Posted by MarkP on Thursday, September 25, 2003 at 10:00AM :
In Reply to: Re: FFPW Front Knuckle Bearings Question posted by Ang on Wednesday, September 24, 2003 at 10:50PM :
Ang, I recently rebuilt the front end in my WDX and it was pretty straight forward. I removed the bushings and seals in the axles using a slide hammer with a hook. They came out suprising easy but some I have done have been very difficult. Best bet is to use the tool designed for this. I used leather seals in the axle housing. I following the M37 manual and soaked them in neatfoot oil and rolled them with a rod. They swelled up very nice and fit very tight on axle. Someone told me that if you have any scoring or wear on the axles you are better off with the leather seals. I made a bushing/seal installation tool using a thick flat washer and bar stock. Make sure the seal gets installed in the axle straight and unbent. I also used a roller bearing and race for the top trunnion bearing as per Greg C. Manual. Make sure you get the amount of drag on the trunnion bearings adjusted right using shims provided in kit and a torque wrench. One of the reasons my front axle went south is some adjusted them way too tight and it locked up the lower bearing. I used rotella high temp grease in the knuckle and for the bearings. I believe someone at VPW mentioned some amount of pumps on grease gun that would fill knuckle to right level. You might call up there and see. I packed a bunch in there when I put togather and pumped a lot in.
email me if I can help this weekend
MarkP