Yet another birf question

[CJBury]

O.K. I'm gonna preface this question with, I am a dumb ass. That said here is my question. I dissasembeled my birf last night to clean the bearings cage and star. The fsm is confusing me. It talkes about a narrow side and wide side on the cage and a protruding side on the star. Can someone please explain this a little clearer for me so that I can reassemble my rig. It has been on the jack stands for way too long.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[GXO]

The edges the FSM is talking about would be the thickness of the lip of metal if you set the cage down flat. The surface it is sitting on is the lip. There is a thick and thin side, just have to eye it.

 

[CJBury]

Are you talking about the grooves on the outside of the cage? The one side has 2 the other has about 5.
Chris

 

[GXO]

The actual thickness is what the FSM refers to.

If you set it flat the vertical thickness of the horizontal plane in contact with the ground is the thickness you need to refer to.

 

[Beowulf]

Chris,
The FSM is misleading and I had the same problem that you are having; trying to figure out how to reassemble from those drawings. The FSM uses drawings of early birfields (circa 1980's) and your 80 birfield is slightly different.

FYI, you *can* install the cage backward (BTDT) but it won't feel right. Go back and look at the FAQ here on IH8MUD as I am certain there are pictures that show an assembled birf and the cage orientation. I have notes written in my FSM but it is home now so I cannot answer your question from memory. Dan may have the correct answer above ....

-B-

 

[CJBury]

Chris,
The FSM is misleading and I had the same problem that you are having; trying to figure out how to reassemble from those drawings. The FSM uses drawings of early birfields (circa 1980's) and your 80 birfield is slightly different.

FYI, you *can* install the cage backward (BTDT) but it won't feel right. Go back and look at the FAQ here on IH8MUD as I am certain there are pictures that show an assembled birf and the cage orientation. I have notes written in my FSM but it is home now so I cannot answer your question from memory. Dan may have the correct answer above ....

-B-

Thanks B.
When I look at the cage there is one side tapered more that the other. There are rings cut around the outside giving it the taper.
I should have marked the corresponding sides with a marker. This might be a good addition to the faq. The fact that it isn't in the fsm is bugging me.
Chris

 

[TLCgrappler]

Here's a cut and paste from my birf post two years ago. You can search for the whole thing if you wish..........................................

The biggest frustration was that I had a #%@!*@!!!!!! Of a time reassembling the birfield joints. I wasted three hours on a job that should have taken about 40 minutes. This was because the FSM is WRONG. The starfish or inner race part has a so-called flat side/protruding side referred to in the manual. The manual show it going in exactly backwards from the right way!!!! A BETTER, more foolproof way to show that would be to say there is a side of the inner race (starfish) where there is more room for the ball bearings and a side where the channels for the bearing narrows. [This is EASY to see as you look at each side.] The side with more room HAS to go to the “open side” of the birfield bell….in other words, towards the inboard of the vehicle. IF it’s the other way, the birf won’t move and will lock up. The cage difference also hard to discern in the manual. The manual shows a wide side of it and a narrow side, but they looked virtually the same to me. What IS different is that if you lay it on a flat surface, it will leave the imprint of a circle, or ring. One end of it will make a much thicker ring imprint than the other. The side that would make the thicker ring imprint on a piece of paper should also go to the open side of the birf...in board to the vehicle. [At least, thats the way I did it, and it seems to work and not bind up----if anyone disagrees with that, please correct it here so I won't screw anyone else up.] Lastly, because of the way I disassembled it, I didn’t realize that the ball bearings would fit through the race from the outside if tapped very gently. They will, and I finally got them reassembled

As you are assembling the birf, MAKE SURE YOU DON’T HAVE THE CIRCLIP ON THE AXLE, and reinsert the axle part way to check that the birf moves freely in all directions. If it is binding, you’ll feel it. Mine locked up when I checked it after reinserting just three bearings since I had the inner race backwards initially.

 

[Beowulf]

Here is TLCgrappler's original thread.

-B-

 

[Beowulf]

Thanks B.
When I look at the cage there is one side tapered more that the other. There are rings cut around the outside giving it the taper.
I should have marked the corresponding sides with a marker. This might be a good addition to the faq. The fact that it isn't in the fsm is bugging me.
Chris

Posts #59 and #73 in the Front Axle Rebuild FAQ have pictures of an assembled birf. These may help you.

I would strongly recommend for you to take some pics right now of the disassembled birfield and how to reassemble it correctly. Ken will be happy to add the new pics to the FAQ.

-B-

 

[CJBury]

Thanks for the advise. This is why this site is great.
I saw the pic in the rebuild thread. I think I have it together right now. I haven't put the bearings in yet. I still think wiping it off enough to mark it with a marker on the cage and star would have helped. I will take some pics to try to show the tapers on the cage.
I will be back at it in an hr. let you know how it goes.
Chris

 

[Beowulf]

I will take some pics to try to show the tapers on the cage.

That would be MUCH appreciated Chris and we can get Ken to add them to a section in the FAQ describing assembly of the birfield's components. I will try to grab the FSM images in question so we can post them with your actual images of the 80-Series parts. My local server is down right now and it has the electronic version of my FSM. Hopefully, I can get it running this evening (240GB of data I don't want to lose ).

You're not the first this has happened to but hopefully, yours will be the last post like this where those old drawings in the FSM cause someone grief.

-B-

 

[IdahoDoug]

Chris,

I too, would place great value in a picture as I just did this a week ago and also had a hesitation on reassembly. Took a few minutes to reorient myself and got it together but it can be unnerving. Despite this level of familiarity (two previous repacks also), I cannot visualize the "rings cut around the outside" on the cage.

DougM

 

[CJBury]

I took the pics last night. I hope they have enough resolution. I am waiting for for my friend to e-mail them to me because I used his camera. As soon as he does I will post them.
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who had trouble with this. I was seriously begining to doubt my ability.
Chris

 

[CJBury]

cage and star pics

Here are the pics of the cage and star. Notice the edges and the taper of the cage and the inside of the star for orientation
The last pic is what I think of this section of the fsm.
Chris

 

[turbocruiser]

Here's another snap shot of the orientation, you can clearly see the taper on the cage facing up and you can see the slots in the star and how they sit too. Hope this helps.

 

[TLCgrappler]

Its a little hard to tell from the last picture, but I'd say that Turbocruiser's picture is showing the "thin" side of the cage toards the open end of the birf, which is the opposite of how I oriented it, and how the manual shows it. I think the manual is correct about the cage.

IIRC, it looked like the race could be oriented either way, but the star had to be correct or it would bind. The manual shows the "thick" side of the cage facing the open side of the birf (facing inboard). The part of the manual that I though was wrong was the part showing the star with the "protuding" and "flat" orientation.

It seems logical to me that a thicker section of the cage should be in the area where the birf has a greater radius, because there is more torque present there. Thats the inboard side.