So just completed I think my ~8th front axle service in ~15 years of Cruiser ownership...tried a couple new things this time.
Ever since my first front axle service, I have always maintained that:
1. a real seal puller is way better than a screwdriver, and it turns out that these seal pullers come in different thickness and you want a thicker one so it doesn't cut through the seal: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...ol-seal-puller/pfm0/w1219?q=seal+puller&pos=2
2. a TRE puller is way better than a pickle fork: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...puller/pfm0/w80557?q=Tie+rod+end+puller&pos=1
3. When popping the inner hub seal out of the hub, do not sit on the rotor to hold it in place while you pry on the seal. When the seal pops you will almost take off some fingers. Ouch.
This time, a few new things:
1. Saw these babies in the O'Reilly and thought they were a good idea. Turned out they worked really well: caliper hangers
2. Alignment studs to hold the spindle on while you get the first few bolts put in: M10x1.25x40mm or so bolts with the heads cut off and slots drilled into them:
3. When I pulled off my hubs the claw washers showed signs of spinning bearings. So the FSM preload torque appears to be too light at 48 in-lbs on the inner nut and 43 ft-lb on the outer nut. I tried doing the inner nut to 35+ ft-lbs and after tightening the outer nut the fishscale preload was still in spec. Hubs don't seem excessively warm after a highway run so going to try it out.
4. New knuckle studs now come with loctite pre-applied with an external torx fitting for torquing them. The 70 series FSM says to torque the studs in the knuckle to 36 ft-lbs. I did not do this on all of the knuckles I recently did but I did do it on one of them that was questionable.
5. Turns out you can tap out the inner hub seal from the back side, through the hub, by tapping on the bearing. This way you do not destroy the seal. Does it destroy the bearing? Up for debate I guess.
6. Along with my big brass drift for knocking cone washer loose, I picked up a NAPA 902 drift (1/2" x 7") and a 904 drift (1/2" x 1/4" x 6"). The 902 was handy for knocking out the steering arm and the 904 (tapered) was handy for knocking out the trunnion bearing races. https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_902?impressionRank=4
Anyway, a few different things I learned/did differently this time.
Ever since my first front axle service, I have always maintained that:
1. a real seal puller is way better than a screwdriver, and it turns out that these seal pullers come in different thickness and you want a thicker one so it doesn't cut through the seal: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...ol-seal-puller/pfm0/w1219?q=seal+puller&pos=2
2. a TRE puller is way better than a pickle fork: https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...puller/pfm0/w80557?q=Tie+rod+end+puller&pos=1
3. When popping the inner hub seal out of the hub, do not sit on the rotor to hold it in place while you pry on the seal. When the seal pops you will almost take off some fingers. Ouch.
This time, a few new things:
1. Saw these babies in the O'Reilly and thought they were a good idea. Turned out they worked really well: caliper hangers
2. Alignment studs to hold the spindle on while you get the first few bolts put in: M10x1.25x40mm or so bolts with the heads cut off and slots drilled into them:
3. When I pulled off my hubs the claw washers showed signs of spinning bearings. So the FSM preload torque appears to be too light at 48 in-lbs on the inner nut and 43 ft-lb on the outer nut. I tried doing the inner nut to 35+ ft-lbs and after tightening the outer nut the fishscale preload was still in spec. Hubs don't seem excessively warm after a highway run so going to try it out.
4. New knuckle studs now come with loctite pre-applied with an external torx fitting for torquing them. The 70 series FSM says to torque the studs in the knuckle to 36 ft-lbs. I did not do this on all of the knuckles I recently did but I did do it on one of them that was questionable.
5. Turns out you can tap out the inner hub seal from the back side, through the hub, by tapping on the bearing. This way you do not destroy the seal. Does it destroy the bearing? Up for debate I guess.
6. Along with my big brass drift for knocking cone washer loose, I picked up a NAPA 902 drift (1/2" x 7") and a 904 drift (1/2" x 1/4" x 6"). The 902 was handy for knocking out the steering arm and the 904 (tapered) was handy for knocking out the trunnion bearing races. https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/BK_902?impressionRank=4
Anyway, a few different things I learned/did differently this time.
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