sounds like your housing may be bent, i vote for the TG housing! thats on my dream list.
you don't know anyone with a spare harmonic balancer for a 7m do ya?

 

It would be nice to just swap to LT, but it is currently cheaper too deal with the SAS at the moment, besides, its fun to learn about the quarks of the Toyota solid axle.

I did end up pulling the short side of the axle, and found more poor craftsmanship during the disassembly. Just like the long side I found the locking hub studs were not seated right, and who ever put the axle assembly together, did not care about having a 54mm socket. Looks like a chisel was used to tighten the bearing and locking nuts. I suspect to find that quality control was not accounted for at all during the assembly of the front axle, which leads me to my next conclusion.

When I was ready to pull the birf and axle shaft out of the short side of the housing, I encountered the same exact problem I had with removing the long side shaft. The birf was contacting the lower side of the ball end of the housing. Since both the long and short sides are making the same exact contact, I now suspect that the knuckles were not properly shimmed, which my be pinching the ball end of the housing to close to the birf. I also found that both of the inner axle shaft seals are worn at the top, indicating that the shaft is not centered correctly, which is more evidence that the knuckles are not shimmed right. So, I am going to remove the knuckles, paint them up, check the caster angle, check to see if the shafts go in correctly with the knuckles removed, and do my best to shim the knuckles correctly.

After I work out the issues with the knuckles, I will order the parts I need from Davez Off Road, and I think all the death wobble issues will be solved.

Here are some pictures I took during the trouble shooting inspection.
Some of the oxidation I found due to unpainted knuckles

Unseated studs for the locking hubs

chiseled lock nut

Gear oil in the knuckle due to worn inner seal


Both inner seals are worn towards the top of the seal in the same manner


Drew your suspicions about the trunion bearings may be correct due too improper knuckle shimming and setup; I'll let you know what I discover with a fallow up.

 

No, sorry mate, I do not know anyone who would have a spare; how pricy are they?

 

pretty pricey but i'll find one eventually...
i need to adjust the valves, you ever done that? sounds like a pain from reading the manual

 

adjusting valves on a 22r or 22re?? Really simple. need a feeler gauge and wrench,flathead screwdriver. Some people do it on a cold engine i prefer to warm it up and do it that way. I dont know the clearances off the top of my head but theyre somewhere in my build thread.

 

Yes, Kornhusker, the 22re is simple, however Liveoffroad has a 7Mge swap in the runner, which is different altogether. Adjusting the valves on a 7mge requires removing the camshaft and swapping in shims, because the 7mge does not have rocker-arms.

 

ahhhhhh....holy cow!! ok. sorry for not paying more attention! By the way it looks like your really getting educated on these straight axles! Great pics and info. I myself have never tore into them but i have a couple waiting to go in! Althogh blazeland is growing on me as well, it will be a toss up i think when i have the $$$ to drop to do it. Hope everythings coming together for ya.

 

Great pics on the knuckles. I have a leaky inner drivers side axle seal on my 85. Just trying to find the time to get it tore apart.

Can't help on the 7m valves.

 

I learned a lot about the strait axles years ago, but the hands on experience really does reveal the details of how everything is related in the strait axle.

My opinion cant say much, but I do prefer the setup of the Ifs over the Sas.
The Ifs is exposed, which makes it easier to work on, and snapping a CV saves time in swapping the CV, also the CV week point saves the rest of the drive train from damage. Not too mention, Blazeland LT is cheaper compared to a SAS

Thanks, I do try to do my part with spending the time to get good pic.. It slows me down some, but I feel it is worth it if it helps someone else learn. Plus all the picks I took it the past let me reminisces over my 86 that got ripped off.

 

I agree with you on the ifs. It is very easy to work on and you can visually see if something is wrong, broken, etc. plus , in general, parts are usually cheaper to replace on the ifs.

 

I think Blazeland you can do wheeling and fly down the interstate to your next destanation...sas you are going to possibly do more extreme cralwling but might also have been trailered to the spot.

 

I completely agree. The IFS is going to ride sooo much better on the rode. Especially if its a DD. I know my 85 With SFA is a kidney shaker going down the road. Its nice when off the road and in the snow but sometimes I wouldnt mind going back to an IFS rig.

