I originally started out just swapping in a 4.88 3rd member (finally!) in the front of my '85 Toyota. My inner axle oil seals must have been leaking a bit and the knuckles had gear oil in them. How far away am I from just pulling the knuckles off and doing a full rebuild? The leak probably isn't that bad, but when I park the truck and it isn't driven or moved for a couple months, a little bit of goo runs down the tire.

In order to yank the 3rd member, you of course have to pull off the hubs, spindles, and yank out the axles/birfs. But, the knuckles and steering arms are still left on. I'm not sure if I should continue and just throw it back together (I got new inner and outer oil seals), or if it's "easy" enough just to finish it off and pull the knuckles off and replaces the felt and wipers.

I've read the manual and Roger Brown's process, but not having done the work before I don't have a good "feel" for how much work is really left (particularly for stubborn parts such as ball joint seperation and those dang cone washers). My canumdrum is that I don't have replacement rebuilt kit and my truck would probably be down for another 2 weeks if I ordered today and paid for expensive overnight shipping. Whereas I could just throw it back together as is with the new seals and do a full rebuild later. I did completely dissassemble, clean, and regrease the locking hubs (and even painted the ends).

Your thoughts?

One option would be to pull the steering arms off and clean/inspect the knuckle bearings. If they are not pitted or damaged, put them back in with some new grease and call it good. If one or two is bad, you can get the parts from Toyota along with the seals.

Thanks Roger!

I wonder if I really need to worry about the wipers/felt anyway. If I replace the inner seals, there shouldn't be anything to leak in the first place out the wiper seals other than disk brake grease. And after all, it's only a slight amount of gear oil that leaks out after months of being parked. I think I answered my own question! Back together it shall go!

I really didn't want to mess with the steering arms until I upgrade to hy-steer. I was going to do that fairly soon, but I FINNALLY got around to tightening the adjuster screw on the old push/pull gear box and it worked wonders. Plus I tightened up a drag link end as well. I can't tighten it any more though becuase the ball is worn on the J-arm. I have a basically new replacement J arm ready to go, but I will end up doing hy-steer eventually. I'm not gonna clean off all that crud on the knuckles, fight with rust, stuck cone washers and tie rods, only to put a J-rod back on.

i'm in the middle of tearing down and rebuilding my front axle, as well as installing new springs, a 4.88 3rd, and crossover steering.

after you get to the point where you can yank the birfield, all that's left to remove the knuckle itself is to unbolt the steering arm and lower cap, remove the wiper retainers, and remove the bearings by moving the knuckle to where each bearing will fall out.