Bad rear wheel bearing?

[linuxgod]

If you already have access to a press this is the tool you need. At this cost vs paying someone I’d buy the tool, though I already have a press.

Thanks. I don't have a press, but I'm pretty sure the shop doing my gears in a couple weeks does. They may have the tool already as they do a lot of Taco and Tundra work as well as 60/80/100-series LCs, but I'll check with them this week. I also only have one vehicle, so I'm probably less willing to start on a job like this anyway as it'll almost certainly take me 5x longer than normal which means I end up telling my wife she can't go anywhere for a week. (Not that we're going a lot of places atm anyway).

I'm still not 100% sure it's the outer bearing, as mine isn't clearly as loud as what @radman has going on, but I hear something clicking, Like @TeCKis300 since I'm doing gears and lockers if there's any question at all I may end up just having the shop do the bearings "while they're in there".

 

[radman]

What's your mileage?

I’m at 68k miles.

Maybe my clicking is louder since it’s weight bearing?
I’m not certain, but my clicking doesn’t seem consistent (once per rotation). I believe there’s a double click near the end when I slide a bit...

Have you checked for debris stuck behind the rotor plate?

 

[bloc]

Thanks. I don't have a press, but I'm pretty sure the shop doing my gears in a couple weeks does. They may have the tool already as they do a lot of Taco and Tundra work as well as 60/80/100-series LCs, but I'll check with them this week. I also only have one vehicle, so I'm probably less willing to start on a job like this anyway as it'll almost certainly take me 5x longer than normal which means I end up telling my wife she can't go anywhere for a week. (Not that we're going a lot of places atm anyway).

I'm still not 100% sure it's the outer bearing, as mine isn't clearly as loud as what @radman has going on, but I hear something clicking, Like @TeCKis300 since I'm doing gears and lockers if there's any question at all I may end up just having the shop do the bearings "while they're in there".

If you don’t have a lot of rust this is actually a pretty easy job. Remove brake caliper and swing out of way, remove rotor, remove ABS sensor, disconnect parking brake cable and pull through backing plate, jack up the bad side higher than the other so the gear oil doesn’t drip out, loosen the 4 nuts, and slide it out. Bring to shop to have the parts pressed off/on.
Or at least you hats my understanding of it.

 

[TeCKis300]

^Yup, pretty simple tools and about 1 hour will have the axle out.

I thought about buying the fixture to fully do the job myself, but it's a big PITA of a job as I understand it. Gotta have a big press for the vertical clearance and tonnage required. Taking off the bearing with the right tools is still no walk in the park and requires grinder, chisel, and skill so as not to damage the axle. I'm pretty gung ho about tackling most things but for this job that I would do once in my ownership, thought better of it and left it up to the specialty shop. I got turned away from another off-road shop that wasn't even interested in quoting as it's not... fun.

IMO, the rear axle bearings will last a lifetime within the spec 4300lb GAWR. Provided there's no big hits or 'incidents'. As we ask more from our vehicles with spacers, big tires, and extreme payloads, the pay to play adage probably applies.

So who's going to be the first to axle swap or go full-float?

 

[linuxgod]

I’m at 68k miles.

Maybe my clicking is louder since it’s weight bearing?
I’m not certain, but my clicking doesn’t seem consistent (once per rotation). I believe there’s a double click near the end when I slide a bit...

Have you checked for debris stuck behind the rotor plate?

Yeah i didn’t pull the rotor but I did pull the wheel and checked and it seemed clean

 

[linuxgod]

^Yup, pretty simple tools and about 1 hour will have the axle out.

I thought about buying the fixture to fully do the job myself, but it's a big PITA of a job as I understand it. Gotta have a big press for the vertical clearance and tonnage required. Taking off the bearing with the right tools is still no walk in the park and requires grinder, chisel, and skill so as not to damage the axle. I'm pretty gung ho about tackling most things but for this job that I would do once in my ownership, thought better of it and left it up to the specialty shop. I got turned away from another off-road shop that wasn't even interested in quoting as it's not... fun.

IMO, the rear axle bearings will last a lifetime within the spec 4300lb GAWR. Provided there's no big hits or 'incidents'. As we ask more from our vehicles with spacers, big tires, and extreme payloads, the pay to play adage probably applies.

So who's going to be the first to axle swap or go full-float?

