Knuckle lubrication bolt stuck beyond belief...

I'm waiting for a friend to come over to help me diagnose my starting issue so I started bumming around looking for something else to do, and I decided to lubricate my knuckles.

I just spent 30 minutes on one bolt to try and grease my knuckles, they've looked pretty dry for a while and I've doubted the PO did much with them. I even tried sticking a wrench on it then using a car jack to lift it. That didn't really work, I ended up just dinging the outside edge of the knuckle .

If its this stuck it must have been a LONG time since these things were serviced. I need some ideas to get these things unstuck. I don't have an aircompressor or impact wrench so that's out.

 

I assume your talking about a closed knuckle axle. Big cresent wrench with a piece of pipe on the end for a cheater should do it. It's just a pipe plug.

 

Yes, it's the closed knuckle. I'll give that a try. I'm going to pick up some penetrating oil to see if that will help get it opened.

 

damn that tight?? now dont wanna ask a stupid question,or make anyone feel stupid,but you sure you are turning it the right direction? dont take that the wrong way,just never ran across one that tight

 

Righty loosey lefty tighty right? R)

I'm sure it's the right way unless they are reverse threaded.

 

yep,counterclockwise loosen clockwise tighten,some get confused when up under a vehicle,was just a thought,dont think something exploded inside the knuckle once upon a time and marred the threds up do you?

 

or some one got locktite confused with thread sealant

 

Besides that hole is there any other way of lubricating?

 

Never had one stick. Usually they are pretty well oiled, when you think about it.

Some way of providing an sharp impact would really help, like with a "dead-blow" mallet on the wrench handle, even more than a cheater. And the good news is that the pipe thread will get easier with every turn.

Good luck.

Pete

 

I've never done it this way, but couldn't you just remove the kingpin and lubricate through the hole? I'm talking about the rectangular cap on top of the knuckle with the 4 9/16th inch bolts in it. The kingpin should come out, though it probably shouldn't be removed unless you jack the jeep up and remove the tire first. Just a thought in case you are unable to remove the plug.

 

Yeah, go in through the hubs. No offence intended, but considering the amount of work your Jeep needs in other areas it may not be a bad idea to blast the front end apart anyway just to check your brakes, wheel bearings, and spindles. That's not the area you want suprise failures in.

The kingpins are lubricated via the grease in the knuckle. If yours are dry then it's only a matter of time before the kingpins let go. One of my Jeeps I just purchased had a completely fubar'd lower kingpin because of an empty knuckle. Scary to think the guy drove it like that.

Your FSM will help. If you're taking the knuckle all the way off you'll need new knuckle grease seals, but you shouldn't need to remove the knuckle to pack the cavity - just the hubs, spindles, shafts.

Don't let it all get to you. Eventually you'll have spun every nut and bolt in that thing and it'll be as reliable as a new Benz.

 

I have good results with stuck bolts by applying some heat to the area around the bolt, then spraying some wd40 at the bolt.

 

Hmm, they don't carry that on the shelf at any of my FLAPS. Do I have to order it on the net?

 

There is an article in the latest Homeshop machinist magazine on penetrating oil and the torqe needed to break a rusted bolt, they tested Kroil, Liquid wrench, PB Blaster WD-40, Sea foam along with a homemade version that was made from a 50-50 mix of acetone and ATF, after sitting for 1 hour the kroil took around 108lb ft of torque to loosen, the acetone/ATF mix took 53lb ft of torque to remove the rusted bolt. This homemade brew cost less than 1/2 of all the others and worked better than all the products tested by at least a 50% margin.

 

Interesting, but how do they know each rusty bolt is equally rusty and equally stuck?

 

My understanding was that they took several pieces of metal and tapped 6 holes in the plates, stuck 6 bolts in each plate and submerged them in a chemical mix to artificially age them for about a week and then used a particular chemical on 1 bolt in each plate and then averaged the torque reading between the several plates that were tested. It was about as scientific as you could get since rust would very to some degree but they said the torque readings did not have to be averaged by much, only a few lb ft of torque. They said the readings were pretty consistent between the plates.

 

I think that's "lefty loosey, righty, tighty"

 

If you have a torch. I would heat up and see if that helps. I believe you are talking about the steering knuckle if so you could pull the drive shaft out. And check it that way, this would also give you the best idea there of what's actually going on.