midnight cruising gone bad.. front wheel bearings repair...

[dirtfriendly4x4]

last night me, the missus and my son went cruising and kinda have a midnight snack at another town, eager using "frosty" we went to the restaurant at a nearby town. The night was cool but there was no sign of rain when we got there. after our snack, we head back home and it started to rain. i missed driving my MTs in the rain as you can drive through any pools in the road.. halfway there, i heard a small "bang" near the engine bay and the truck started making screetching sounds.. then my steering wheel started to get woobly and the truck started to sway sidewards as if it was kick my the side by a big foot.

i stopped at the side of the road and noticed a gear oil smell, yep as suspected one of my wheel bearings was busted but i dont know which one.

i tried to drive slowly, yes i could but not to fast as "frosty" was swaying like mad! and now it started to vibrate madly and punding like an unbalanced wheel..slowly we came home.

at home just to be safe, i inspected the temperature of each wheel. the one on the right front was hot = busted bearing due to the rotor bangging the caliper.i jacked the axle and tested the wheel sideways and vertical, where vertically shows a sign of clearance.. as suspected it was the wheel bearings..

then i could see leakage from my inner front tyres..i opened the hub, which was AVM, so i dont need to think about the c-clip looked at the centre of the spindle, no bolts are loose... hmmm then i inspected the caliper and found some dusts of metal from scraping of the rotor. good thing i had disc brakes at the front, that was what is keeping my hub from falling off..

after work today i had the chance to open and inspect which was the cause of failure, and sorry i work with oil well hahaha ;p

as i would not have acess to great spares like all in mud, i'm open for suggestions and tell me what you guys think.



i

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

more pictures

some more pictures of the removal as you can see the inner bearing is busted. one picture shows the grove where you can hammer with a shaft the bearing sleeves out.

 

[stocksail]

looks like you waited a little too long for that knuckle rebuild and bearing replacement.

Do you know the last time if ever the bearings were inspected/replaced if ever?

... and who goes driving to another town at midnight for a snack? is that like slang for scoring crack or what?

 

[Jan-78FJ40]

looks like you waited a little too long for that knuckle rebuild and bearing replacement.

Do you know the last time if ever the bearings were inspected/replaced if ever?

... and who goes driving to another town at midnight for a snack? is that like slang for scoring crack or what?

I am sure he will appreciate the particularly useless advise and unfounded accusations.

 

[Jan-78FJ40]

last night me, the missus and my son went cruising and kinda have a midnight snack at another town, eager using "frosty" we went to the restaurant at a nearby town. The night was cool but there was no sign of rain when we got there. after our snack, we head back home and it started to rain. i missed driving my MTs in the rain as you can drive through any pools in the road.. halfway there, i heard a small "bang" near the engine bay and the truck started making screetching sounds.. then my steering wheel started to get woobly and the truck started to sway sidewards as if it was kick my the side by a big foot.

i stopped at the side of the road and noticed a gear oil smell, yep as suspected one of my wheel bearings was busted but i dont know which one.

i tried to drive slowly, yes i could but not to fast as "frosty" was swaying like mad! and now it started to vibrate madly and punding like an unbalanced wheel..slowly we came home.

at home just to be safe, i inspected the temperature of each wheel. the one on the right front was hot = busted bearing due to the rotor bangging the caliper.i jacked the axle and tested the wheel sideways and vertical, where vertically shows a sign of clearance.. as suspected it was the wheel bearings..

then i could see leakage from my inner front tyres..i opened the hub, which was AVM, so i dont need to think about the c-clip looked at the centre of the spindle, no bolts are loose... hmmm then i inspected the caliper and found some dusts of metal from scraping of the rotor. good thing i had disc brakes at the front, that was what is keeping my hub from falling off..

after work today i had the chance to open and inspect which was the cause of failure, and sorry i work with oil well hahaha ;p

as i would not have acess to great spares like all in mud, i'm open for suggestions and tell me what you guys think.



