Ok, so I gave up trying to get the ball joints pressed out with that rental press from AZ, and after watch Tim work it with a 20 ton press, I'm glad I did. Again, a huge "thank you" to Tim.
Here's the new joints installed. Aren't they purty? :toothless
I installed the zerk fittings for the greasable BJs. I didn't put the upper zerks completely flush because I was figuring that I was taking them back out and I wanted it to be accessable; they are pretty tight though. Now that I'm looking at the setup, with that angle and the height above the hole in the knuckle, there may be enough clearance to leave it in place. If so, should I bottom out the fitting? I'm not positive that it will align all that well for future use if I do.
Steve reminded me to use anti-seize but I wasn't sure about how much to use, so I erred on the side of caution and just used a thin film on all the parts - the inside and out of the camber adjuster ring, and the contact area of the ball joint shaft. these pics have it applied, so you can see how thin I applied it. It's a little thinner on the joint shaft.
So then I lifted it up into place and put the top nut on to hold it in place. I had already had it in place once, so the ball joints were already lined up to just slip into place. I thought that was good, as Steve had warned me not to get anti-seize grease onto the area that was getting some loctite in the next step, and avoiding having to work the shafts into alignment minimized the contact.
I was a bit worried about how much of the joint was exposed from under the boot when it got into place, but was assured that it was normal, and that with regular maintenance it would be fine. You can see from these pics how far off it is.
Next, I applied the loctite to the threads of the lower joint and the nut. Again, erring on the side of caution, I didn't really goop it up; I just filled the threads. I figured the nut would push the excess in front of it as I tightened it down.
So, according to the Haynes directions, I tightened the lower to about 40 ft-lbs. At this point, I ran into a problem many have mentioned, and used the solution recommended. The ball was spinning in the socket, and not allowing me to tighten it up, so I
removed the zerk fitting and applied enough pressure with the floor jack to immobilize the joint enough to let me apply some torque to it.
Next, I tightened the upper joint to about 90 ft-lbs; and then, using an adjustable wrench so I could see, further tightened it 'til the castle nut lined up with the hole for the cotter pin, and installed the pin.
Then back to the bottom nut for the final torque to 110 ft-lbs.
Finally, I topped off the grease in the ball joints. I kept pumping it in 'til the grease bulged the boot and started seeping out. I hope that wasn't
too much.
That synthetic grease sure is a funky color.
With how the boot was sitting on the top joints, I never even saw it bulge; the grease just started oozing out the side, so I called it full.
So that's it for the ball joints; now I need to start putting things back together.
A couple of things Iolaus; you can keep those upper BJ zerks in there and run it like that. Check clearance with the u-joint/axle installed and the spindle bolted on, there should be plenty of clearance, but just double check. Be careful tightening those zerks in there. They are copper pieces and are EXTREMELY EASY to break... I speak from experience. If you feel they are tight STOP and leave a couple of the treads showing. I snapped one of my zerks in the upper BJ and had to take it out and take if back under warrantee (that was a PITA). Lastly, you'll be fine greasing everything up until the new grease gooshes out of the boot. It wont damage the boot, it forces the old stuff out, and you for sure know the joint is full (whether it be a BJ or TRE). Just wipe off the excess when you are done with the grease gun AND after you drive if for a while, go back and re-wipe off all of the joints because more grease will come out of the boots.
I generally install angled grease nipples FIRST, then use a cup (or socket) to drive the ball joint into the knuckle so that I can be sure 1) the nipple is fully tightened, & 2) it faces where it will be accessible later. If you're not comfortable doing that, fully install the nipple, MARK the ball joint housing, remove the nipple, drive the ball joint in, & put the nipple back facing the same way.
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So, first things first, I got the axles cleaned up and ready to go back in.
I forgot to take a pic of this before sliding it into place, but the directions on the anti-seize grease said it would dissolve in all oils, so I put a light coat of it on the driver's side axle since it was going into the differential and I wanted to lube it for the oil seal. There was no way for me to access that seal easily, so I'm just going to have to assume that it is still in serviceable condition.
I should have put the anti-seize onto the knuckle where the spindle inserts before I put the axle in place; it was much easier on the passenger side when I didn't have to work around the axle.
Anyway, The axle is in place. I didn't have a lot of choices in finessing it in; fortunately, from the pic that Tony R supplied, it looks like it's designed to feed itself into place.
Next, the spindle seal is installed. Here's a pic of how the pieces are oriented.
So get them greased up and slip them on. Again, it would have been easier if I had pre-greased the surface before installing the axle. Working with those bolts in the way was a pain; an easier way would have been to moderately grease the surface, and then just top of the seals with grease after I installed them.
I didn't get these all done first and just install the axle with them already in place, because I didn't know how much handling it was going to take to get the axle in. It turned out that the driver's side was easy. However, when I got to the passenger side it took a bit more effort, and I was glad that I hadn't gotten grease all over everything yet.
You can put the brake shield on at this point.
I figured the axle would push a lot of the excess through, so I put the majority of the grease on the axle side of things.
I forced as much grease as I could into the spindle bearing, and left a solid coating of extra, but like I said, I was relying on the axle side of it to finish filling the cavity.
I also applied anti-seize to the outside contact areas of the spindle at this point
The Spindle slid into place easily
The Haynes said to tighten the nut to 40 ft-lbs, but I tightened them down to 50, just because 40 seemed so light. :shrug
How to break bolts in one easy lesson.
Nothing broke this time. :brownbag
...and 40 lbs
did feel awfully light to me.
The passenger side just goes into the stub coming out of the differential. I removed the boot at the stub joint and cleand off a bunch of grease and road crud, and stuck a rag up into the stub to get out as much grease as I could, then applied some synthetic grease to the stub socket and replaced the boot. Next, I greased the axle the axle, slid it into place, and slid the boot over to cover the joint. I forgot to get those boot clamps; I'll have to get them tomorrow.
Like I said, this side took a little work to get it into place.
The spindle on this side gave me some problems, and I ended up using the nuts to slowly press it into place; it wasn't real hard to do, but hand pressure wasn't working. I just kept going back and forth and around the circle, tightening them a couple of cranks on the ratchet each time, and watching to make sure everything stayed level.
Then I threw some plastic bags over both sides (expecting rain again) and cleaned up for the night. :toothless
i hope you timmed the stub shaft with the axle , the u-joint s have to be aligned straight accross . maybe you marked it and i was not paying attention and just aligned the marks. food for thought
No. I didn't; how important is that?
if you dont , vibration will aventually ripp them apart when mudding or in the dirt off road . all types of drive lines need timming when dealing with a slip yolk at anyspeed/ just a fyi
Damn. :doh0715: It looks like I'm about 15 - 20 degrees out. :banghead So, I'll be pulling both spindles; one to grease the axle, and one to reorient the u-joints.