If I ever broke the housing I’d swap it. I’ve seen a housing rated at like 6000#, but I can’t see spending something like $6k just for the housing.

 

[mcgaskins]

Hah, I like the going in disguise. Worked once before? LOL

I did my rear axle bearings at ~125k proactively. No issues but figured might as well while I had it apart to re-gear. Don't know what the full dealer cost would be, but it's a specialized job to pull and press the bearing off the axle. I'm usually pretty gung ho on doing stuff myself, but it has special tool requirements. Toyota wanted $300/bearing with me handing them the bare axle. Was able to find a local shop that did the deed for $150/pair. The work to pull the axles isn't too bad but I'm sure the dealerships charge arms and legs for it.

More discussion on bearing work here

DIY 4.3 Re-Gear

Yes, easy swap. I don't think the ADD will fit unless the 3rd steering rack mount is removed. Yup, took a look underneath there's not enough space. Easy decision! Just took the ADD extension shaft out. Now to get get this little ADD gear out the side of the diff. It may want to put up a fight.

forum.ih8mud.com

Did you also replace the dust shields when you did the work? I know it affects vehicles more from rust prone areas, but it seems like a difficult to repair issue that would be relatively easy to address when doing wheel bearings and gears and stuff.

 

[TeCKis300]

Did you also replace the dust shields when you did the work? I know it affects vehicles more from rust prone areas, but it seems like a difficult to repair issue that would be relatively easy to address when doing wheel bearings and gears and stuff.

That's a good point to consider and would be a good time to do it. I guess being in arid CA, rust isn't something I give lot of thought to. Didn't change it as they still looked great. Here's the back of my shields, '09/125k miles after getting new bearings installed from the shop. Can't see them in place but the bearings are some brontosaurus sized beefy things.

 

[bloc]

That's a good point to consider and would be a good time to do it. I guess being in arid CA, rust isn't something I give lot of thought to. Didn't change it as they still looked great. Here's the back of my shields, '09/125k miles after getting new bearings installed from the shop. Can't see them in place but the bearings are some brontosaurus sized beefy things.

View attachment 2557649

Do you remember whether the brake hose mounting tabs were slotted so the line could be freed without opening the hydraulics or not? Doesn’t look like they are slotted but this isn’t the best angle.

 

[TeCKis300]

Not slotted unfortunately. You can see here along with the capped brake lines.

The rears brakes are pretty easy to bleed as they are driven by the accumulator if that makes it any better.

 

[bloc]

Not slotted unfortunately. You can see here along with the capped brake lines.

The rears brakes are pretty easy to bleed as they are driven by the accumulator if that makes it any better.

It does, but still, would be much easier with slots. Thanks for the picture.

I still need to alternately pull my drivelines to see if that changes my noise, but may be headed down this same road soon. Starting to rule out the front end due to no change in pitch/sound on steering left/right.

 

[linuxgod]

Small update, but no smoking gun yet.

Took the truck to ChiTown 4x4 last week. Rick drove it and agreed there's definitely some excessive noise. He seemed pretty confident it wasn't the tires, saying it was a lot more noise than his Nitto RGs too. Seemed to him the noise was coming from the front, which after driving on the highway to his shop I tend to agree (though I find it really hard to tell while in the driver's seat).

We put it on his lift, and he started with spin and shakedown. Everything seemed tight. The rear wasn't making any clicking, so I'm unsure if the noise I heard before was transient (like some crap on the back side of the rotor hitting the backing plate), an artifact of me putting the truck in Neutral but not getting all 4 wheels off the ground originally, or something else. While on the lift I started and "drove" the truck at 35-40mph and he listened with a stethoscope. He said the wheel bearings were quiet. He also said he thought the front axle housing seemed noisier than the rear, though not excessive.

One other thing he noticed was the driver's side CV boot would actually sort of flex in on itself depending on the angle. The front CVs were rebooted when I did my lift and tires due to mechanic carelessness. The PS has been replaced since then due to a boot tear (done by the local Toyota dealership who I trust), but the DS is still the "original" reboot done by "some guy" with what I believe is a non-OEM boot.

