G
Guest
Guest
Morning All,
Had a drink and a great chat last night with an old list member Paul
Mills last night (keen overlander signed off due to too much work at
the moment).
He has a '93 80 that he gets serviced through either a local dealer or
4x4 shop. He mentioned that his birfields/cv joints were starting to
click and when I looked at them before he left the knuckles were
encrusted in a combination of oil/grease/mud/rust and looking at the
wiper seals it looked like there was very little grease in the
knuckles.
As far as I am aware dealers and most 3rd party garages don't do any
servicing on these items, only touching them when there is a problem
which is when it gets expensive. However there are a number of checks
that anyone of you can do to keep an eye on the health of these items.
For example:
When the garage changes any of the fluids, ask them to check the
condition of the oils they remove (they very seldom do) - grey sludge
in the diff oils is an indication that breathers might be blocked and
the inner seals are on their way out - dealing with these early can
save the cost of replacing the birfields, driveshafts, etc.
Another indication of the above problems is if you have oil residue or
leaking from the ball at the end of the axle.
Also whilst looking at the ball, if is is very dry, rusty or caked in
oiley mud, it could also be an indication of potential problems.
Ideally they should be clean and just lightly lubricated by grease.
If the seals are on their way out they won't be wiping the dirt off.
If there isn't much grease in the knuckle it won't be being wiped
across the ball leading to rusting. On one LC I looked at last week it
was obvious that the knuckle was only about 1/4 full because only the
bottom part of the ball was relativley clean and lightly grease, the
top part was bone dry and starting to rust. Ideally the knuckle should
be about 3/4 full.
Another check that you can yourself is to jack up each corner and
holding the wheel at the top and the bottom see if you can get it to
wobble - if the wheel bearings are loose you will feel a definite small
clunk as you wobble it. The TLC wheel bearings are very strong so it
takes a lot to get to the point where they are grinding and you can
hear it as you drive, however driving around with loose bearings will
affect the handling and can result in damage to the axle, driveshafts
and ultimately the Birfields which all starts to get a bit expensive.
These are all pretty basic checks that anybody with enough confidence
to drive should be able to tackle themselves. They are also the sort
of checks that you should be carrying out on any vehicle that you might
end up buying.
Ideally you should look to get the birfields and wheel bearings
stripped down and re-packed every 20-30,000 miles. The seals and
grease shouldn't come to much more than ?50 and then it should take an
experienced mechanic about 8-10hrs to do all four corners if done
thorougly, it takes less time if items like the bearings and birfields
are being replaced (they don't have to be cleaned/degreased).
Obviously if items do need to be replaced the costs go up, but if you
source the parts from Milners it can work out a lot cheaper than going
to Toyota. Here are some guide prices:
Front Axle seal kit - ?30 (?184 per corner from Toyota!!)
Toyota inner axle seal - ?8.50 each (better than the Milner ones - one
for each corner)
Wheel bearing lock washer - ?0.85 each (one for each corner).
Knuckle swivel bearing - ?8.50 each (two for each front corner)
Outer wheel bearings - ?9.50 (one per corner)
Inner Wheel bearings - ?15 (one per corner)
Birfield - ?80 (one per front corner)
In the next couple of weeks I'm going to be taking a (non mechanical)
list member through a complete service and the regular checks that he
should be doing to maintain the health of his 80 prior to dissappearing
off to North Africa and it has got me thinking....
If there are enough interested people from the list I would be willing
to run a workshop one Saturday or Sunday taking people through regular
checks to do and servicing. Looking at the exorbitant prices that
dealers charge you should be able to halve your servicing costs by
doing it yourself as well as prevent more expensive to repair damage
occurring.
What do you think?
--
Regards,
Julian Voelcker
Mobile: 07971 540362
Cirencester, United Kingdom
1994 HDJ80, 2.5" OME Lift
Had a drink and a great chat last night with an old list member Paul
Mills last night (keen overlander signed off due to too much work at
the moment).
He has a '93 80 that he gets serviced through either a local dealer or
4x4 shop. He mentioned that his birfields/cv joints were starting to
click and when I looked at them before he left the knuckles were
encrusted in a combination of oil/grease/mud/rust and looking at the
wiper seals it looked like there was very little grease in the
knuckles.
As far as I am aware dealers and most 3rd party garages don't do any
servicing on these items, only touching them when there is a problem
which is when it gets expensive. However there are a number of checks
that anyone of you can do to keep an eye on the health of these items.
For example:
When the garage changes any of the fluids, ask them to check the
condition of the oils they remove (they very seldom do) - grey sludge
in the diff oils is an indication that breathers might be blocked and
the inner seals are on their way out - dealing with these early can
save the cost of replacing the birfields, driveshafts, etc.
Another indication of the above problems is if you have oil residue or
leaking from the ball at the end of the axle.
Also whilst looking at the ball, if is is very dry, rusty or caked in
oiley mud, it could also be an indication of potential problems.
Ideally they should be clean and just lightly lubricated by grease.
If the seals are on their way out they won't be wiping the dirt off.
If there isn't much grease in the knuckle it won't be being wiped
across the ball leading to rusting. On one LC I looked at last week it
was obvious that the knuckle was only about 1/4 full because only the
bottom part of the ball was relativley clean and lightly grease, the
top part was bone dry and starting to rust. Ideally the knuckle should
be about 3/4 full.
Another check that you can yourself is to jack up each corner and
holding the wheel at the top and the bottom see if you can get it to
wobble - if the wheel bearings are loose you will feel a definite small
clunk as you wobble it. The TLC wheel bearings are very strong so it
takes a lot to get to the point where they are grinding and you can
hear it as you drive, however driving around with loose bearings will
affect the handling and can result in damage to the axle, driveshafts
and ultimately the Birfields which all starts to get a bit expensive.
These are all pretty basic checks that anybody with enough confidence
to drive should be able to tackle themselves. They are also the sort
of checks that you should be carrying out on any vehicle that you might
end up buying.
Ideally you should look to get the birfields and wheel bearings
stripped down and re-packed every 20-30,000 miles. The seals and
grease shouldn't come to much more than ?50 and then it should take an
experienced mechanic about 8-10hrs to do all four corners if done
thorougly, it takes less time if items like the bearings and birfields
are being replaced (they don't have to be cleaned/degreased).
Obviously if items do need to be replaced the costs go up, but if you
source the parts from Milners it can work out a lot cheaper than going
to Toyota. Here are some guide prices:
Front Axle seal kit - ?30 (?184 per corner from Toyota!!)
Toyota inner axle seal - ?8.50 each (better than the Milner ones - one
for each corner)
Wheel bearing lock washer - ?0.85 each (one for each corner).
Knuckle swivel bearing - ?8.50 each (two for each front corner)
Outer wheel bearings - ?9.50 (one per corner)
Inner Wheel bearings - ?15 (one per corner)
Birfield - ?80 (one per front corner)
In the next couple of weeks I'm going to be taking a (non mechanical)
list member through a complete service and the regular checks that he
should be doing to maintain the health of his 80 prior to dissappearing
off to North Africa and it has got me thinking....
If there are enough interested people from the list I would be willing
to run a workshop one Saturday or Sunday taking people through regular
checks to do and servicing. Looking at the exorbitant prices that
dealers charge you should be able to halve your servicing costs by
doing it yourself as well as prevent more expensive to repair damage
occurring.
What do you think?
--
Regards,
Julian Voelcker
Mobile: 07971 540362
Cirencester, United Kingdom
1994 HDJ80, 2.5" OME Lift
