VC removal and front axle rebuild

One of my least favorite jobs on the Land Cruiser, the front axle rebuild. When those at IH8MUD.com say make sure you have disposable gloves and a case of paper towels, take the seriously! The amount of sludge, grease, and birf soup (caused by diff oil leaking into the knuckle) was to say the least, enormous!

This was the first round of rags, the 99 cent turkey pans from the dollar store were worth their weight in gold for this project and the spare pickle buckets were also a godsend.

First was to remove as much grease with paper towels as possible as show below.  

 

After the initial wipe down I used the square bucket as a "parts washer" and filled over the part with kerosene, put the lid on and manually "swished" for a few minutes and then let sit.

 

After wiping down the parts and getting most of the grease off I used a spray bottle to soak them down a bit and then took them to the "box" where I used a cupped wire brush on a drill to start knocking off the heavy stuff. This kept the grease and road grim from being thrown everywhere.
Below is a spindle and knuckle before and after the wheel.

After getting them cleaned up it was back to the kerosene station for another bath and wipe down.

After the rags were coming up somewhat "clean it was off to be blasted with brake cleaner

This really exposed where the grime still was and even though I thought I had been fairly thorough each part had to make its way back to the wire wheel box for a second time and then wiped down with kerosene and back to brake cleaner.

Once satisfied with them they went to be taped up for painting. I wasn't initially going to paint these but I was now so deep into the job it seemed senseless to reassemble without giving them a fresh coat of flat satin black. Opted to prime them first with etching primer before the top coat.

And since I had everything apart I decided to do these as well, OME castor correction bushings.

Two of the old ones came out fine, the other arm fought me tooth and nail and eventually needed to be chiseled out. Going in I nearly mushroomed one but was able to save it.

 

The knuckle itself on the drivers side had noticeable surface rust, this was addressed again with a wire wheel and some emery cloth.

This coming weekend should be time enough to put this project to bed although I am contemplating doing  power steering pump rebuild since there is more room to maneuver around now and with any luck I'll finally get those OPOR sliders mounted!