Anyone ever use either of these kits. Looking to rebuild my front axle on my 84 long bed.

http://www.marlincrawler.com/axle/fr...le-service-kit

http://www.trail-gear.com/knuckle-service

Looking at the trail gear knuckle sandwich bundle and the marlin front axle service kit


Kinda leaning towards the trail gear kit. Any info would be nice.

Also anything else I should do beside what these kits offer. Doing a complete rebuild/build of the truck and don't wanna leave anything out why I am out it.

 

I usually go with marlin crawler for bearings. Just personal preference.

 

Depends on how & how much you use truck. If its a weekend trail rider and does 100 miles/week, the TG kit would probably suffice. They have been known to use slightly inferior bearings sometimes. For things that don't get worked hard, like the trunnions, TG is fine. But for wheel bearings and any other high RPM bearings, I would only use OE makes. Nachi, Koyo, Timken. And often times, Timken can be found at local Autozone, Advance, Oreillys, etc.

CruiserOutfitters also has mini-truck knuckle kits, because often times Marlin won't have things in stock. I'm not sure on pricing differences between vendors, but CruiserOutfitters carries quality parts, gaskets, seals, knuckle kits, bearing kits, etc.

 

They are both pretty much the same; however, the Marlin kit advertises Japanese bearings. I have actually bought the trail gear kit twice, once for me and once for a friend. The one that I ordered for myself had Japanese bearing, but when I ordered the one for my friend a few months later it had chinese bearings. Like rokblok said, it depends on your use. Sometimes chinese bearings last a long time, sometimes they do not, but Japanese bearings are a sure bet. To me, the hassle of rebuilding knuckles twice is worth spending the extra money on Jap bearings.

 

Thanks for the info. Anything else I should order.

 

Make sure you get the EcoSeal inner axle seals - they are great. Also, I would take everything apart before you order. I ended up destroying the hub lock studs trying to remove them. Maybe get some new spindle nuts and birfield snap rings. Check your rotors too, if you have everything apart, you might as well get them too for no more than they cost. Here's what I ended up getting:

*Knuckle rebuild kit w/ bearings
*Spindle nuts
*EcoSeal inner axle seals
*New felt ring hardware (local hardware store)
*Hub studs, cone washers and nuts
*Knuckle studs, cone washers and nuts
*Rotors
*New wheel studs

Oh and make sure you keep the bearing cap shims in order when you take everything apart so you can put it back together properly.

 

id go with trailgear I recently just did mine and with all the bearings seals and gaskets you will have extras which is always good for spares and isecondthat you take everything apart first so you don't pay shipping twice like I did

 

I just did mine with marlin. High quality bearings and seals. Get the axle nut socket, it was a pain to find the right size.

 

keep track of what shims are where on the knuckle assembly, you'll want to put 'em back in the same places.

get one of those cheap fish scales to check the preload on the steering arm, and to check the wheel bearing play.

trail gear wiper seals... they are one piece rubber circles, that stretch over the knuckle ball, you'll never want to run factory felt again... a pain to install tho.

check the sealing surface of the hub... mine were completely hacked up, they shredded the seals, and let water into one of the knuckles... I ended up getting the new tg hubs, back when they were on sale.

I wanted to chuck 'em up in a lathe, to clean up the sealing surface, but there was a pronounced groove that would have taken quite a bit to clean up... couldn't find a matching size in the speedi sleeve catalog for it, either.

 

I believe the ball knuckle style diffs all come with the inner rubber wiper, then the felt for keeping the big stuff out, then the retainer. At least all the Cruisers I've had, and this '84 pickup were that way when I rebuilt them. And at a Cruiser shop I worked at, I did several bone stockers that had the inner rubber wiper. But maybe someone replaced them all with TG kits...

 

the felts and the inner wipers don't get used with the tg ball seal, the tg seal performs both functions, here is the install procedure, with pics:
http://www.trail-gear.com/pdf/140327-1-k.pdf

when I pulled the stock inner seals off the back of my knuckles, the lips on each of 'em were shredded... knuckle balls are typically rusty, hacked up, nicked, etc.

bobby long also makes a nice seal for the knuckle balls, but it's cut in the top:
http://www.longfieldsuperaxles.com/o...per-seals.html
"These seals are UHMW, designed for wear. You should never have to buy another wiper seal. Unlike the old three piece style felt seals that don't wipe the grit away and pick it up and drag it back and forth. These seals are only 1 piece and it wipes the ball joint clean as you turn. With our seal you eliminate the rubber & felt seal."

I got my crawler about three years ago, and after bending the front axle at glamis(crowbar in a sand box, lol), I found that the metal frame in the third had a bunch of surface rust on it... then I found rust on the fork, when I pulled the middle case out of my trans... the gears appear to be clean in both cases, but because of that i'm sold on proper venting and moisture prevention.