I have an appointment with ChiTown at the end of the month to do the 4.88 gear swap and lockers, so if it's a bearing internal to the front diff then I'm hopeful the issue will go away. Rick suggested rebooting the DS CV since it'll be half out anyway. I'm not sure that's the issue but for the $150 or whatever he wants it seems like a no-brainer when I'm already dropping 5+ large

@bloc I don't know if any of this helps you at all

@TeCKis300 since you did your own re-gear recently (though I know you didn't buy a Nitro kit), do you know if there are any other bearings, or anything else that could wear in the front diff that don't get refreshed with the aftermarket kits? While it's apart I want to do anything I can to find and eliminate the noise because the droning woh-woh-woh is annoying as **** on long highway trips

 

[TeCKis300]

There's many bearings in the front diff that would all warrant replacement, if you're regearing anyhow as it's best practice. The ring and pinion itself depending on the lash could make noise. As Toyota OEM bits however, it would be pretty close to the bottom of what I'd suspect.

I replaced the whole front assembly with a Tundra donor so I haven't actually been inside the front clamshell assembly.

 

[bloc]

Small update, but no smoking gun yet.

Took the truck to ChiTown 4x4 last week. Rick drove it and agreed there's definitely some excessive noise. He seemed pretty confident it wasn't the tires, saying it was a lot more noise than his Nitto RGs too. Seemed to him the noise was coming from the front, which after driving on the highway to his shop I tend to agree (though I find it really hard to tell while in the driver's seat).

We put it on his lift, and he started with spin and shakedown. Everything seemed tight. The rear wasn't making any clicking, so I'm unsure if the noise I heard before was transient (like some crap on the back side of the rotor hitting the backing plate), an artifact of me putting the truck in Neutral but not getting all 4 wheels off the ground originally, or something else. While on the lift I started and "drove" the truck at 35-40mph and he listened with a stethoscope. He said the wheel bearings were quiet. He also said he thought the front axle housing seemed noisier than the rear, though not excessive.



@bloc I don't know if any of this helps you at all

Your on-road observations mirror mine.. though I couldn’t call my front diff noisy via stethoscope, all of the hubs were quiet with no load.

I’m still waiting to switch on stock tires with a friend’s LX to see if that helps me locate the wheel bearing, but at this point that is my gut. No load it is silent, with load it gets noisy.

Chassis ears are up after that.

 

[linuxgod]

There's many bearings in the front diff that would all warrant replacement, if you're regearing anyhow as it's best practice. The ring and pinion itself depending on the last could make noise. As Toyota OEM bits however, it would be pretty close to the bottom of what I'd suspect.

I replaced the whole from assembly with a Tundra donor so I haven't actually been inside the front clamshell assembly.

Me too but *something* is going on. I wish my iPhone did a better job capturing the sound.

Thanks, sorry I'd thought you had rebuild the donor. The Nitro kits include new ring and pinion and a bunch of bearings. I'm *assuming* it covers everything in there, was just wondering if there's anything missing, but it sounds like you wouldn't know for sure.

Wondering if anyone else has done a Nitro gear kit and if so what *doesn't* it R&R?

You are being redirected...

 

[bloc]

I’m even looking into better quality microphones to try and capture what’s going on with mine.

also I forgot.. I agree with teckis. Diff bearings on these are rock solid and should be low on the likelihood list. Unless they were run low on oil at some point

 

[linuxgod]

I’m even looking into better quality microphones to try and capture what’s going on with mine.

also I forgot.. I agree with teckis. Diff bearings on these are rock solid and should be low on the likelihood list. Unless they were run low on oil at some point

In fairness I'm with both of you on that. But I'm also running low on ideas.

Anyone ever had a CV that makes bad bearing-type noise but doesn't click or pop or otherwise sound like a bad CV? Running short on ideas otherwise...

 

[grinchy]

FWIW I thought the noise was from the front too, which eventually proved to be the rear wheel bearings . . . it was hard to 'locate' the sound.

 

[linuxgod]

FWIW I thought the noise was from the front too, which eventually proved to be the rear wheel bearings . . . it was hard to 'locate' the sound.

Thanks, yeah I recall you mentioning that before. Now I want to go back and read your thread. Was yours just white noise or did you have another indication? How did you ultimately determine it was a bad rear bearing?

 

[grinchy]

White noise. Determined by changing ‘noisy’ tires, replacing front bearings, and then blowing up a rear abs sensor with grease from failed seal.
I was doing the tire change anyway to go to RTs, but it’s useful data.