fourfive
Senior Member
Problem:
CV axle grease in my passenger side inner tie rod bellow & was driven about 80 miles on pavement (about 60 of those miles were highway & 20 miles in the city)
Damage control questions:
1. What steps can I take to minimize damage to my steering rack? (already plan on replacing the axel shaft/LBJ/OTR/ITR & cleaning up the grease)
2. Any red flags or potential problems to look out for as far as axle grease getting into the steering rack/steering rack end?
How it happened:
Last week I was half way through replacing my LBJ & OTR/ITR but then decided I should wait until I order a new CV shaft due to torn cv boots. I wasn't planning on driving it until I had everything fixed. So I reinstalled the old LBJ & OTR/ITR b/c I didnt want to risk damaging the new parts since I would have to disassemble those components again to install my CV shaft. At this point it was dark and I had very poor lighting and I realized after I had the inner tie rod bellow installed, there was about 1-2oz of axle grease inside the bellow. It was very late and I didn't want to risk getting anymore axle grease on the ITR or steering rack end trying to fix everything in the dark. Did not have plans to drive it but of course there were 2 emergencies that occured today & had to drive my 4runner about 80 miles.
CV axle grease in my passenger side inner tie rod bellow & was driven about 80 miles on pavement (about 60 of those miles were highway & 20 miles in the city)
Damage control questions:
1. What steps can I take to minimize damage to my steering rack? (already plan on replacing the axel shaft/LBJ/OTR/ITR & cleaning up the grease)
2. Any red flags or potential problems to look out for as far as axle grease getting into the steering rack/steering rack end?
How it happened:
Last week I was half way through replacing my LBJ & OTR/ITR but then decided I should wait until I order a new CV shaft due to torn cv boots. I wasn't planning on driving it until I had everything fixed. So I reinstalled the old LBJ & OTR/ITR b/c I didnt want to risk damaging the new parts since I would have to disassemble those components again to install my CV shaft. At this point it was dark and I had very poor lighting and I realized after I had the inner tie rod bellow installed, there was about 1-2oz of axle grease inside the bellow. It was very late and I didn't want to risk getting anymore axle grease on the ITR or steering rack end trying to fix everything in the dark. Did not have plans to drive it but of course there were 2 emergencies that occured today & had to drive my 4runner about 80 miles.