i

You need a complete front end rebuild kit, including wheel bearings and (I bet) kingpin bearings and all seals and gaskets.
Also, you need to inspect the spindle where the bearings ride on, as it could be scarred badly.
I don't know about availability of those parts in your corner of the world, but maybe some of the trusty vendors here would ship to you. Get in touch with Kurt at Cruiseroutfitters first, he is great to deal with.
cheers,
J

 

[lehiguy]

Glad your ok. It's all quite easily fixed for for a relatively small amount of cash. Spare parts, hubs, spindles, etc. are the same for all 60s, 62s, and solid axle minitrucks. I second the vote to check with Kurt at Cruiser Outfitters. Great guy, great parts.

 

[John McVicker]

I am sure he will appreciate the particularly useless advise and unfounded accusations.

Agreed. You are way off base Stocksail.

Dirtfriendly...it looks worse than it really is. Buy a knuckle kit w/all the bearings, including wheel bearings, some moly grease & give yourself a weekend & you will be good to go on Monday.

Can't be certain from the pics but you might want to check your brake pads. Are your rotors badly scratched ? Maybe metal to metal.

John

 

[shancerlelby]

yikes, neglect kills. i religiously pull my front end apart just to see how well the grease is holding up. But you definatly got your money out of the old wheel bearings

 

[kalais6]

I'm guessing DirtFriendly was on his way to the markets? We used to head to the Seria Markets from Kuala Belait fairly late too.

Sucks on the breakage, should be able to get fixed pretty easy though.

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

looks like you waited a little too long for that knuckle rebuild and bearing replacement.

Do you know the last time if ever the bearings were inspected/replaced if ever?

i didn't actually, the bearings was last replaced by the last owner, which was kinda 8 years ago, in 2008 i just remembered there was a flood nearby and i was wheeling with it 3/4 of the 35 inch tyres.. = bearing fail

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

You need a complete front end rebuild kit, including wheel bearings and (I bet) kingpin bearings and all seals and gaskets.
Also, you need to inspect the spindle where the bearings ride on, as it could be scarred badly.
I don't know about availability of those parts in your corner of the world, but maybe some of the trusty vendors here would ship to you. Get in touch with Kurt at Cruiseroutfitters first, he is great to deal with.
cheers,
J

good thing the bearing seat was still there, it saved the spindle from being scarred, actually this is the second time i did this but the first time was on my Lj70, the big difference is that the bearing reapir on this truck is "heavyduty" than on my LJ70. well toyota made a good job building this truck

about the parts, ya i can easily get the parts and seals.

i might open the kingpins on top and bottom of the knuckle, thanks for reminding me

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

Agreed. You are way off base Stocksail.

Dirtfriendly...it looks worse than it really is. Buy a knuckle kit w/all the bearings, including wheel bearings, some moly grease & give yourself a weekend & you will be good to go on Monday.

Can't be certain from the pics but you might want to check your brake pads. Are your rotors badly scratched ? Maybe metal to metal.

John

thanks john,

yup gonna buy em as soon as i get off work tomorrow,
its good that the brake caliper is on the top back side, i'll inspect and clean the caliper tomorrow, as for the rotors i think i might still use it as all the oil is at the bottom and the rotors are still ok, not severely scracthed, the outer bearing was still lock hence there was only clearance from the inner which broke, there are no leaks for now i'll post up some pics when i started to install.

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

yikes, neglect kills. i religiously pull my front end apart just to see how well the grease is holding up. But you definatly got your money out of the old wheel bearings

LOL ya it does, thinking that the bearing broke in the middle month of payday, is hard hitting, i might know some sparepart shop who are willing to help till payday

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

I'm guessing DirtFriendly was on his way to the markets? We used to head to the Seria Markets from Kuala Belait fairly late too.

Sucks on the breakage, should be able to get fixed pretty easy though.

