Soooo, on Friday after work I ended up working on my cooling system a bit. A couple flushes with water, new thermostat (Stant 180), new Radiator cap, new upper/lower hoses. Everything with that went fairly smooth other than a little leak with the thermostat housing. A little Permatex Black fixed it right up.

Now on Saturday I started dissembley of my front end for axle u joint replacement, new hubs, and new rotors/pads. My 96 (from the rust belt) fought me the entire time. I finally got the hubs and axles out after working on it for quite a while. On Sunday I did some painting where I could and started trying to get the axle u joints out.






The axles, ahhh, What a PITA..... I never got that accomplished after trying many different methods. I just don't have the toolset to get it done. After tons of hammering, swearing, etc (you know the drill), I'm going to just bring them to one of the local shops to press them out and put the new ones in tomorrow sometime hopefully. I was able to do my rear driveshaft a couple weeks back but these... Not so much

I noticed after pulling the axles that inside the axle tube it was kind of rusty, and a little bit of gear oil was dripping out. I looked in the tube hole on both sides with a flashlight and saw the axle seal. I'm hoping there is nothing wrong with the seals.. Should I try to clean up the axle tubes at all?

Also, my brake pads came with odd clips.



Do I need these at all? I'm planning on using brake quiet as well.

Pic of new parts minus the Moog greasable axle u joints. Hopefully a shop can help me out tomorrow for cheap..


Have to drive my dads car tomorrow because I'm stuck in the garage lol. I thought I could do it, affff

 

So I ended up getting the axle u joints pressed in by a local shop. They charged me $80!!!!.... One of them seems kind of tight too, but I think a BFH will fix that.

Anyway, should I try to clean the axle tube at all when I reinstall? Or should I just carefully put it back in and hope for the best?

Thanks in advance.

 

I too just did similar work. When I placed my axle shafts back in, I lightly greased the mating surface for the inner seal and slid them back in carefully. I did not want to scrape, blow or otherwise push something up the axle tube for fear of contamination or getting a chunk of debris on the seal and screwing things up. I read that the inner axle seals are a big job on the Dana 30 front end.

Those same brake clips came with my Wagoner ThermonQuiet pads. After some research, I was told they are for older worn housings where there is wear and damage to the surface where the pad rides. It shims it up so the pads aren't loose and rattling. All those little shims have thickness numbers stamped in them and are different colors to help identify them. My carrier surfaces where the pads rode were not visibly worn and I couldn't fit the smallest shim in there, so I did not use any.

Another thing I did was to mask off and paint the rotor hat with caliper paint as well as my new calipers. Also a light coat of anti-seize around where the new bearing/hub assembly goes into the hub housing as well as between the new bearing hub face (where the wheel studs stick out) and where the back of the rotor hat meet. Things will be easier to take apart at your next service interval. Be leery of anti-seize on the wheel studs, I was always told to avoid that as it could make the lug nuts loosen while driving. Could be an old mechanic's tale but I heeded it anyway.

 

Perfect!! Thanks a lot for the help/tips. Much appreciated.

After work today I will reassemble everything (hopefully before it gets too dark) and let everyone know how it goes.