Well that's good to know. I already have the Toyota one. Mine is completely missing and blows lots of hot air on my legs.
Notes on replacing steering shaft firewall boot (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Pete483
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Well that's good to know. I already have the Toyota one. Mine is completely missing and blows lots of hot air on my legs.
Nice, I was thinking of painting on that liquid electrical tape. Kinda the same thing I think
My shaft seal has gone again. Sick of having to disconnect the steering shaft to replace it. Aside from the custom pillow-block type of arrangement, what else can be used in place of the factory seal piece?
I'll try one of the Bryke racing firewall bearing pieces though I have a sneaky suspicion the main part of the steering shaft is just slightly bent. In which case it'd need checking and (if it is bent) replacing, but better to find out and deal with it than put it off.
I'll try one of the Bryke racing firewall bearing pieces though I have a sneaky suspicion the main part of the steering shaft is just slightly bent. In which case it'd need checking and (if it is bent) replacing, but better to find out and deal with it than put it off.
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I put wax on the shaft where the seal rides I feel this gives longevity to the seal. You should be getting years or life.
My 80 has the collapsible steering column shaft (p/n 45203-60050) which seems to the standard for Aus market 80 series. it also has the tilt-steering config. I've been looking at the concept of fitting a firewall shaft bearing block in place of the factory seal for some time but never really pushed along with it but the existing factory seal is shot and needs (again) to be replaced.
None of the cheap 3/4" firewall shaft bearing units will fit to the removable toyota factory firewall plate (p/n 45025-60070 for our RHD 80's) that supports the standard factory firewall seal without modification of the hole that the factory seal would fit through. I haven't looked at the very expensive ones - just the cheap ones though all the ones I've seen so far have Chinese bearings that perhaps aren't super duper Koyo style quality.
Today I've been investigating my steering a bit more to chase the last bit of wandering and all bushes and tie-rod ends appear good. I did noticed the rubber flex coupler moves about a lot just moving it under the dash by hand (it's a recently-fitted new one) and that allows the top end of the collapsible steering shaft to move around a lot in the seal which probably explains why I've found that a factory seal isn't lasting very long. The flex-coupler is correctly fitted.
I think it was in the USA that someone made a custom pillow block with some fabricated SS sheet and a chunk of nylon (?) drilled out to match the steering shaft diameter. Might have even been here on this site.
I also think the bottom uni-joint that the lower end of the collapsible shaft fixes to (the one bolted to the input shaft of the steering box) has a detectable amount of play so I'm going to get a new one as they're not expensive.
I don't know if it would be a compliance issue to replace the seal with a bearing unit or pillow block - someone in the know could elaborate on that aspect. Australian regulations seem to have a lot of differences to what's permitted in the USA.
A non-cheap firewall bearing block is something like this one:
SWEET 405-10405 Flange Bearing Steering Shaft Firewall Mount | eBay
If anyone just happens to make (Wits End - could be a product idea for you!) nylon (?) pillow block replacements for the factor firewall shaft seal, it's be a bonza product.
Craig.
None of the cheap 3/4" firewall shaft bearing units will fit to the removable toyota factory firewall plate (p/n 45025-60070 for our RHD 80's) that supports the standard factory firewall seal without modification of the hole that the factory seal would fit through. I haven't looked at the very expensive ones - just the cheap ones though all the ones I've seen so far have Chinese bearings that perhaps aren't super duper Koyo style quality.
Today I've been investigating my steering a bit more to chase the last bit of wandering and all bushes and tie-rod ends appear good. I did noticed the rubber flex coupler moves about a lot just moving it under the dash by hand (it's a recently-fitted new one) and that allows the top end of the collapsible steering shaft to move around a lot in the seal which probably explains why I've found that a factory seal isn't lasting very long. The flex-coupler is correctly fitted.
I think it was in the USA that someone made a custom pillow block with some fabricated SS sheet and a chunk of nylon (?) drilled out to match the steering shaft diameter. Might have even been here on this site.
I also think the bottom uni-joint that the lower end of the collapsible shaft fixes to (the one bolted to the input shaft of the steering box) has a detectable amount of play so I'm going to get a new one as they're not expensive.
I don't know if it would be a compliance issue to replace the seal with a bearing unit or pillow block - someone in the know could elaborate on that aspect. Australian regulations seem to have a lot of differences to what's permitted in the USA.
