Major Overhaul

Here I sit on the eve of a major overhaul on the Land Cruiser. It seems that my particular Land Cruiser needs to have some front axle service. The main thrust of the job is that I have to pull out the front axle shafts from the front axle, clean them and repack them with grease. In the proud tradition of my fore fathers I'm going to do the job right. In this case, doing the job right means that since I have to almost completely tear down the front axle just to get to the shafts, I might as well rebuild the rest of it while I'm at it. Heck, why not, It's already got 156K on the clock and it will only give me more useful mileage, not to mention make the underside of the truck more pretty.

Now this job should take about 9 hours. I hope. Unfortunately, there must inevitable be some form of difficulty that will prevent me from finishing on time. I'll keep you posted as to what it turns out to be. I've been reading and re-reading the manual and the absolutely indispensable FAQ page on the subject from the ih8mud.com forum. This will only be my second time removing the brake rotor from a truck. For this job I will actually be removing the knuckle which is the thing that carries the front wheel and allows it to turn. It's undiscovered country for me, but I hope my map is as good as I think it is. This picture shows a cut away view of what I've got to deal with, the front axle. I will be dissassembling it, cleaning everything as best I can and putting it all back together. Like I said, I'll keep you posted.