Gear oil in front wheel bearings (1 Viewer)

[WCBlueSky]

Just purchased my first FJZ80 ('94). My front driver's side knuckle was spewing gear oil onto the tire so I started a front axle rebuild. When I took apart the hub, gear oil started leaking out. I found that both the inner axle seal and the wheel bearing seal had failed and gear oil had washed out all of the grease in both the wheel bearing and the birf. When I pulled out the birf, the inner axle seal came with it. The seal was very loose and I could easily pop it in and out--it was a red NAK seal and I'm almost certain it was the wrong part number. The gear oil that drained out of the differential was super dark due to all the mixing with the moly grease. I know from a PO that it has been leaking at least a year, maybe several years, who knows.

So now my question: the Timken wheel bearing looks fine--no obvious damage or flat spots on the rollers. Everything was well lubricated, just with gear oil instead of grease. Is there an easy way to inspect the wheel bearings (in hand) to see if I should replace them? The birf was not clicking and seems fine.

Passenger side had the correct OEM inner axle seal and looked perfect--zero diff fluid in the grease and plenty of grease in the bearings (though it was moly grease instead of wheel bearing grease, not sure if that matters).

 

[NorCalFJ100]

Replacing wheel bearings is not all that expensive and it's a good baseline going forward. You're already this far into it, you may as well go the rest of the distance!

 

[Desert Dino]

Koyo bearings are cheap I would replace them

 

[maxamillion2345]

Why?

Bearings run in gear oil frequently. No big deal. If the rollers dont show wear run em.

 

[BILT4ME]

Take a pic of the race that bearing was riding in.

Wipe it clean first so we can see the inner surface and how the roller was running on it. Same with the inner bearing.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

unless there is any scoring or signs of heat in the bearings or races i.e. yellowing or bluing they should be absolutely fine.

 

[Cruzerman]

Timken are great bearings, so unless there is damage, I wouldn't replace them.

 

[REKCUT]

I would guess that 99 percent of the cruisers out there have had gear oil in the bearings. That is not an indication for replacement on its own

 

[richardlillard1]

The bearing is probably fine, as stated above, bearings use gear oil all the time.

One option (what I would do after inspecting the bearing for any signs of damage to the rollers and looking at the race for any signs of brinelling) would be to grease the bearing, set preload and check the bearing. If it stays tight, I wouldn’t worry about it. If it’s constantly losing preload, there would be an issue and I would want to replace the bearings and races.

 

[-Spike-]

Do your future self a favor and get factory style axle seals. They have a bellows between the sealing surface and the body, which allows the axle to move around more without leaking. Typical oil seals like the one you pictured do not have this feature. Cruiser Outfitters includes them in their kits if you don't want to go through Toyota.

 

[surfpig]

Replace that seal with OEM. Most people, me included, will replace the bearings since you're already in there. Having said that, in the 4 Land Cruiser axles I've rebuilt, I've never seen wheel bearings that actually need to be replaced. I keep the old ones as trail spares...

 

[ZackR]

I'd replace the bearings while you are in there. Even if they aren't damaged or worn out the time and effort it takes while it's apart is minimal compared to going back in there later. If I recall correctly the whole steering knuckle rebuild kit including bearings is around $200 from cruiser outfitters, basically the same as a few tanks of gas.

In my case a failed bearing (likely due to incorrectly low preload from the previous owner's rebuild) is what led me to the a knuckle rebuild. I was nursing it along with birf soup and a failed seal for a while but once that bearing started doing weird things I got it done asap.

 

[nickolai]

Replace those bearings with new ones, and keep the old ones as spares. You never know when you or a friend might need them.

 

[WCBlueSky]

Thanks for all the replies, this community is great! I have the Cruiser Outfitters kit with the OEM seals, need to clean everything up and start installing it.

Take a pic of the race that bearing was riding in.

Here are the races, some lines but they don't catch a fingernail.

 

[Wyatt Pine]

Those races don’t look amazing. To be honest I would replace them. It wouldn’t kill you to reuse them but for reliability and for how cheap it is I would replace them. But if you’re in a time crunch I’d reuse them and order some new ones to replace when you have a free weekend

 

[WCBlueSky]

@Wyatt Pine OK, $56 too isn't too bad. Thanks for the link @Desert Dino.

 

[BILT4ME]

You're already there. Change the bearings and races. The races are showing a lot of wear. They've been run loose a lot.

 

[shocktower]

Timken are great bearings, so unless there is damage, I wouldn't replace them.

Timken are junk, I had a set go out after a 10K miles, I will never use them, get Koyo's and be done with it

 

[maxamillion2345]

Not pristine but not a lot of wear. Would run em myself. Bearings rarely just fail without notice. Keep up on checking lube and preload, a new set won’t fair much better if neglected or improperly installed.

Mud would have you swap out every part so you could have a whole spare land cruiser of used good parts sitting around.

 

[maxamillion2345]

Funny how Toyota doesn’t seem to think that, they clearly like both.