Topic: play in the front end

[85yotanh]

Took my truck out for its first drive on the road in about a year and was nervous to do 30! Since i had completely gone through the axle I knew there wasnt anything wrong with it. My coworker suggested removing my super swampers, and tossing back on my 235/75/15 stockers just to see. In the proccess of doing so I was triple checking for play and things of that nature, and this time there was. The drivers side knuckle had side to side play which was relatively substantial for just being replaced. I figured maybe tie rod or wheel bearing. The tie rods are new and arent bad and so i dug in to check that my wheel bearings were still in the new condition i left them in, they were so i reassembled and still there is play.

The crap part of it is i finished puting on my stockers and i was bombin down the road doing 60 with no allignment and with this new found play, no vibes no swaying all over the road no twitchy steering . . . . Nuts

Im just looking for suggestions here what else could be causing the play in the axle/ what 35" tire runs great down the road and is still aggresive . . . Im thinking KM2's?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
Ben

[Rockdad]

Are your wheels balanced? How tight is the nut on your wheel bearings?

[79coyotefrg]

Super swampers look great but they have horrible road manners.

what tires do??   just about anything besides superswampers

[OOPS]

What did you set the pre-load on the trunnion bearings at? With that size tire it should be 12-14 start pull pounds on the spring gauge. If you do not know what I am talking about, read.

http://www.lukemiller.org/toys/1985_toyota_4wd_front_axle_FSM.pdf

[85yotanh [OP]]

wheels are balanced to the best of my knowledge

bearings were set to instructions torque the first time and the second time i just did it by feel tonight on the drivers side

when i hooked my fish hook scale to the high steer ar and pulled while i was building them it read about 10 or 11 i think

im thinking now it may have come in too much and maybe i need to remove a shim from the top trunion bearing from the drivers side and add more grease to both knuckles? maybe

[OOPS]

Rule of thumb on the shims that most people use is one thick and one thin on the bottom. This basically gets the knuckle centered which is important for longer axle seal life. Then one thick and one thin on the top with the upper and lower knuckle torqued to spec, 71 ft lbs for stock studs, 100-110 ft lbs for ARP studs. Then take you scale reading. If it is high or low adjust by changing only the shims on the top.

Your trunnion bearings, birfield should be packed with grease. I do not put the amount of grease in the knuckle the FSM shows. That is done for a front end that will see a hundred thousand before it is opened up again. Most wheelers open them up a heck of a lot sooner then that, especially if it has stock birfs and locked diff and is wheeled.

One other thing, if your trunnion bearings are "no name" bearings, they are crap IMHO. I had one break on the street and take out a Longfield 30-spline. If the bearings came in a kit from a company with the letters T-G get some real bearings, better yet get Marlins 25 mm kit.

[85yotanh [OP]]

But would that side to side play be caused by shims being out of whack or no?

[OOPS]

If they are to loose, yes but yours sound in spec. Sounds more like loose wheel bearings.

When you tested the pre-load on the knuckle did you do it without the the oil seal set(felt dust seal, rubber seal, steel ring) on the back of the knuckle? If you had all that stuff on you will not get the right reading.

[85yotanh [OP]]

when i was setting it up i believe i did it without them on, and I aslo did check my wheel bearings, and they are snug as a bug inside that spindle.

[yoshaleng]

Yup, swampers look gr8 but are terrible road tires! Had set w/ about 45-50% tred left and at 35-40mph, I would get the "DEATH WOBBLE". I now run 37" toyo's and they are perfect on the road and perform flawlessly on trails. Look into it, you'll like them. They don't wear down fast like swampers do either.