|
Overhauling
a SFA Hilux Front Axle - Simon
Morris
Ask
questions here
So
now it is time to fit the metal backing half moon plates to the
rear of the swivel hub, if you look carefully at the other photo
you will see that the felt gasket must be put on first, then you
get the rubber seal and then the metal split flat ring, the flat
ring fits into the groove recess on the back of the swivel hub housing,
there is no torque for these bolts but you can just tighten them
using a size 10mm short spanner, the reason why I say use a short
spanner is because you will not have lots of leverage so that you
will snap off the small bolts if you over tighten them. But I did
use a torque wrench set at to start with at 10nm, then used a spanner.

You
have to make sure that you fit the half moon plates the correct
way, see the above photo for details.
Do not put any grease or oil on these seals, rather leave them dry
when you re-assemble them.
Now comes the
messy part, you can wear some surgical gloves but I prefer to just
use my bare hands and fingers, get a better feel if there are any
rough edges.
This photo below
shows you what the basic Birfield Joint looks like, this is the
joint that sometimes people break when they force their vehicle
through a difficult section of the trail, but there are also other
factors that will influence this joint to break as well, high speed
thrashing a vehicle to get through a difficult section will also
break it, also huge tyres fitted to a vehicle, this is why I say
that a person who wants to fit huge tyres to their vehicle must
consider the fitment of Longfield side shafts,
http://www.longfield.com
Once you have
cleaned out this joint, make sure that it is dry after you have
washed it with water, then basically inspect the housing and balls
for wear, mostly you will not find anything wrong with it, if you
are unsure, then send me some high resolution pic's to my email
bigballs@vodamail.co.za and I will have a look, the only time that
you will see that this joint is stuffed up is when you rip the vehicle
through a difficult section and you hear grinding noises coming
from the front axle and you will also loose traction from that wheel.
Place the shaft
in a vice like in the pic above, then make sure that your hands
are clean, take one last sip of your beer, because it will be a
while before you can pick up the bottle again.
Grab a tub of
CV Joint grease also known as MS grease, scoop some out with your
index finger and then start to push it down into the joint, it is
quiet easy, if you are in a climate that is very cold, you can heat
the grease slightly to make it more easy to work with. So have a
look at the pic below and you will see just how messy this small
important job really is.
But before you
insert the shaft back into the axle housing, first check that you
have fitted the small inner axle housing seal, on the right side
it is more easier than on the left, because the pumpkin is closer
to the right than on the left side, spread a little oil on the seal
runner surface, to be able to insert the axle shaft back through
the swivel hub, you have to make sure that the flats of the Birfield
joint are in the correct position, the shaft will not go back any
way, only with the flats to the top and the bottom, once into the
housing you can turn the shaft, you might find it better to jack
up the left wheel slightly off the ground so that you can turn the
wheel so that the splines of the centre diff will line up with the
splines of the side shaft that you are inserting to locate inside
the

Now clean away
any excess grease from the flat surface where the gasket goes between
the spindle axle shaft and the swivel hub housing, clean the metal
surface with some meths to make sure that there is no oil substance
left on the metal, now smear some silicone gasket maker on both
surfaces, but not too much, fit the gasket and then the axle spindle.
Torque the bolts
to 60nm and test with a spanner afterwards.
Now we go to
the wheel bearing hub, however as I said earlier in this topic,
one of the wheel studs was broken, thus to remove it, place the
bearing hub which also consists of the brake disc on a nice flat
piece of wood on your wood bench, use a round steel chisel that
is smaller than the OD of the wheel stud and give the drift a few
light taps with a hammer, the stud will come out, you have to just
use a bit of common sense to determine which direction the stud
will come out, you will see that there is a top hat section to the
one side of the stud, tap the stud on the broken off section.
Once you have
removed the broken stud, use some copperslip or anti corrosive paste,
smear a little on the shank of the new wheel stud, insert the stud
and then use the same drift, just tap it into position until the
top hat section is flush with the inside of the brake disc.
Be careful of
your fingers, otherwise you will loose a nail or two and I can tell
you that is sore.
Now take another
suitable chisel or drift and have a look inside the bearing hub,
you will see the bearing cups, they come out one way only, if you
are looking at the hole, they come out towards you from each end,
you will see a small area that is just big enough for you to be
able to put the end of the drift against the bearing cup, give the
drift a few taps and the cup will come out, sometimes if you battle
you may have to smack it harder or use a hydraulic press instead.
Now to refit
the new bearing cups you must once again smear some anti corrosive
paste on the outer surface, this will make them easier to remove
the next time you have to change the wheel bearings.
You do not have
to worry about getting the bearing cones mixed up, they are not
the same size, however it is always better to just use a cable tie
through the one so that when you have greased it, you will know
where it goes, to grease a wheel bearing cone there is only one
way and what I find is the best way to do this is to smear some
grease we once again use MS grease for this application, do not
use wheel bearing grease we find that wheel bearing grease will
not work well here, because when you reassemble the manual locking
hub, the MS grease in the hub will mix with the wheel bearing grease
and then you will have a gemors, we have also found that the MS
grease can handle the water if it enters the wheel bearing cavity.
To grease the
wheel bearings, use the palm of your one hand, put grease in your
palm and then use your other hand and grip the bearing and push
the wider side where the rollers are up against the flat of your
palm, this will force the grease in between the rollers so that
you will see it come out the other side, do this the whole circumference
of the bearing cone, then place the bearing in a clean place, do
the same to the other bearing, before you put the inner bearing
into the bearing housing, first smear some MS grease into the housing,
not too much because if you do overfill the housing your wheel bearings
will overheat.

