There is oil or grease leaking out of the steering knuckle on to the tire in my 84 4runner. I tightened the 8 small bolts around the knuckle and the 4 larger ones on the plate under the knuckle and that minimized the leak but there is still a small amount of leakage after a few days of sitting. I'm new to this vehicle and don't know if this is normal. I will be leaving my toyota at my house in baja for use on the beaches and dunes...also for the mountains above us. Will this be a problem or should I just clean it up once in while and forget it? Thanks for the help.

 

I would say it would it will be fine. Simply check your fluid level in the axle occasionally. I drove mine around for over a year before i fixed the issue. It is a fairly easy fix buy the knuckle repair kit from trail gear, marlin crawler or whoever you want to and use the write up stickyed at the the top of the 84,85 tech page.

 

Any thought if just gasket replacement or replacing the gaskets with RTV would fix the leak? It's kinda messy considering it will be in the dirt or sand for the rest of its life.

 

It is most likely your inner axle seals that are leaking. You will have to remove the knuckles to replace them. Just get a rebuild kit like said above and fix it right and forget about it.

RTV won't help you.

 

Yeah no way RTV will do anything! Mine were leaking forever and its ok to drive with it like that for awhile as long as you keep checking the diff for fluid levels... got a marlin crawler rebuild kit with the HD seals and finished it in 4 days. Now they look brand new. Not really hard, just super time consuming with tons of grease and oil everywhere. I ruined 2 sets of clothes and my hands felt greasy for days lol...

heres the write-up guide I used: http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...eRebuild.shtml

 

Thanks, sounds like good advice. Checked out Marlin Crawler and Trail Gear....both interesting. Axle seals repair sounds sensible since it seems more like oil than grease. Thanks for the help.

 

Box yourself a box of latex gloves and a bottle of baby powder. Some gloves don't have the powder in them so sprinkle a little in the glove then put them on. Makes it simple to clean your hands afterwards.

 

If you are tearing it all apart for the inner axle seals get the whole knuckle service kit.

:wabbit2: