Right Front Axle Won't Turn

Stephen

Stephen

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After replacing almost everything in my front end while attempting to eliminate a very annoying squeak in 4WD, I now find myself with a far worse problem; the right front axle will not move. Here is a breakdown of what is going on:

Left front will spin, but it is very tight. I can spin the pinion on the differential, but again very tight and only spins the left front. It's an open diff, so with both wheels in the air, it should spin one axle forward and the other backwards. On the right front, if the hub is unlocked (I have manual hubs) the hub spins freely, but as soon as I lock it in the axle will not move. If I unlock the hub and grab the axle with my hands and try to twist, it will not move.


Here is what I have done so far in order to first fix the squeak and then to try and fix the axle issue:

Replaced the right front knuckle.
Replaced all bearings and seals in the hubs.
Replaced the CV axle half shafts (twice now).
Replaced the bearings and seals on the inner axle shafts.
Replaced the locking hubs.
Replaced the differential.
Swapped back to the original differential after having it inspected and getting the all clear that it was good.


At this point, the only things that have not been replaced that I can think of are:

The inner axle stub shaft/tripod joint "can".
The axle mounting bracket that the shaft goes through.
The axle housing itself.
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So, I'm looking for ideas. What could cause this? Have I somehow twice put the half shaft into the tripod joint wrong? I've swapped half shafts on this Trooper six times in the past but never had an issue, but I suppose its possible? Too extreme of an angle on it somehow?

I'll be tearing the right front apart again tonight after work and will update with what I find, but any thoughts on the situation would be greatly appreciated!
 
Did you over tighten the castle nut when you did the bearings? If I remember right basically hand tight + 1/8 turn.
Edit - Sorry re-read and you spin when hubs are unlocked so most likely not this.

If you pull the CV for the right front does it spin then?
 
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Alright, got the axle assembly pulled again yesterday, put everything on the bench and with the help of some friends, worked each side and the pinion to simulate it spinning. Was a little tight and looking at the manual and the inner axle seal, it looks like that might have been installed backwards (even though when I replaced it, I did it the same way the they came off). Once the seals were flipped, the CV's spun without issue, everything looked good. Got the whole assembly back into the Trooper and again, tested the CV's. Even at the most extreme angles, they all spun fine.
But, as soon as I installed the right front knuckle, everything goes to pot. At full droop, I cannot turn the right front CV by hand. If I put the tire on, I can because of the extra leverage, but its really tight. Also, with the tire on, the pinion only spins about 2.5 times to the tires 1. It should be about 4.5 to 1 due to it being a 4.56 diff. So is it just spinning the spider gears? But, if I put a bottle jack under the A-arm and crank it up and inch or so, the CV spins again, but is tighter than it should be.
I figured, put it all on the ground and see what happens! So I torqued everything up, put the tires on and backed it up the driveway, put it in 4WD and went forward. It moves, so thats an improvement, but its back to squeaking, which is what started this whole thing. I thought, "Ok, I can live with the squeak if it moves!" so I went to take it around the block, and not one house up from me the squeaking got really bad and I could feel it start to bind up. I flipped a U and pulled it back into the driveway.

I'm at my wits end here. I'm not sure WHAT my next course of action is! I've replaced and inspected everything in the front end multiple times and it all looks good. Everything seems to be working normally until I bolt on the right front knuckle, but everything in that has been replaced and looks good.

Any more thoughts out there?
 
I don't know what trooper parts look like but I'm guessing similar to Toyota?

Sounds like you've narrowed it down to the knuckle or bearings pressed into the knuckle.

Perhaps the bearings are loose enough to bind under a lateral load (axle stub prying down at full droop).

Where did you buy the parts?
 
Don't know what the parts look like either but it does sound like you've narrowed it down to something in that knuckle. Might be worth revisiting the work already done on it.

- DAA
 
Stephen said:
Also, with the tire on, the pinion only spins about 2.5 times to the tires 1. It should be about 4.5 to 1 due to it being a 4.56 diff. So is it just spinning the spider gears?
Click to expand...

No, this sounds about right. With the left front tire on the ground and 4.56 gears, you need to spin the right front tire two complete revolutions to see the driveshaft spin 4.56 times.
 
Tonkaman said:
I don't know what trooper parts look like but I'm guessing similar to Toyota?
Click to expand...

The front end is very similar to a 100-series Cruiser (probably because Toyota copied it ;)). You can find a pretty good set of diagrams here:
http://ecat24.com/opel/catalog/types/1/25

Sounds like you've narrowed it down to the knuckle or bearings pressed into the knuckle.

Perhaps the bearings are loose enough to bind under a lateral load (axle stub prying down at full droop).
Click to expand...

I suppose it could be. I've checked all the bearings each time I've pulled the knuckle while trying to chase this down. The only bearings that I would think would be affected would be the needle bearings that the axle rides on, and those feel fine. All the other bearings that are in the knuckle are associated with the hub and that spins just fine.

Where did you buy the parts?
Click to expand...
All the parts but one seal are from O'Reilly Auto (as I have a contact there). All have been Koyo or NSK bearings and seals. The half shafts are Import Direct, which is supposed to be OE supplier stock (for example, Import Direct upper and lower ball joints for Isuzu and Toyota are actually made by 555).
 
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I said the same thing about the cv being too long.. but then deleted my post thinking I was probably wrong.
 
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