Well here is what's left of the drive's side birf after blowing it on the J-turn on Elvis.



The break also managed to break loose an oil baffle that sits in the tube a couple inches inside the axle seal. Hopefully not having it won't cause too much more oil to leak into the knuckle. Steve recommended getting the Marlin HD seals next time I tear down the knuckles.



Anyway, the Long's are in and I should be good to go for some thrashing this weekend.

 

I'm still surpised that you made it back with carange like that.

 

Did you have to pull that to continue.... or just let it grind around in there until getting home? I have heard a blown birf can cause steering issues.

I 2nd the Marlin HD seals. I put them in with my longs. They are a quality part, and I haven't had any leaks.

 

Nice carnage. You wont have to worry about that anymore with the Longs.

I can second the steering and birfields having a direct impact on each other. Although, breaking a birf probably has less an impact on the steering vs breaking knuckle studs which after driving less than a 1/4 mile left my inner knuckle ball and birfield damaged badly.

I dont have the Marlin HD seals but they are getting installed next time I tear down the knuckles. My knuckles both leak a bit and I even used the fish pull scale to align them. Word is that Marlin also has some new HD tcase seals coming out as well.

 

No I didn't have to pull it on the trail (thank god). I just unlocked the hubs and drove out the rest of the way in 2WD low. There was no grinding after that. Yes there was some steering issues. Making a very sharp right hand turn was not happening. I had to reverse sometimes to make the tighter turns.

Getting the blown birf out of the ball was fun also. One of the larger chunks you see in the pic was not completely broken off. It was cracked and had expanded the birf so it wouldn't fit coming out. I had to keep moving it all around and trying to knock the cracked piece back down with a BFH to pull it out.

 

Hey, quick question. Where does the gasket circled in red go? It comes with the knuckle service kits from TG. It has to do with the wheel bearings but I couldn't figure out where it would go. I didn't replace the wheel bearings, just repacked them.

 

I might not be the best one to answer that... as I always have parts left over from those service kits.

I am pretty sure I didn't use that particular gasket, but that's just from memory. It's possible that if everything was apart and across your garage floor that the mystery gasket would make sense.

 

if its from TG, its probably better it doesnt get installed kinda...

I had/have a bunch of left over gaskets too...those kits always come with extra. Just follow the FSM

 

Well, it's good to know I'm not the only one who doesn't know where the hell it goes. I guess it goes right in the trash then.

 

You use the round one and throw that one away.