Trail Damage Help Needed

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That's our Rick......always the optomist..:D
 
Remove suspect stud and determine what the problem is. If the knuckle threads are damaged then either repair with helicoil or replace knuckle.

You do realize that if all studs fail while underway then hub and wheel assembly may depart vehicle. Imagine you're in the fast lane on the M4 and and suddenly you are driving a three wheeler.
 
studs

Yer I spose your right Landmark, I will leave it at home, my main problem will be getting the broken stud out, without taking the suspension arm off, I like the idea of the reverse action drill bit, as I am worried when drilling a small hole for an easy out bit. that it will suddenly screw the broken bit of stud into the open cavity of the knuckle, it will then have to be a strip down job. gona be hard drilling upwards anyway, what would happen if I removed the steering arm that bolts to the knuckle. it's only two rod ends, would I have to support the car or just be able to remove it, it would make it really easy to remove the broken stud as I will probably be able to knock it round oan out with a pointed punch.
 
The lower pin is part of that arm and is what holds the knuckle in place. I'd lift that axle as high as possible and get a right angle under there with the left hand twist drill or just tear it down which would only take an hour or so to do.
 
sheared steering bolts

Hi all... Just an update on the lower steering arm into the knuckle housing saga.
I found on looking tonight, that there are two sheared off studs in the knuckle housing and that the grease that is supposed to be in the housing is really thick black oil, so the housing has to come off.
One to get the broken studs out and two, to put grease back in the bearings.
I have got as far as removing the disc and the lower arm, so it looks like I need to now remove the bolts that hold the dust seal that was behind the disc rotor.
I have removed the sensor and bearings, I dont have a manual to go by so help is needed from you guys.
Do I now remove the bolts around the dust seal and do I then remove the cap on the top of the knuckle that has two bolts holding it on, then also remove the 6mm screws that hold the tin plate cover and felt seal at the back of the knuckle, will I then be able to remove the knuckle housing, also do you think I should renew the seal that is letting the diff oil into the housing? not even seen that seal yet, and is it easy to do?
 
search "birfield repack" and you will find several detailed threads plus look in the tech section in ih8mud.com proper for birfield repack write ups (including one by one of your countrymen). There is a very useful parts list as well. You are undertaking the most exhaustively documented procedure there is for an 80.

To answer a few of your questions

1. yes you absolutely must replace the inner axle seal and it is only a bit tricky if you have a seal puller and a piece of 1.5" abs pipe cut square at both ends - read the write ups!!!
you should replace the dust seal and all the other gaskets you are about to encounter, plus the felt/rubber seal on the back of knuckle which is known as the wiper seal.

2. once you get the spindle off (what you are about to do next) a bunch of oily grease will pour all over your floor and it will get worse if you haven't first drained the diff oil using the centre drain hole at the diff pumpkin. The next step is, as you say, to disconnect the lower arm bolts (what's left of them in your case) and the top bolts at which point the outerknuckle housing will come off and you will need to take care to catch the top kingpin bearing as you do so.

3. don't forget to use moly lithium grease on the birfield.
 
Wooooooo - STOP!!

Go to the tech pages and print off the directions that are listed there as a start. You will need some direction to do this work. There are a number of parts you will need to replace (gaskets, seals, etc as you do this job and it may make sense for you to replace bearings as well.

You MUST replace the axle seal to fix the contamination problem. A seal puller/bent screw driver should do the trick.
 
If at all possible (meaning you've got other modes of transportation), you'd be well advised to do this right (meaning full front axle service) while you're in there, so you won't have to mess with it for another 60K. I'd highly recommend having the FSM handy. You can get all the parts you need and the FSM from C'dan. The information on this site is great, but supplemental to the procedure laid out in the FSM, IMHO. If you've got birf soup in the knuckle, you'll need to completely clean out and decrease the birfield and repack with new grease.

:beer:
Rookie2
 
This thread should be in the FAQ's

Mods: Can we link this as a FAQ. We have a very good discussion along with part numbers (always worth bookmarking) from King o Parts. :D
 
beno said:
Mods: Can we link this as a FAQ. We have a very good discussion along with part numbers (always worth bookmarking) from King o Parts. :D

BUMP and...

I'll second that notion, did the birfs a couple of weeks ago and 3 of the 4 on DS and 2 of the 4 on PS were finger tight. Check them studs!

Should be linked in the BIRF FAQ too maybe?

:cheers:
 
Curious... why couldn't bolts be used in this application instead of studs? As long as they were not too long and went into the cage area. What are the benifits of the stud, beside (in theory) you could just remove the nut and slide the arm off, instead of loosing the grease in the birf?

Reason why I'm starting to hate studs... replaced all the exhaust manifold studs with grade 8 bolts on my aluminum head of my supra engine because they were all loose after a manifold replacement. When I tried to retighten them.. they strip the aluminum threads.
 
IIRC, there are cone washers in there, no? Can't use the cone washers with a bolt because the shaft would rotate when torquing and that wouldn't work real well.
 
cruiserdan said:
This almost always happens some time after a knuckle job. When the steering arms are removed as part of the repair the studs back out just a bit. The axle is re-assembled without checking to make sure the studs are tight. Even correctly torqued nuts will not prevent the studs from backing out if they are not secure.

Curran,

Glad that you made home safe. Always a good thing.

Looks to me that the studs are attached to the knuckle? Can they be parmanently attached to the knuckle? What is the purpose of simply have them threaded like that? Because as you said (CDan) they will come off no matter how accurately the nuts are torqued. I wonder if this acn be another additional step for knuckle/birf repack, to parmanently attach the studs to the knuckle.
 
MODS please put this thread in FAQ, good info. to have.
 
i just repacked my BIRFs about 2 weeks ago and don't recollect whether the studs were tight or not. Is there any accurate method for checking whether the studs are tight, once everything is assembled? My guess would be to periodically check the torque setting on the nuts for the next few weeks to see if they change and to look for signs of leakage or gaps are beginning to form. Do the torque settings normally change on the nuts after the repack from driving the vehicle the first time or are they fairly stable once they are set?
 
otis22 said:
i just repacked my BIRFs about 2 weeks ago and don't recollect whether the studs were tight or not. Is there any accurate method for checking whether the studs are tight, once everything is assembled? My guess would be to periodically check the torque setting on the nuts for the next few weeks to see if they change and to look for signs of leakage or gaps are beginning to form. Do the torque settings normally change on the nuts after the repack from driving the vehicle the first time or are they fairly stable once they are set?

Well, this is kind of the problem. The torque value on the nuts doesn't give an accurate indication if the studs are loose or not. If the stud is loose and you start torquing the nut, the cone washer will 'seize' the stud and keep it from turning even if it's loose. So you'll be able to get the proper torque value but the stud may still be loose. Vibration will soon loosen the grip of the cone washer and you're back where you started, with loose studs.

When my birfs were apart I double-nutted each stud and torqued the s@#$ out of it to make sure it stays put. Having read all of this now, I should have put some Loctite on there as well.

However, re-torquing them every 15k miles or so should keep everything in check...
 
Riad said:
Curran,
Looks to me that the studs are attached to the knuckle? Can they be parmanently attached to the knuckle?

You could always take the studs out when doing the birf job and apply lock tight to the knuckle side of the threads.
 
Beno calm down.....................................

Will see what can be done.

Maybe this weekend since I got nothing else to do.
 

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