My Birfield Repack
Last updated 8/04/03
Hi there, so last Saturday was finally time for me to tackle my knuckles, a job that was probably a little overdue, for my Cruiser as much as it was time for me to finally learn how to do this. Like most Cruiserfolk I know, I have 0 professional mechanical training, and all I know I've learned from web sites, manuals, and others who have been kind enough to share their knowledge with me. Having said that, I need to give some credit where credit is due...
First off is Jim's write up from ih8mud, you can see it here: http://www.ih8mud.com/tech/birf-repace.html. From that site you'll see a link to the best "picture page" I've found on the subject, affectionately referred to as "George's Site." Check out George's site here http://www.geocities.com/george_tlc/birfield.html. Be patient if you have a slow connection, the pictures are big but worth it. Lastly I'll thank a few key individuals, all of whom are also associated with the Rising Sun club here in Colorado. In addition to this project, they've helped me with many many others, and hopefully many others to come. Jim's site has a very comprehensive shopping list, the only thing I added was a milk crate & cushion to sit on, and a couple 12 packs of liquid currency to thank my friend Scott for helping and supervising. If you're doing this job away from home, the back of your cruiser may look like this:
Click on any image to view a larger image, then click the back button to come back.
Ok, so to start off I put the front axle up on jack stands, and removed both tires, making sure the wheels are pointed straight ahead. With me so far? right, nothing to it. Next up is taking the hub off, which can be quite tricky because of those little cone washers. Take off the 12mm nuts, washers, and what's left are the cone washers. To remove them, some will whack the top of the hub from the top, and pop them all free at once. I chose to smack them all individually, head on, using a 1" x 2" x 4" block of scrap aluminum. I also had a brass drift, but had better luck with the more meaty aluminum block, as long as your smacking implement is softer than the bolt you'll be OK Once free those cone washers will look like little candy corns. Also you need to pry the center dust cover off... in fact now that I think about it, take the dust cover off before you start smacking the cone washers, it'll help the hub move around a little easier. See the last picture for what it looks like after the hub and dust cover have been removed.
Now to the fun stuff. Take the brake caliper off and set it on the steering linkage behind the stuff you're working on. I didn't bother wiring it up to anything, and never had a problem with it falling, just make sure you don't let the caliper become suspended by just the brake line, or your project could get another dimension added to it. Reach in around the axle and clean some of the grease away to reveal the two hub nuts and lock washer deal. See where the tabs on that locking thing are bent down around the nut, and with a small screw driver or needle-nose pry them up until they're sort of vertical, to match the rest of the washer. Then take your 54mm hub socket and remove both nuts and washer. I bought mine from Slee, had to also get a 1/2" to 3/4' socket adapter but it worked awesome, do yourself a favor and get the right tool, nothing worse than seeing those grooves in the big nuts from some idiot just spun them with a hammer and screwdriver. Anyway once you get the nuts out and the caliper off the brake rotor should slide right off, and the wheel bearings will come with it.
Next up is taking the spindle off, and removing the ABS sensor. You'll see in the first picture that I removed the ABS sensor before removing the spindle and that big dust shield thing. On the other side I waited to remove the ABS sensor until after the big dust shield was off, and it was much easier because I could see it head on. Just remember to remove the ABS sensor prior to pulling the birfield... just one bolt and a little jiggle, nothing to it. The middle picture above is after the bolts have been removed from the spindle, how the big seal, dust cover, and paper gasket now hang free on top of the spindle. Pull those bad boys off and lightly tap on the spindle with a soft hammer, and it'll pop out of its taper and slide off, as shown in the last picture. Yes, this is where the big mess begins.
Feel inside the birfield housing for the flat spot, and rotate the axle until the flat is on top. I used the hub (that I removed about an hour ago) as a wrench, worked quite well. Once that flat side is up, gently pull on the axle and what you'll be left with is a big, drippy, axle and birfield assembly, ready for cleaning. The picture below shows one happy lad after just removing his first birfield... they say you never forget your first time, let's hope not. Special props to Scott for capturing my reflection in the fender... very artistic!
I used brake cleaner to break up some of the grease, worked fairly well. Also used some WD40, which seemed to work fine too. It really just took time, patience, and lots of paper towels to remove all of the old grease that I could from everything I wasn't throwing away. At this time I took an inventory of my rebuild kit, to see what new parts I had and what I could get away with not cleaning... One shortcut, I admit, was I didn't mess with the knuckle bearings, their shims, and consequently didn't replace the rear wipers and seals. Sorry, but I wasn't dripping, and didn't want to mess with it. I guess if I find my inner axle seal is leaking again in a year I may do it again, this time do the whole job. What I did instead was remove the 2 half-moon covers from the back of the knuckle, spray down and clean the gasket, felt, and brass split washer deal, then reinstall it all using new half-moon things. I'll be the first to know if they start to drip.. none so far. The image below on the left is of the rear wiper area after I cleaned it up. The other image is inside the knuckle, now that all grease is removed, ready for a new inner axle seal. Cool thing was because I did both sides at once, I could actually see through the axle to the other side.. tried to capture that in the photo but I guess I didn't.
After cleaning and packing the birfield, installing the new inner axle seal, I slid it back into the axle housing. Yes, I wanted to take pictures of that but my hands and arms were completely covered in grease, and I didn't want to further wreck our digital camera. You can see some great pics of the effort on George's site, though, if you're so inclined. The trick we used to get the new gasket, dust cover, big seal and spindle all lined up was as follows: Only worry about the paper and spindle to start, get it all lined up and started with 3 opposing bolts. Tighten the bolts until the spindle slides into its taper, then remove the bolts. The spindle will now hold itself up, while you align the dust cover and big seal, and install all the bolts, remembering all the washers. Picture below shows the clean spindle, big seal, and dust cover reinstalled.
Next up is repacking the wheel bearings, and then reinstalling the outer seals, and reinstalling the brake rotors to hold it all together. Again, I meant to take more pictures, but every shot involved cleaning off a hand, a task I grew somewhat tired of. Also, we had a little Pep Boys experience mid-afternoon, as we waited an extra hour or so for my rotors to get turned, so patience wasn't as high during the rebuild as it may have been otherwise. Needless to say, check out Jim's site for a great bearing pre-load technique, one that I neglected to remember to do but will probably do in the next couple weeks. Even if I didn't do the job as beautifully as a certified Toyota mechanic may have done it, there's no argument the condition of my birfields, axle seals, and wheel bearings are a world better now than they were before. I could see myself doing this once every year or two regardless of mileage, just to make sure all is well. Also, I only used about half of the parts that came in the rebuild kit from MAF, so next time I'll probably just buy the seals, save another $80 or so. Feel free to email me your comments, thanks for reading.