This photo above
shows you that once you have fitted the wheel bearing axle shaft,
you must remember that you still need to fit the brake disc backing
plate, there is also another metal plate that also has a rubber
seal mounded into the plate, you fit this plate with the seal lip
towards you, see pic. Then screw in the bolts and torque.
Some
more photo's showing the backing plate as well as the axle shaft
all in place


Note
in this photo below, the three different size torque wrenches, they
are for the various torque setting sizes that are required, these
wrenches are very expensive, thus do not drop them, the smallest
size costs R1200.

Tapping
out the broken wheel stud below

Photo
showing where to tap the bearing cup to remove it

Photo
showing what the area looks like where the bearing cup was positioned

Photo
showing my dirty fingers
actually the wheel stud, note the anti corrosive paste on the shank

New
bearing with grease sitting in position, now you have to fit the
seal, the dished part of the seal goes towards the bearing, the
flat side must be tapped in so that the flat side is flush with
the bearing hub

Parts to buy
when you overhaul the front axle of a Toyota Hilux solid front.
- O' ring type
seal for the locking hub x 2
- Gasket for
locking hub x 2
- Gasket for
locking hub housing x 2
- Split locking
ring x 2 fits onto splined side shaft end
- Locking
metal tab x 2 fits between the two adjusting nuts when you pre-set
the wheel bearings
- Outer wheel
bearing x 2 (you can get from Bearing man or another bearing supplier)
- Inner wheel
bearing x 2 (SKF, Timken, or another well known make but not cheap
Chinese)
- Bearing
hub housing seal x 2
- Swivel Hub
seal and gasket kit x 1 (You can buy this from Autozone or Midas,
get this first, depends on make, it sometimes has some of the
other gaskets in it already, you will find that there are also
half moon plates for a Landcruiser.)
- Upper swivel
hub bearings taper x 2.
- Lower swivel
hub bearings x 2 taper.
- Inner housing
side shaft seals, (these seals fit into the axle housing from
the inside, they go in only one way, with the spring towards the
pumpkin, when refitting the side shaft on the left side be careful
not to damage this seal, the side shaft on the left side is much
longer than the side shaft on the right side.
- You will
also need 1 x pumpkin diff housing centre portion gasket, (if
you remove the diff from the housing, it is a good thing to do
then you can clean out all the muck at the bottom of the diff
housing if it is an older vehicle. Remove the prop shaft, do not
remove the pinion nut, this is set with a pre-load, loosen all
the bolts and nuts around the housing, but remember you have to
have the side shafts out first.
- 2 x plastic
tubs of CV Joint grease.(for wheel bearings, swivel hub housing,
locking hub housing)
- 4 x sheets
of 100 grit water paper (to clean up round ends of the axle shaft)
- Silicone
in a tube
- Meths spirits
small bottle (to clean all gasket surfaces)
- 1 x pair
cotton gloves (to protect your hands when working with the spanners)
- Small fish
scale (to check pre-loads )
- Element
geyser socket size 55
- 1 x small
torque wrench 0 to 50nm
- 1 x larger
torque wrench 50 to 250nm.
- Copper head
hammer (to tap taper split collars from locking hub housing and
swivel hub housing).
- Tin spray
or tube paste copper slip (use on all threads or nuts)
- Camera to
take pic's before you strip or have a look here.
- Normal set
of spanners, flat ring, you will have to modify some Cir-clip
pliers for the snap ring on the side shaft splined end, you have
to grind a flat on the outside, this ring is a B..ch to fit.the
pliers must be the type that open when you push the handles together,
not too small pair.
Please note
some people might disagree about me using CV Joint grease on the
wheel bearings and in the swivel hub, however it works for us, maybe
you would prefer to use wheel bearing grease on the wheel bearings
and 90 gear oil in the swivel hub
And that is how easy it was,
please note when you are busy with this repair and you have a question
or problem, all you have to do is phone me and ask cell 083 703 6430 (but not 1am in the morning) 
|