[maxwoof]

I like the closed knuckle because it is original. That's my thing. I can't say that it is any better than the later year open knuckle though. However, I did rebuild the knuckles in my 62 k-20 a few years back. I bought the big felt seals in a kit from quad 4x4, i believe. The knuckle bearings and seals are all available on rockauto.com. I actually got my knuckle bearings from a local guy, but I gave him the numbers from the rockauto website. I would have saved some money if I ordered on line, but I didn't realize I needed them until I got the truck up in the air...

Basically, they are like little wheel bearings you would find in a conventional front end. You need to replace the cups and cones. There is an adjustment by way of adidng shims when you put it back together, but I just put in the same shims I took out. It seems to be fine.

Also, instead of relying on oil in the knuckle, I packed all the bearings with grease, like conventional wheel bearings. This includes the knuckle bearings. Didn't put any gear oil in the knukles, just painted some on the felt seals. No drips! I did this in 2009, and seems to be working fine. Granted, the truck is not a daily driver, but a few times a year it sees the highway for 2-3 hours at a time, and local driving on the weekends.

I got a lot of parts for it form rockauto.