Birfield joints are normally fastened to the inner axle with a small circlip. This clip is a devil to install, and even harder to remove.
Installation requires ten or twenty spare fingers, and a sailor's vocabulary. Basically, you put the clip onto the inner axle, then slide the inner axle into a greasy Birfield while trying to keep the slippery little clip compressed enough to stay in the groove -- all so that you can slide the axle and clip into the Birfield. When the clip slides in past inner bearing race, the clip expands and retains the axle in the Birfield.
Removal, once you get the inner axle and Birfield out of the axle, is even more entertaining. You can use a CV-joint splitting tool, or beat the hell out of the joint... I 've had some success repeatedly dropping the axle and Birfield assembly into a pipe that would fit the axle but not the Birfield. All of these techniques basically do the same thing, force the Birfield to cut through that circlip.
Tired of fussing with those clips, Marlin Czajkowski, of Marlin Crawler fame, started thinking. The clip isn't intended to keep the Birfield from pulling off the axle and heading outboard from the centerline, because the Birfield's stub is stablized and constrained by the hub and spindle. The only real purpose for this clip is to prevent the axle from sliding out of the Birfield, toward the center, and into the differential. Normally, the axle floats inboard and outboard a small amount, constrained by the clip at one end, and a bigger c-clip on the axle.
| The tack weld should be placed in the location shown in the picture, on the splines that go into the 3rd member. The last 1 3/8 - 1 1/2" of the splines should be left clear. The weld needs to ground down so that it is the same height as the splines. |
A few more moments thinking, and Marlin had his solution - a couple of tack welds at the differential end of the inner axle shaft. These tack welds prevent the inner axle shaft from jumping out of the Birfield and into the differential, and you'll never have to fight with those little circlips again. Trail repairs just got much easier... and if you want never to worry about breaking a Birfield again, you can install Marlin's new
Marfield joints.
Marlin tacks two places on the axle, just over one and a half inches outboard of the inner end of each axle where it slips into the differential (red dots in the diagram). Any old welder will work: arc, MIG, or TIG. Just tack it lightly, you want to deposit a small amount of rod but minimize heat transfer. When you reassemble, you can leave out the end circlip (blue arrow in the diagram), but be sure to include the square-shouldered clip (green arrows in the diagram).
Total cost is a few inches of welding rod. The big cost on this one is time --- undressing a Toyota front axle far enough to get to the Birfields and inner axles takes a while. Next time you have the axles apart, though, you should give this serious consideration.
If you would like to have Marlin place the welds on your axles just send the axles in and he will add the tack weld for free!
Marlin Crawler
1543-B N. Maple
Fresno, CA 93793
(559) 25-CRAWL or (559) 252-7295 | |
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