 

According to a past article in Four Wheel Drive Owners Magazine, the Blazeland Kit was far superior to the SAS, and it was more comfortable to ride in. But, I am not one to debate the IFS, SAS discussion.

The TG springs and bilsteins 5150 on my new rig, rids smooth.

On further note, I did some more investigating regarding the front axle. To start, I need to say that who ever installed the SAS on this rig really needs to read and fallow instructions. I have yet to find a single nut or bolt torqued to spec. on this rig. Every fastener I've encountered has been loose. The stearing arms are speced. out to have a torque of 71lb/ft, and I found these to be set at 20lb/ft; the castle nuts were 15lb/ft. These grose erors lead to a knuckle preload of just over 5lb on the pull scale. It is a good thing I am fully rebuilding the front axle assembly.


So, I pulled the passenger side knuckle off today, and test fitted the short side birf/ shaft; the birf still contacts the lower part of the ball end of the housing. I had to use a mallet to get the splines of the axle shaft to slip into the diff. due to the tight contact of the birf and housing.
top of birf not touching the housing.



Bottom of birf contacting housing.



Here is my caster angle, it should be about 6*


here is my camber, I'm still trying to find out what the camber is supposed to be stock; the FSM does not have the angle listed as far as I have found. I must keep searching for proper camber angle.

 

Great pics again! Kind of scary that you are finding all those loose nuts and bolts. I Really need to pick up a pull scale when I do my front axle. Have any suggestions on where I can get one for a decent price.

 

I bought mine from TG, but you can use any fish scale. Happy searching.

 

Well, after disassembling both knuckles, cleaning, and painting the parts parts that needed cancer protection. I went back too the bare axle housing to check for straightness. I put a level on my driveway and recorded an angle of 1 degree slope which was low towards the driver side, I then checked the angle at the top of the trunion bearing races, which after accounting for the slope of the driveway, both races turned out too have a 10 degree angle. I double checked and triple checked, so now I can truly confirm that my axle housing is straight.

I only found one worn part during the disassemble process, which was the lower trunion bearing on the driver side knuckle. I am guess that the lack of proper torque specs. that was discovered cause enough play in the knuckle that the cage of the trunion bearing got warped.

As things sit at the moment, I need new inner seals, trunion bearing, and Davz Off Road no death wobble shackles. I will be excited to get this thing back on the road. I look forward to the next problem that needs repairing. I'm itching to get this thing on some dirt and rocks.

edit
I forgot to mention that after much investigation, I learned that it is very common for the Birf to make contact to the low ball end of the axle housing when trying to remove a Birf. Hope that info. can help other in the future if confronted with the same issue I was having.

 

I dont recall having any issues with the birfs sliding into the knuckles.

While youre in there I highly reccomend doing the Mar'Tack on the inner shaft and eliminating the birf snap ring. By god the best mod ever for a yota.... will save you a million headaches bro

Makes trail repairs about 1 thousand times faster and 1 thousand times simpler.. if and when you break a birf... besides, swapping in new trunion bearings also just go easier. hell everything gets eeasier without that birf snap ring

 

You will only be able to find your camber with the knuckle assembled. I have never measured mine since its not adjustable, but eyeballin it, there can't be more than 1/2 a degree. I have 2.5 degrees per side on the front of my E36 and that's quite visible and 1.5 degrees in the rear. Also visibly tilted. The yota I'm guessing has maybe .1-.25 degrees per side. Just a guess though. Never bothered since I don't have a tool to accurately measure less than a degree.

 

yes, I understand exactly what your saying. Before I removed the driver side knuckle I measured for camber off of the spindle, with the angle finder. I had a reading of one degree. I also placed the angle finder on the highsteer arm, and read six degrees caster. I continued to tare down the axle fully so I could verify once and for all if the housing was bent.

During the clean up I found the warped trunion bearing cage.

 

I checked my front axle put today because I've been hearing a pop when shifting weight quickly from side to side. Trunion bearing on the driver's side has play in it. Guess I am tearing down the axle again.