M818 - New front inner wheel seals, with pics...

[Makincold]

So after the Georgia Rally I realized I didn't just have split front axle boots I had a leaking front axle seal. After you would drive it you had a fist sized glob of redish tin "grease" under the passenger side of the truck.
So After hours of searching here, I ordered the parts from White Owl, printed out several sections of the TM and planed a day to

"Soldier B" showed up about 10am and we got started. My 71 year old dad is a retired diesel mechanic so we had a little expert guidance, amazing what simple things like"hit it right there" can do for you. 50 years of experience is priceless!

I also keep finding out that my truck has more than a nice paint job. It must have been in the "rebuild" phase when it was taken out of service, a tremendous amount of new parts and work had been done but no new data plates

You can see new brake shoes, new brake hoses and the drums have bile grease pencil marks noting the diameter the drum was just turned to

The axle splines still have blue layout dye on them and really sharp edges, did I get new axles too? I just cant imagine there are sharp edges and blue layout dye from 40 years of service

It was all pretty straight forward (with the help of my expert, of course...) but it took us 12 hours to do both sides...
Long day...

Everything went well but at 10pm when I was putting the axle cap back on with the air wrench the LAST bolt broke off... ****... so next part of the saga will be to drill out that grade 8 bolt and replace.
I also have to safety wire the screws that hold the boot retainer on, a little late for that when we were done...

 

[Makincold]

Here are the axles out, the closest one was the one with the leaky seal, thin grease
The axle splines, not sure if you can see the blue dye or not
Blue grease pencil "16.560" drum turned to
Clean knuckle housing ready for the new seal
New brake shoes!
"Soldier B" hard at work cleaning, its hard to find good help...
I ordered new seals only, the guys at White Owl said I could reuse the carrier and they were right, saved me some coin for sure. My dad had a plethora of objects to drive the seal and washer into the carrier without issue
And finally the new seal installed and ready to go back together
Stopped taking pics along about this time, had taken to long to get to this point and "Soldier B" thought I should work more on the truck and take less pictures... So I did...

Everything went back together without flaw, boots got there share of cussing... which they deserved...

A "Soldier C" would have been handy just to clean parts, it took a lot of time to clean as you go

 

[fasttruck]

I am mosyt happy to see you removed the backing plate and brake assembly without breaking the brake line and then necessating the bleeding of the brakes. The applicable section of the -20 does not address this point as then the last phase of the project will be to replace the frozen bleeders you encounter.

 

[Makincold]

We scratched our heads for a little while wondering if they would clear or not but turning the knuckle all the way to the rear and they just fit over the end
Bleeders like everything else on the front end were new, so hopefully when and if I ever have to bleed them the wont be frozen!

 

[F18hornetM]

My 813 was same way, tons of new parts and all the bleeders opened easy as the wheel cylinders were new. I changed my boots and noticed one side grease was just a little bit more "wet" than the other...I'm thinking its going to need an axle seal as well. But dumb me, pulled it apart just inside garage doors, so had to put back together. I'll keep an eye on it.
Nice job and good looking truck

 

[Makincold]

(F18hornetM) Keep an eye on it, mine was puking pretty bad by the time I got around to changing them, and what a mess it was...

 

[Floridianson]

Nice to see you don't follow the tm's and you hang your backing plate and not remove the brake line. lol

 

[groundog]

what did you use to pull the old seal out and install the new seal

 

[Makincold]

(Floridianson) Yea... I'm quite the rebel! Hopefully my post wont be deleted because I read the TM but failed to actually follow ALL the steps outlined... We will see...

(groundog) Since I did both sides at one time I did a method I found here (don't remember which thread) and used a long bar and drove it out from the opposite side, it actually worked well and didnt take as much effort as I thought to knock it out. As for driving it in, my dad had all kinds of things of a similar diameter that I got it started with (driving the carrier into the knuckel that is...) and once it was going in straight and mostly home I took a 1" brass bar and drove it the last little bit. That way I could "feel" that it had hit bottom and was in solidly all the way around.
God forbid it might NOT be the way it was described in the TM

 

[Squirt-Truck]

Most excellent, and even though it was a long day you enjoyed it, admit it...

 

[Makincold]

(Squirt-Truck) Oh you KNOW I enjoyed!
But let's call a serious moment, my joy pales in comparison to the joy that my dad has every time we take it over to do any work on it. He came with me on the recovery and has been involved every step of the way. I know he has a smile on his face every time I come pulling over the hill. He retired from mechanic work 2 years ago (worked to 69) and I know how much he misses working on those big trucks.

 

[F18hornetM]

Thats the coolest part of having that truck...Your dad enjoying it with you. I bet after doing that kinda of work for years he really enjoys working on it with you, mostly becuase he doesnt have to. Makes a big difference in how much you enjoy doing something if you dont have to.
I own both our MVs with my youngest son (21rs old) and the time spent together messing with them is priceless