Tools for birff job (1 Viewer)

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OK so I have some more pics but they are pretty ones with clean stuff.
Oh and Dan you need to stick to photographing landscapes because you do not know how to take flattering photos of people!! :eek:

So here is the passenger side all cleaned up
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Here is a close-up of the knuckle with the old seal still in it. I will be replacing it with the Marlin inner seal tomorrow.
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OK, the driver side. I have a little painting to do on the axles.
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Close-up of driver side knuckle, again still the old seal in it.
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Here is the spindle and spindle plates all cleaned up, should I wait till the plate is bolted up to the spindle to paint it?
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Knuckle housing all cleaned up. Is it safe to assume that the housing stamped R2 is for the passenger side and the one stamped L2 is for the Driver side?
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The Birffs soaking. Now these as the molly grease is less and less packed inside they are getting harder and harder to move around. Is this normal or should I bust them apart and swap sides. The larger one has me a little nervous.
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And last but not least, a teaser of the SD Trux custom machined OEM rotors...
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Mike and I busted ours apart and swapped sides when we did this at Boyd's place. You can look for any wear in there, clean them out, etc.

So you're doing this over two days then?
 
Yeah, I have no idea how you guys did it in a day.... But my front axle and knuckles had about 1/4" - 1/2" of grease and grime on them.
So far today; I finished cleaning the hubs and brake dust shield, installed the Marlin inner seal, and mounted the new rotors to the hubs. But it is near impossible to torque those to 54 and keep them from spinning. I am holding the rotors on the table with both hands and pushing with my shoulder till the click. But that is really straining the back so I think I will wait until I mount them on the spindle to try and torque them the rest of the way.
I am going to hit the birffs real good now until cleaned out completely. We will see then if I am going to bust them apart or not.

BACK TO WORK! Break times over.
 
Well, I guess we can't all be successful on our birff attempts.
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Well, I was struggling to hold the knuckle housing up while the top and bottom caps were seated. By the way that is a pain in the A$$ to do! Anyway while holding it in the prime position I grabbed the caliper bolts instead of the upper knuckle housing bolts. Anyway I start cranking away and they started getting tougher and tougher. By the time I realized I had the wrong bolts it was too late. I stripped the first two threads off of the caliper bolts so I will need to replace them, and it appears I have messed up the housing threads as well because I tried to put the correct bolts in with no luck.

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So what are my options?
 
Last edited:
Bluetribal said:
So what are my options?
Click to expand...

You can try to re-tap the threads on both the caliper bolts and the housing. But I'd get new caliper bolts as that's an easy fix. In regards to the housing, there appears to be plenty of thread depth left and the fastening ability may not be jeopardized. The other resort would be to get a new/used housing.
 
Ouch....those look worse than I was thinking when I talked to you last night. Let me know if I can help and I will try and swing by after work this week.

Don't be too hard on yourself everyone here has done something like this at least a couple times if they have ever wrenched. Think of it as a learning opportunity.
 
That's good news - your housing is in very good hands from everything I've heard here about John and SD Trux.

If it helps ease your pain, I broke the rear knock sensor replacing my PHH and the reostat switch removing my lower dash. :whoops: Both were not cheap to replace. We live and learn and in the process become better :banana::wrench:
 
Better not do your spark plugs either. I broke a seized spark plug off flush in the head once trying to get it out.:eek:

That my friend was a day of drilling, tapping, and Heli-Coil fun.
 
Big thanks to John and the boys at SD Trux.... They fixed my threads and I tested the bolt in them last night and it was like butter.
Phone just rang and the new replacement bolts and grease cap are in at Bob Baker Toy so I will pick those up this afternoon.
It's my B-Day tonight and I have softball so I will get back to wrenching tomorrow evening.
 
Great news Mark - does this mean you'll be able to make it Saturday? Let me know so we can arrange for a place/time to meet up.
 
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