I'm replacing my CV boots and I noticed those needle bearings in the back of the knuckle feel a bit gritty and I would like to repack them. I'm figuring I could just pop off the seal and clean out the bearings with brake cleaner then pack some grease into them and put a new seal on. Any one see any thing wrong with that?

No real need to pop the seal. Just hose them out the best you can with brake cleaner and slather some grease in there.

Although, depending on how bad they are. Replacement may be smart. How does the bearing surface on the CV shaft look?

Michael

Shaft looks fine, it may of just been that I knocked some dirt in there when I popped off the lower ball joint. But since I have the knuckle off I figure I mite as well repack the bearing and I think it will be easier to have the seal out since it covers a washer that covers the bearings. I would normally just replace the bearing but that requires more time to order it from the dealer and it's harder to get the bearing out, whereas just popping out the seal and brake cleaning them is easy.

That washer should be able to be pulled without affecting the seal. I've never had a problem doing that.

The seal is large enough to seal on the step on the outer cup and that washer is as big or smaller as that diameter.

And, if you pull that seal, you will probably need to replace it. It is a dealer only item. (Or should be as it is rather non-standard).

Michael

Hm, ok, I'll try just pulling the washer out.

But I found Napa can get me the seal buy Monday if I go that route.

But I found Napa can get me the seal buy Monday if I go that route.

The kunckle seal? You did not mention the word "spindle" at all to them when asking, right? You might end up with a wheel seal, at this rate. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

If so, your Napa monkeys are better than my Napa monkeys. I usually just confuse the ones at mine...

Michael

I may of said spindle seal when I asked them but I said NOT the wheel seal, and the guy repeated that saying they had wheel seals but they couldn't get a knuckle seal till Monday. They also list the knuckle seal on their web site HERE

Just making sure for ya. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Nothing like opening that box and realizing that there is nothing in the world that will make that seal fit where you need it to.

Michael

Ok, well it all turned out fine. The thrust washer over the bearing was about the exact same size as the ID of the seal so it came out fine and I could see the whole bearing and cleaned it out easily. So no need to remove the seal, just gotta do the other side tomorrow. Guess someone else will have to find out if Napa lists the right seal.

The only pain was I was also replacing the lower ball joints and the ones I got from Spicer came with the wrong length and type of bolts, the bolts were shorter and they were not flange bolts. So the bolts only went like half way through the nuts so I had to use the old bolts.

Guess my Napa monkeys are as stupid as yours, as well as my dealership monkeys.

Driver side went fine but when I took off the passenger side I found a destroyed seal and a dried up rusty bearing. When I looked closer I saw that the loop of spring that goes inside the lip of the seal was missing. So apparently when the dealer replaced my CV shafts last year (w/o me asking) they lost the loop spring and didn't replace it, so the seal didn't seal and let water in so the bearing and seal self destructed. Just keep finding more and more things that dealer did that keep costing me more money.

So I called up Napa for a new seal, Saturday they said they could get one Monday afternoon if I called in the morning, they now told me that the closed pace that had them was in Tennessee. So I went to Napa to make sure, at Napa they told me they could get one tomorrow but the place that has them is listing them at $72.

So I went to the dealership and ordered a new bearing for like $10 and seal for like $15, just have to wait a few days for it to get here.