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Aren’t these notoriously finicky to bleed?Finished up the front knuckle service.
-Front knuckle kit from CruiserOutfitters with OEM inner seals.
-All new bearings + seals
-Brembo rotors (rock auto)
-Advics pads (rock)
I went with Valvoline Palladium 2% moly grease in the knuckles as it met/exceeded the FSM requirements. The whole job including birfields was (3) 14 oz tubes. Used Sta-Lube SL3111 wheel bearing grease as I had heard several other members mentioned using it.
My knuckle bearing supports were stuck on really well. I ended up just pulling the studs and cone washers all in one shot. This tool from Autozone absolutely rocked. It was special order ($16), OEM tools 25438. Got every single stud in a few seconds when used in front of an impact driver. As a bonus the threads on the studs were not in bad shape at all after using it.
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Massive thanks to @Dc75nm for lending me his knuckle alignment tool. Very slick to use. There really is no other way of replicating what the tool can do. Upon disassembly it was 1.3 mm top and 1 mm bottom shims on both sides. With new bearings I measured very close to 1 mm top/bottom for both sides. It is admittedly difficult to maintain ~+/-0.100 mm accuracy on results that use measurements >100 mm. Did my best and checked that the pre-load drag was within specs. I went ahead and painted the knuckles with rustoleum to make cleaning easier. I would have preferred to shoot them in epoxy but the weather and schedule did not permit.
Axle seals aside, a second part of this job was to bring the brakes back up to par after sitting for several years. I've always had warpage, dragging calipers, and a missing lug stud. Time for that to change. New rotors from rock auto. I painted the edges and hats with caliper paint to discourage corrosion. At the same time, I split the calipers and pulled the pistons. If anyone is contemplating this, remove the pistons before splitting. I accidentally shot one across the shop with compressed air and toasted the lip on the floor with a ding. New seals were sourced from the dealer. I also managed to land a tube of "red rubber grease" that the FSM calls for to install the seals. I would not normally have bought it just to do a few seals, but I figure I'll use it on the sway bar bushings too. Definitely makes installing the pistons easier. Sandblasted decades of brake crust off and painted them with the same caliper paint as the rotors.
Bled all the lines and took a test drive tonight. The braking performance was less than expected. It's possible the braking surfaces are still wearing in and I also haven't touched the rear. It takes way too much pedal force to stop. Applying full force it casually slows down, then only after a few seconds does it start to really grab. It's been a while, but I don't remember it being this hard to stop, no way could I lock it up (31" x 10.5"? tires?). It's almost like the brake booster isn't "storing" vacuum and is only able to kick in after that casual first few second delay. I'll try some of the FSM tests this week. Any thoughts?
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I did 180k of them. USAF owned its whole life. 1st owner worked all the kinks out of itCongrats! Did you put all those miles on it?
Yeah it broke closer to their house so that’s where I got it towed and where it sat until I had the replacement stuff and some warm weather to work on itdid you do the work at your parent's?