front end info please

[Morpheus]

I was getting the Sami ready for winter but I have no idea how to service the front end at this point ( see photo).
I seem to have a lot of leakage there on one side.
I notice there is a four-bolt plate both top and bottom. Are these for greasing/oiling ?
How do I go about lubing this particular part?

Sorry if i sound completely lost here but I am totally unfamiliar with this style of front end.
Thanks,
M.

[SamiFlyer]

The knuckle ball is self-lubricating when the seals are good and the whole uderside of the truck is self-lubricating when the seals are done!

At the very least you need a new knuckle seal kit and probably some inner axle seals as well. I can't tell from the picture but is the stuff coming from the knuckle oily or is it thicker like grease? If it's oily, chances are that is diff fluid coming through the inner axle seal and filling the knuckle. Is the ball itself polished smooth or is it pitted/rough? If it's the latter, that will wear the rubber seal out quickly. We get the same problem with Toyota solid front axles and my trick is to just take the air sander with some polishing discs to it and get it back to that mirror finish before putting new knuckle seals in.

It's not a complicated job but it can be time-consuming if you've never done it before. You need to pull the knuckles off to replace those seals. Get a good shop manual and get your hands dirty.


Sean :cool:

[Chris (SANDS)]

If you tear it down you will find two half circle outside plates , felt , rubber seal and two more half circle plates. If you've gone to this point you might as well remove your calipers and the two king pins so you can pop out the axels so that you can1) check your axel seals and 2) repack the birfield cup with fresh cv greese. Use cv greese so nothing will be eating away at the rubber seal when you put it back together.


on a side note......is your steering box on the pass side of your zuk?

[Morpheus]

sorry for the confusion about the pic. I was too lazy to go out and snap a pic of mine so I pulled a pic off the web so I could point out what I was describing. And yes, the pic is of a UK Zuk, heheh.
The fluid coming out around the ball appears to be more like oil than grease.

I am pulling the entire front end out in the spring to replace the springs , so I will probably wait until then to do the axle seals and knuckle seal. I'm pretty sure I have a worn wheel bearing as well.
Thanks for the info guys.
If anyone has an exploded view diagram of how these things are put together that they could scan and send me , it would be much appreciated.
Thanks again,
Randy

[longy442]

If anyone has an exploded view diagram of how these things are put together that they could scan and send me , it would be much appreciated.
Thanks again,
Randy

Have some patients and I think I have one here, maybe get to it this afternoon if I can.

[fullspectrum]

I just did a freshening of the front axle on mine. Here's a link to the Factory Service Manual. I forget where I got mine. You can find a searchable version online as well. Just Google "Suzuki Samurai FSM" and you can find a few to download.

http://www.acksfaq.com/fsm.htm

[longy442]

Found it. Wish I had this manual when I tore my first front end apart.

[longy442]

doh you beat me

[Morpheus]

Wow. Thanks much guys !