When light Frame care becomes Heavy Axle care

As you can see, the frame is in pretty good shape, recalled and replaced in 2018, iirc. Today, I decided to go under with the wire brush and undercoating.


That's when I noticed just how bad the axel is getting...

My plan is wire brush up to the front seal, as close as I'm comfortable, then naval jelly, rust preventing primer, then rubberized undercoating black Tremclad. Just wanted to check with everyone here if that's a good plan of attack, before I go too far (as you can see I already started bushing a small spot).

Also noticed some U-joints need replacing. Should I go OEM or is there a better aftermarket option I should look into?

 

Small update. After some reading I've decided against using the rubberized paint. While effective at keeping moisture out, it also traps it in if it gets a hole. Already have two cans of Tremclad black I'll use for the final step instead.

 

Spicer is the OEM for the U joints. There's two versions you can get that will fit your truck. I got mine from O'Reilly's and got the slightly more expensive ones for the TRD O/R as they have a better triple lip seal as opposed to a single lip seal for the standard ones.

 

If you think the grease on the u-joint is an indication that it's bad, that's not necessarily the case. Mine are way greasier than that because I grease them regularly. If/when you do, you will flush some of the old grease out and they will naturally look like that.
Are you having u-joint problems or just assuming that because of the grease?

 

Good call, I was just assuming they were bad because OP said they were bad, but appearance-wise that's pretty typical to have some grease and dirt build up around the journals and some sling on the under body.

I over grease mine using Lucas Green heavy equipment grease waterproof whatever it is
They look pretty goopy and get all kinds of sling all over everywhere, I consider it free rust proofing.

 

That is why I assumed that. It's just the one, and I greased all of them earlier this year, wiping off any overflow.

 

If you just power wash and coat with wool wax or FF it will soak into the rust and stop it. No need to wire brush it. Just keep up with the undercoating every fall.

 

I actually planned to fluid film after all the small rust spots were taken care of on the frame. I'd still like to make the axel black again instead of the paint being worn away, mottled and scaled with rust.

 

I went through with it. Here it is ready to prime.

Already have it painted too, but everything needs to be bolted back on tomorrow. Off to a hot tub party now. Finished pic will be uploaded tomorrow.

I decided against going past the Ubolts for now, I'll do that in the spring when I do my shocks. For now I'll just make sure to hit them with the Fluid Film.

 

Yep, added undercoating! Mine all have a big stripe around them. I don't wipe it off, I just let it be.

 

This is good to hear, while not a huge deal for me , it's a task I really didn't want to do atm.

 

Work complete!


There's a couple bolts that snapped off I should drill out and replace, but nothing crucial. I zap strapped them down for the time being. One was completely missing, probably from before I owned the truck.