|
|
The dead soldiers... See the ball joint out of the cup? That was my last one... With the forth hit with the pickle fork, the knuckle drops and I think I'm done. Nope... Another hour of oil, heat, banging and fun.
If you've come this far, and actually observed what you're working on, you should understand things now and be comfortable putting it back together. I say this because I had a few photos of everything going back on, and they got deleted.
I did run into one problem on one side. When you put the knuckle back on, you have to finger tighten both the upper and lower ball joint nuts, then crank down the lower nut to 30-40 ft lbs. (you'll need a tourque wrench for most of the nuts and bolts going back on). After the lower is at 30-40 lbs, then the top nut get it till 95 ft lbs. (check your manual for ft lbs numbers). Then go back to the bottom and finish that to 95 ft lbs. At some point during tighting the lower ball joint nut, it stud is going to start spinning with the nut. You need more pressure - from the bottom, to push that stud taper tighter in hole. Use your jack and pump it up below the lower ball joint. This worked fine for me on one side, but not the other. I couldn't get enough pressure with just the jack. I had to use the ball joint press, and that was fun. With the knuckle on, plus the ratchet to tighten the nut, there wasn't much room at all for the press. It took a while and a lot of patience, but I got it.
Once the knuckle is on, in goes the axle, followed by the spindle. Rotor back on the spindle. Now the first three things going back on inside the hub are the inner lock nut, the lock washer and the outter lock nut. The inner has a little peg sticking out of one side. This peg must be pointing at you when going back on. First, crank this lock nut with the special beer can wrench to 50 ft lbs. Back it off, then tighten back to 45 - 40 ft lbs. The 50 ft lbs sets the rotor against the spindle and sets the two bearings in the rotor nice and snug.
Other things of note during installation - the spindle nuts get cranked to a certain tourque (mine was 50 ft lbs)...easy does it putting the axles back in. Don't damage the oil seal on the diff or bust up the splines on end of the axle...change the U joints on the axle if needed. You want do 3/4 of this all over again in the future?....Don't forget the CV boot on the passanger side axle. And replenish any gear oil that may have leaked from the diff when you pulled the axles.
|
