Well, after reading Warchilds' article in FJRtech on lubing the driveshaft, and seeing the pics of ol' boys driveshaft in AZ, I thought it prudent to check mine out, and lubricate as necessary. I've got just over 5300 miles on my 05', and I am quite pleased with the whole maintenance project overall. There were, however, some lessons I learned, lessons that I hadn't read about, or perhaps "warnings" would be a better term to use. I followed WC's steps, right down the line, and everything went according to the outline, until it came time to remove the pumpkin. I removed the acorn nuts, and low and behold, the drive shaft came out of the pumkin. Here is a pic....
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0416.jpg
I started to get worried that something had gone terribly wrong, took a couple deep breaths, and then evaluated it more carefully. It turns out that the driveshaft just kinda "floats" there in the pumpkin, and wasn't "held in place" by anything. Something else I learned was that the aft end of the drive shaft was lubricated by the gear oil (don't know why I didn't originally think that was the case, but...) I had expected the foward end of the pumpkin to be "sealed", and the driveshaft to be held in place somehow. It wasn't like that. Another point of interest is the silver cap on top of the pumpkin, when in the correct horizontal position is a vent, and when you tilt the pumpkin, like I did in the pic above, it leaks gear oil everywhere. Keep it horizontal!
Here is a pic of the gear on the left side of the wheel, where it attaches to the pumpkin. After close inspection, the rust colored stuff you see on the gear teeth, isn't rust. It is a very light coating of grease, and I mean light! Almost nothing there, and same goes for the gear in the pumpkin where the wheel slides into place. But.....the good news, is that there didn't appear to be any noticeable wear on either of the gears.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0410.jpg
After I removed the driveshaft, I cleaned up the splined end, and checked for wear there as well. The shaft was very lean on lube (didn't take a pic of that) just as the gear on the wheel, but again, no noticeable wear, and that is a good thing. Here is a pic of the drive shaft splines after cleaning. It could almost pass for a new part.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0422.jpg
One more thing that I think requires some attention is the rubber seals (the black ones) on both sides of the wheel around the wheel bearings. On the left side of the wheel, there is a thick rubber "gasket" or "dust shield" around the perimeter of the gear. I noticed a very thin layer of grease on the surface of this gasket, and I don't know if it was on there because someone put it there on purpose, or it just flung off the gear, either way I cleaned it up good, and re-applied a thin layer of grease. The right side of my wheel, and I have ABS brakes, has that sensor ring on it. The back side of that sensor ring has a smooth machined surface on it that glides on the black rubber seal on the wheel. The ring slides into and fills that 1/2 inch or so of a void where the right wheel bearing sits, and then "rides" on that black rubber seal. I applied a thin coat of grease on that seal as well.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0431.jpg
And last but not least. When it comes to the point that you have done all your re-lubing, and are ready to put things back together, etc. before you start torqueing your nuts and bolts, make sure you have reattached your brake torque arm, and put the nut and bolt back in before you torque the rear axle nut. You won't be able to move that brake caliper around to get that arm back in place, if you've already torqued the axle nut.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0366.jpg
Well, that was my experience with the whole project. It wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I learned a great deal from it. If I had known that the driveshaft and wheel/differential gears were in as good a shape as they were, I would've waited until my first tire change to do the maintenance. I just had to find out for myself how it looked.
A special thanks to WC for his maintenance articles, and help in figuring out how to post my pics.
Aaron
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0416.jpg
I started to get worried that something had gone terribly wrong, took a couple deep breaths, and then evaluated it more carefully. It turns out that the driveshaft just kinda "floats" there in the pumpkin, and wasn't "held in place" by anything. Something else I learned was that the aft end of the drive shaft was lubricated by the gear oil (don't know why I didn't originally think that was the case, but...) I had expected the foward end of the pumpkin to be "sealed", and the driveshaft to be held in place somehow. It wasn't like that. Another point of interest is the silver cap on top of the pumpkin, when in the correct horizontal position is a vent, and when you tilt the pumpkin, like I did in the pic above, it leaks gear oil everywhere. Keep it horizontal!
Here is a pic of the gear on the left side of the wheel, where it attaches to the pumpkin. After close inspection, the rust colored stuff you see on the gear teeth, isn't rust. It is a very light coating of grease, and I mean light! Almost nothing there, and same goes for the gear in the pumpkin where the wheel slides into place. But.....the good news, is that there didn't appear to be any noticeable wear on either of the gears.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0410.jpg
After I removed the driveshaft, I cleaned up the splined end, and checked for wear there as well. The shaft was very lean on lube (didn't take a pic of that) just as the gear on the wheel, but again, no noticeable wear, and that is a good thing. Here is a pic of the drive shaft splines after cleaning. It could almost pass for a new part.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0422.jpg
One more thing that I think requires some attention is the rubber seals (the black ones) on both sides of the wheel around the wheel bearings. On the left side of the wheel, there is a thick rubber "gasket" or "dust shield" around the perimeter of the gear. I noticed a very thin layer of grease on the surface of this gasket, and I don't know if it was on there because someone put it there on purpose, or it just flung off the gear, either way I cleaned it up good, and re-applied a thin layer of grease. The right side of my wheel, and I have ABS brakes, has that sensor ring on it. The back side of that sensor ring has a smooth machined surface on it that glides on the black rubber seal on the wheel. The ring slides into and fills that 1/2 inch or so of a void where the right wheel bearing sits, and then "rides" on that black rubber seal. I applied a thin coat of grease on that seal as well.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0431.jpg
And last but not least. When it comes to the point that you have done all your re-lubing, and are ready to put things back together, etc. before you start torqueing your nuts and bolts, make sure you have reattached your brake torque arm, and put the nut and bolt back in before you torque the rear axle nut. You won't be able to move that brake caliper around to get that arm back in place, if you've already torqued the axle nut.
https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d88/kerhrhr/100_0366.jpg
Well, that was my experience with the whole project. It wasn't near as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I learned a great deal from it. If I had known that the driveshaft and wheel/differential gears were in as good a shape as they were, I would've waited until my first tire change to do the maintenance. I just had to find out for myself how it looked.
A special thanks to WC for his maintenance articles, and help in figuring out how to post my pics.
Aaron
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