FJ Cruiser Front Axle Replacement 

Thanks a lot for the comment man and I hope it’s a smooth install.

Hey Kamal, when I replaced the inner seal I pinched it with the hammer tapping it in. I think it tore a little bit, you think I should get a different one or put some grease in that metal plate thats on the inside of the axle canister and hope for the best?

Yeea, I have a friend with a tacoma and my brother drives a 4Runner and I was surprised how they share so many of the same parts haha. It’s pretty kool. If it works it works haha. They’re all really reliable. Thanks for the comment.

Alejandro Gonzalez thanks for the comment and have fun working on it. I actually want to get a manual FJ one day. I’m sure it’ll be a fun truck to drive.

Tyler james thanks a lot, I really appreciate the comment. I make these videos to help people out so I’m glad they did for you. Hopefully I’ll have my own Supra one day haha. It’s been the dream car for years now.

Yeea, they’re great trucks. I love the way they look too. This one belongs to my dad but I kind of want to get myself one some day haha. It’s surprising how well they’ve held their value. You can’t really find many cheap.

John M Yeea, that’s for sure haha. I actually ended up replacing the lower control arms after this video and removing the ball joints from that lower hub piece was definitely not easy haha. Thanks for the comment.

Edwin Rodriguez thank you, I really appreciate the comment.

Still using the same axles in this video with no problems. That’s with driving on the beach a lot and some other light off roading as well. Thanks for the comment.

It’s a Snap-On 3/8 torque wrench. I’ve had it for a while but new ones are now really expensive. You can search for used ones online but Harbor Freight, Home Depot, and Lowes also sell digital 3/8 torque wrench’s just like it for a lot better price if you’d like to look there. Thanks for the comment and I hope you can find a good torque wrench.

I worked as a mechanic and have changed several Half shaft axels, but not on an FJ. Your video was very helpful in refreshing my memory and looking at what parts to move on the FJ. I also watched 4 other videos on the same subject but yours was the best by far. I did find one other one helpful, that one showed it is not necessary to disconnect the tie rod from the hub, just rotate the hub towards the tie rod instead of towards the back. Other than that, your procedure was the simplest and most straight forward. You are well spoken and have a lot of patients, with a little Beter scripting, you could do this type of thing professionally! Good Luck with future videos! Jim Shea

Haha nice, thanks for the comment. We’ve never had an exhaust leak but I’d just go under there with the FJ running and hold your hand next to the exhaust. They’re usually pretty easy to find that way. You’ll feel the hot air hahaha. Just don’t touch the pipe if it’s been on for a while, might get a burn. Your could also use a mirror which will help you get into tighter spaces, it will fog up where the leak is.

You do not need to do anything with the front diff fluid, the seal where you take the axle out is at the same height as the fill plug for the diff, so if it’s slightly overfilled you might have a little bit of fluid come out but that’s no problem, they design it that way so you don’t have to top of diff fluid with an axle replacement. You also do not need to get an alignment when replacing these axles. Thanks for the comment and I’m glad you found the video helpful.

@@kamalakeel Great, thanks for the info!

Tyler james do you think it tore from the stress or from something hitting it? If the stress tore it then I’m sure the diff drop kit will help with that. Idk if you ordered the ones from the description but I got heavy duty ones that apparently have stronger cv boots that won’t tear as easily. We haven’t had any issues with ours since changing them in this video. Thanks for the comment and hopefully they’ll hold up just fine this time around.

I am guessing you got this issue resolved... Did you have a 6 inch lift? I bet that may be your issue.

@@claytonwilson4301 It has a 3 inch lift, The new boot tore again. I installed jba upper control arms which i am very happy with. But i went to get the alignment done, and the camber adjustment bolt/tab is frozen into the lower control arm. And apparently that causes the axle to have to ride at a higher angle than normal because they can not adjust it down. So now i am replacing the cam adjustment bolts along with the lower control arms with bushings. Then i will buy new o.e.m. cv boots to install at the same time, since it will be apart for that process.

Shouldn’t happen prematurely anymore after installing the drop kit

I think it would be referred to as the front axle hub seal or wheel seal, just make sure you don’t mix it up with the front axle differential seal, which was the other one I pointed out. It is a snap on torque wrench. It’s been good for many years now for me. Thank you very much for the comment and I hope your replacement goes smoothly.

Nevermind. I tried it your way and liked how it worked.

DISTRESS the fill plug for the front diff is at the same height as those front axle seals so you shouldn’t have a lot of oil come out but it’s no problem, yours could have been slightly overfilled, thanks for the comments, and I hope this helped.

Logan Dressler Yeea, we haven’t had any issues with them since the install. We mainly drive on the beach with it so it’s off road quite a bit.

Still running same axles from the install in this video, no tears in any of the boots and no problems with the axles themselves. Car has over 200,000 miles now. Over 4 years with these axles. They’ve held up very well. It was worth paying a little extra for the heavy duty axles.

I don’t believe it does have a pitman arm, I’m pretty sure the steering shaft attaches directly to the steering rack. We had a shake as well and I replaced the lower control arms which fixed the problem, the inner bushings were bad and caused a shake in the wheel around 50-60mph.

Ya this shakes at all speeds

That is the first time anyone has told me I look like Trudeau haha. I usually get Roger Federer and Joaquin Pheonix haha. Thanks for the comment though.