Jimny front axle

I have a bit strange issue with my kingpin bearing, which might have the same root cause as yours. And I might have an alternative solution to replacing the entire front axle! Read below!


Sometimes my steering suddenly becomes twice as heavy than normal. It's not nearly as heavy as when no power steering pump is working, but it's approx 2x heavier than normal.
It sometimes returns to normal "lightness" by itself after several minutes (or an hour), but sometimes it won't by itself. In such a case, I turn the steering wheel to maximum left lock, and then something snaps loudly. After that, the steering wheel lightness returns to normal after a couple of more turns here and there.

When investigating the issue, we removed the bottom kingpin on the front left wheel, and a lot of rusty fluid and debris was present in the hole. When I inserted a finger in the hole and tried to rotate the kingpin bearing, it rotated but with a lot of grinding noise. That indicated that it was badly rusty. After several hand turns, it got stuck and we could not turn it anymore by hand (finger). We suspect that a rusty bit of metal had just got caught in the bearing, or the bearing race got stuck in the deformed axle seat. We only managed to get it "loose" after screwing the kingpin back on and forcing it lock-to-lock with the aid of power steering (we heard a snap).

My car mechanic says it's a sh***y situation if happens that the axle seat is damaged by a bad bearing race or pieces of rusty metal, but that it can be fixed with the aid of a turner craftsman (people who manipulate and model metal parts with special metal grinding tools etc.). He did not go into much details as to how would the turner fix it, but I suppose that he would widen the axle seat and then install a some sort of ring inside to return it to factory diameter.

I haven't got to that point yet, as I am still in the process of obtaining new bearings etc., but I shall soon know if I am that much damned when we finally open the wheel hub assembly.

However, this adventure with a turner might be a suggestion to DeanoMansfield as an alternative method to obtaining a replacement expensive axle. You can't lose much as your axle is now damaged anyway!

P.S.:
I hope that I got the name of that profession - turner - correct, as English is not my native language.

Hello Martin,

I am having certain difficulties with using proper technical words for all these mechanical parts, as they are not common everyday English words for us foreigners.

Thank you for pointing that out and requesting a clarification.

When I said that we suspect that a wheel bearing race might have deformed an axle swivel seat, I meant the outer bearing ring (the ring which comes as a separate part when you buy the bearing).
Also when I say the "axle swivel seat", I mean the factory drilled hole in the axle swivel, in which the entire kingpin bearing sits.

So, if it really happens that the axle swivel seat (hole) is deformed / damaged, my mechanic says that the only repair method is to get a turner craftsman widen the hole a bit (in order to make it a perfect circle again), and then to install or weld a some sort of ring in the widened hole. The inner diameter of the installed or welded ring should be identical to the factory diameter of the hole itself. After that, the outer ring / race of a kingpin bearing would be pressed into that ring ...

Does not sound perfect or very solid, but what else is there aside from replacing the entire axle !?
In my country, there are no more than 30ish Jimnys in total, and only two quite scavenged ones on scrap yards ....


EDIT
I have not yet seen this seat / hole in person, so I am talking part "in theory" - or better say I am retelling my mechanic's tale. My mechanic assumes that the bearing seat in the swivel ball is a single piece as the ball itself - that the seat is not replaceable.

If I understand Martin correctly, the seat in which you press the outer bearing race can be removed from the swivel ball and a new one installed? In that case, if the outer bearing race damaged the seat, I can only replace the seat and I am good? Where can I buy that seat?

Martin, your picture portrays as I described.

My mechanic fears that the bearing's outer race ring has deformed the axle hole in which it sits pressed (as we heard a snapping bang each time a stuck bearing gets unstuck by the force of the power steering).

If the axle swivel's seat / hole is deformed, then a machinist repair process is needed just as 11/60 has described (or an entire replacement axle!).

Photo with the bearing outer race removed -



After watching Martin's video, I now use a suitable sized socket to pop them out -



Photo's from this blog on rebuilding the front axle