G
Guest
Guest
Hi All,
It's been a while since the last workshop report so here is a catch up.
Even if you aren't interested in working on your LC yourself, it is
well worth reading the first part of this.... it is a cautionary tale.
I have recently had to do a standard front axle rebuild replacing the
CVs, all the seals and checking the wheel and knuckle bearings,
replacing where necessary.
Now the important thing to point out was that last December this 80 had
had it's steering knuckles rebuilt with a number of new parts fitted by
a 'local mechanic'.
Anyway, I thought it was a little odd that the vehicle need attention
so soon after a rebuild however was shocked whe I opened it all up.
Basically the local mechanic had forgotten to put any grease in the
wheel bearings or CVs!!! and to top it all the owner has been doing a
fair bit of off roading over the last 10 months including regular dips
in a ford.
I struggled to get a socket on the hub nuts because they were so rusted
and when I opened up the knuckles I had rusty oily water dribbling out
of it.
The thing I don't understand is that the mechanic must have know to put
grease in there, because there was some in there before he stripped it
all down.
As you can imagine the wheel bearings were completely shot - I'm
actually staggered that there wasn't more damage. You can see some
pics of the bearings at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/julian.voelcker/OddsAndSodsPics.
The frustrating this is this isn't the first time this has happened -
earlier this year I replaced the CVs on an 80 that had only been
replaced 18months previously by a local Toyota dealer (who should know
better) and they had forgotten to put grease in them.
I also know of a fellow lister who's local mechanic assumed that the LC
was like some LRs so had put oil in the CV rather than grease. Great
in theory, however the unsurprisingly the seals couldn't handle it and
it all leaked out.
Anyhow, I guess what I am leading up to is that unless you are going to
do the work yourself, do check to make sure that anyone working on your
80 knows what they are doing, and if they or you are unsure, askk on
the list here about how to do something and then pass on the info to
your machanic.
Whilst doing the rebuild I noticed that there was a slip of metal
wedged in the vents of one of the Milner supplied disks (see
http://tinyurl.com/34zx44) . I thought it might have been for
balancing the disk but checked with our resident Brakes guru Gareth
Jones on his views and he pointed out that disks should be balanced
during the machining process - anyway I checked with Milners and it is
indeed there for balancing - which doesn't reflect well on their
quality.
Whilst on the subject of Milners, I always use a length of scaffolding
pole to seperate CVs from halfshafts which works well (most of the
time!) for removing Toyota CVs however when trying to remove a Milner
CV the other day it didn't matter how many times I tried dropping it in
the scaffolding pole or how many times I hit it with firstly my heavy
brassed faced hammer and latterly with a sledgehammer I could not shift
it or shatter the cage. In the end we had to use a plasma cutter to
cut away the cage and then a combination of plasma cutter and angle
grider to remove the inner part of the cage. I think it just goers to
show that these things are pretty solidly built!
More news later.
--
Regards,
Julian Voelcker
07971 540 362
Skype: julianvoelcker
Cirencester, United Kingdom
1994 HDJ80, 2.5" OME Lift
It's been a while since the last workshop report so here is a catch up.
Even if you aren't interested in working on your LC yourself, it is
well worth reading the first part of this.... it is a cautionary tale.
I have recently had to do a standard front axle rebuild replacing the
CVs, all the seals and checking the wheel and knuckle bearings,
replacing where necessary.
Now the important thing to point out was that last December this 80 had
had it's steering knuckles rebuilt with a number of new parts fitted by
a 'local mechanic'.
Anyway, I thought it was a little odd that the vehicle need attention
so soon after a rebuild however was shocked whe I opened it all up.
Basically the local mechanic had forgotten to put any grease in the
wheel bearings or CVs!!! and to top it all the owner has been doing a
fair bit of off roading over the last 10 months including regular dips
in a ford.
I struggled to get a socket on the hub nuts because they were so rusted
and when I opened up the knuckles I had rusty oily water dribbling out
of it.
The thing I don't understand is that the mechanic must have know to put
grease in there, because there was some in there before he stripped it
all down.
As you can imagine the wheel bearings were completely shot - I'm
actually staggered that there wasn't more damage. You can see some
pics of the bearings at
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/julian.voelcker/OddsAndSodsPics.
The frustrating this is this isn't the first time this has happened -
earlier this year I replaced the CVs on an 80 that had only been
replaced 18months previously by a local Toyota dealer (who should know
better) and they had forgotten to put grease in them.
I also know of a fellow lister who's local mechanic assumed that the LC
was like some LRs so had put oil in the CV rather than grease. Great
in theory, however the unsurprisingly the seals couldn't handle it and
it all leaked out.
Anyhow, I guess what I am leading up to is that unless you are going to
do the work yourself, do check to make sure that anyone working on your
80 knows what they are doing, and if they or you are unsure, askk on
the list here about how to do something and then pass on the info to
your machanic.
Whilst doing the rebuild I noticed that there was a slip of metal
wedged in the vents of one of the Milner supplied disks (see
http://tinyurl.com/34zx44) . I thought it might have been for
balancing the disk but checked with our resident Brakes guru Gareth
Jones on his views and he pointed out that disks should be balanced
during the machining process - anyway I checked with Milners and it is
indeed there for balancing - which doesn't reflect well on their
quality.
Whilst on the subject of Milners, I always use a length of scaffolding
pole to seperate CVs from halfshafts which works well (most of the
time!) for removing Toyota CVs however when trying to remove a Milner
CV the other day it didn't matter how many times I tried dropping it in
the scaffolding pole or how many times I hit it with firstly my heavy
brassed faced hammer and latterly with a sledgehammer I could not shift
it or shatter the cage. In the end we had to use a plasma cutter to
cut away the cage and then a combination of plasma cutter and angle
grider to remove the inner part of the cage. I think it just goers to
show that these things are pretty solidly built!
More news later.
--
Regards,
Julian Voelcker
07971 540 362
Skype: julianvoelcker
Cirencester, United Kingdom
1994 HDJ80, 2.5" OME Lift