me and the birfs were clicking like crazy. Repacked and silent.

Now my sons did click after the repack but it subsided with a little driving, that was a year and a half ago.