Nice, i guess you've been in Brunei kalais6?

well i live in Tutong district, we went to Bandar Seri Begawan and my truck broke 3/4 of the route to home.. good thing this was my second experince and yes both happened after a dip from a flood hehehehheh

fixing is in progress, just the finance is not at a good time, today i cleaned the parts and the bearing seat is still stuck on the spindle might remove it tomorrow.

 

[stocksail]

Agreed. You are way off base Stocksail.

Dirtfriendly...it looks worse than it really is. Buy a knuckle kit w/all the bearings, including wheel bearings, some moly grease & give yourself a weekend & you will be good to go on Monday.

Can't be certain from the pics but you might want to check your brake pads. Are your rotors badly scratched ? Maybe metal to metal.

John

Ok mea culpa.

It seemed like a pretty straight forward failure so I was just poking a bit at the circumstances. most of us have funny/weird stories around our break-downs. lighten up.

 

[kalais6]

Nice, i guess you've been in Brunei kalais6?

well i live in Tutong district, we went to Bandar Seri Begawan and my truck broke 3/4 of the route to home.. good thing this was my second experince and yes both happened after a dip from a flood hehehehheh

fixing is in progress, just the finance is not at a good time, today i cleaned the parts and the bearing seat is still stuck on the spindle might remove it tomorrow.

Yeah I lived them from '90 to '92 as a kid - my dad is in the oil and gas game like most expats over there. I still remember getting the best satay from Seria haha

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

Yeah I lived them from '90 to '92 as a kid - my dad is in the oil and gas game like most expats over there. I still remember getting the best satay from Seria haha

yah satay but now the best one is at the area of sengkurong, and some seasonal vendors in Tutong. its good to hear that someone in Mud knows about brunei.

i've been to perth when i was on a 2 week study tour, kewl place!! for 4x4s although i like the farms and beaches there.

 

[kalais6]

yah satay but now the best one is at the area of sengkurong, and some seasonal vendors in Tutong. its good to hear that someone in Mud knows about brunei.

i've been to perth when i was on a 2 week study tour, kewl place!! for 4x4s although i like the farms and beaches there.

Yeah I remember quite a lot about Brunei - was a great experience. Perth is great for 4WDing - an hour in most directions and you can have beaches, hill, mud or desert scrub. Today we went for a drive down South (12km's) and was playing in the logging tracks while it was raining.

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

Yeah I remember quite a lot about Brunei - was a great experience. Perth is great for 4WDing - an hour in most directions and you can have beaches, hill, mud or desert scrub. Today we went for a drive down South (12km's) and was playing in the logging tracks while it was raining.

one day i might go to australia again.. as my mother in law migrated there in cairns. btw i added you as my friend at the profile..

 

[dirtfriendly4x4]

updates

i finally got the hub and spindle back on. actually the spindle had a problem, when the bearing broke, the seat melted to the spindle and it took me quite a while to get it off. then thinking of bringing it to a metal "machine shop", to skim away the the melted bearing seat. yesterday was sunday so there was no workshops open, then i realised that there is another spindle from my previous LJ70 which when i did the disc brake conversion from using 4 drum brakes.

after a while searching down in memory lane... (was about 5 years ago) i finaly got the spindle which was absolutely identical in dimensions.

installed the bearings gaskets and stuff, then a problem arose where i broke an oil seal at the back of the hub, the metal also kinda melted and took me a while to get the oil seal in.

the previous owner told me the hubs was not working, but after inspecting the AVM hubs i think the previous owner packed some lithium grease in the hubs, LOL a series 500 or wassit 500 model.

i remembered when installing the aluminium alloy body and carbon fibre mechanism, that it said there is no grease needed just a little gear oil when installing the hubs, so i cleaned the hubs and repaired on hub which the previous owner installed wrongly and hopefully i'll get the 4x4 going... (can't wait to wheel!!!)