Had the usual gear lube on the inner tire of my old 4runner. Time for wheel bearings. My experience in half a dozen toyota 4x4s is that they go out around 200k and usually both sides go within a year of each other. If you're gonna do one, might as well do both. All the parts including new tone rings, seals, timken bearings, new mid grade brakes and all new brake hardware kit, was $205 shipped from rock auto. Add $20 for gear lube and brake fluid. DIY on this one can be a lot cheaper than a dealer/shop and is something most of us can do at home.
I won't cover the whole process here. Lots of writeups on it. This is just about building a very cheap press from scraps that you might have around or could go buy pretty inexpensively. I don't have a shop press or a spare rear axle tube. If i did, I would have gone that route. It's better than this idea. But for $30 for a HF jack and some scraps it works pretty good. The tools you need are a welder, a drill - ideally a drill press, but not necessary, and some cutting tool. For the couple quick cuts I needed, I used a portable band saw. Accuracy is not necessary.
The parts amounted to 12" of 2x2 angle, 3/16. 2x2 1/16 wall square tube about 24", and a piece of 3x3/16 flat bar about 36" long.
Take your angle, and cut it in half. Then measure and drill the holes for the studs on the back of the backing plate. You'll need to cut one corner off the angle to work around the parking brake lever. Although the two sides are opposite, the same 45* cut on one end will accommodate both right and left sides. I cut two corners, but realized after it was unnecessary.
Put both on and set your square tube vertically and tack weld. Then bend the flat bar around to make a hoop at the top. A couple clamps will help bend the flat bar so that it lays flat along the 2x2 square tube. Make sure it has room for the hydraulic bottle jack. It doesn't have to be perfect, but if you want you could clamp it to the edge of a table and bend nice bends. I just got close and let the jack make the hard creases during the first press.
I added a couple braces to the angle although I'm not sure it's necessary.
The whole bearing press can be made in about 30 minutes if you have the pieces cut.
I used a 12 ton bottle jack from harbor frieght. $30.
Once you've cut the tone ring off and the outer press on collar and the snap ring (be careful not to nick your axle and use a chisel to break the last little bit) it was an easy process. The press worked exactly as expected and although nearing the maximum force the jack would provide, both sides came apart without issue.
To press back on I just used a piece of square tube 2x2x1/8 and tapped on the new parts. Measure the seal depth to make sure your tone ring and collar are the correct depth - do not bottom them out!
It took me about 7 hours of work for both sides. Next time I think I could do it in maybe 2-3. The second side goes really fast once you know what you're doing.
Here's a couple pics of my quick and dirty rear press.
I won't cover the whole process here. Lots of writeups on it. This is just about building a very cheap press from scraps that you might have around or could go buy pretty inexpensively. I don't have a shop press or a spare rear axle tube. If i did, I would have gone that route. It's better than this idea. But for $30 for a HF jack and some scraps it works pretty good. The tools you need are a welder, a drill - ideally a drill press, but not necessary, and some cutting tool. For the couple quick cuts I needed, I used a portable band saw. Accuracy is not necessary.
The parts amounted to 12" of 2x2 angle, 3/16. 2x2 1/16 wall square tube about 24", and a piece of 3x3/16 flat bar about 36" long.
Take your angle, and cut it in half. Then measure and drill the holes for the studs on the back of the backing plate. You'll need to cut one corner off the angle to work around the parking brake lever. Although the two sides are opposite, the same 45* cut on one end will accommodate both right and left sides. I cut two corners, but realized after it was unnecessary.
Put both on and set your square tube vertically and tack weld. Then bend the flat bar around to make a hoop at the top. A couple clamps will help bend the flat bar so that it lays flat along the 2x2 square tube. Make sure it has room for the hydraulic bottle jack. It doesn't have to be perfect, but if you want you could clamp it to the edge of a table and bend nice bends. I just got close and let the jack make the hard creases during the first press.
I added a couple braces to the angle although I'm not sure it's necessary.
The whole bearing press can be made in about 30 minutes if you have the pieces cut.
I used a 12 ton bottle jack from harbor frieght. $30.
Once you've cut the tone ring off and the outer press on collar and the snap ring (be careful not to nick your axle and use a chisel to break the last little bit) it was an easy process. The press worked exactly as expected and although nearing the maximum force the jack would provide, both sides came apart without issue.
To press back on I just used a piece of square tube 2x2x1/8 and tapped on the new parts. Measure the seal depth to make sure your tone ring and collar are the correct depth - do not bottom them out!
It took me about 7 hours of work for both sides. Next time I think I could do it in maybe 2-3. The second side goes really fast once you know what you're doing.
Here's a couple pics of my quick and dirty rear press.