A non-cheap firewall bearing block is something like this one:
SWEET 405-10405 Flange Bearing Steering Shaft Firewall Mount | eBay
If anyone just happens to make (Wits End - could be a product idea for you!) nylon (?) pillow block replacements for the factor firewall shaft seal, it's be a bonza product.
Craig.
NLXTACY
Wits' End
That linked bearing flange is sweet
Been doing more research and found 20 mm bearing pillow blocks with cast housings that are totally flat on one side which might be ideal to permit fitting to the factory mount plate and still allow using a factory seal/guide external to the bearing unit:
Pillow Block Bearing UCFL204 20mm Dia Mounted Bear Two Boltflange Cast Hosing 605322548195 | eBay
It's supposedly a Koyo product but not sure if it's a Japanese-made bearing that's used in them. The housing has a grease nipple. Most of the industrial bearing blocks tend to be similar.
Update - received these today and the housings are a lot chunkier that I'd suspected plus the mounting holes in the housings are wider apart than the standard Toyota seal. So might not be the ideal solution I'd hoped they would be.
So next step is to try out one of the Sweet bearing units as they are I think the same mount spacing as the Toyota seal.
Pillow Block Bearing UCFL204 20mm Dia Mounted Bear Two Boltflange Cast Hosing 605322548195 | eBay
It's supposedly a Koyo product but not sure if it's a Japanese-made bearing that's used in them. The housing has a grease nipple. Most of the industrial bearing blocks tend to be similar.
Update - received these today and the housings are a lot chunkier that I'd suspected plus the mounting holes in the housings are wider apart than the standard Toyota seal. So might not be the ideal solution I'd hoped they would be.
So next step is to try out one of the Sweet bearing units as they are I think the same mount spacing as the Toyota seal.
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Finally I've figured out something that seems to work... Sourced a pair (so I have a spare) of Borgeson #700010 3/4" bearing units with two-piece steel 'clamshell' type holder for the bearing itself, and have worked out a way to mount this behind a factory seal on a new firewall plate (RHD version - still avail from Toyota):
pic page
pic page
50 mm long M6 bolts with a large washer above/below the bearing clamshells, then three M8 nuts, another large washer, then factory seal, and the bearing unit is held away from the seal enough so the clamshell pieces do not hit the factory firewall plate plus there's about 5mm of gap between bearing and seal so that allows room to spray a bit of lube into back of seal.
At the same time I've had the whole shaft out and been replacing both uni-joints (the one above the flex coupler and the one that attaches to the steering box input shaft) and the special bolts that join all that stuff together. I found the bottom uni joint very loose and both of the uni's are originals (so probably both 'adding' to total play in the assembly).
Getting the top uni to re-attach to the flex coupler was not difficult as with the bottom uni joint only loosely bolted the shaft will slide up/down through the bearing unit. There are two grub screws in the bearing unit to tighten on the shaft once I'm happy with positioning of everything.
Craig.
Ps. If you ever need to take out that firewall plate that supports the steering seal, be careful with the bolts. They're M8 non-cutter 20 mm bolts and one of the captive nuts on the engine-bay side of the firewall broke off trying to get it's bolt out. The other three bolts fortunately came out ok but as the bottom of the threads are exposed to engine bay environment they had become very crusty. One comes through hidden behind the outside of the brake booster.
pic page
pic page
50 mm long M6 bolts with a large washer above/below the bearing clamshells, then three M8 nuts, another large washer, then factory seal, and the bearing unit is held away from the seal enough so the clamshell pieces do not hit the factory firewall plate plus there's about 5mm of gap between bearing and seal so that allows room to spray a bit of lube into back of seal.
At the same time I've had the whole shaft out and been replacing both uni-joints (the one above the flex coupler and the one that attaches to the steering box input shaft) and the special bolts that join all that stuff together. I found the bottom uni joint very loose and both of the uni's are originals (so probably both 'adding' to total play in the assembly).
Getting the top uni to re-attach to the flex coupler was not difficult as with the bottom uni joint only loosely bolted the shaft will slide up/down through the bearing unit. There are two grub screws in the bearing unit to tighten on the shaft once I'm happy with positioning of everything.
Craig.
Ps. If you ever need to take out that firewall plate that supports the steering seal, be careful with the bolts. They're M8 non-cutter 20 mm bolts and one of the captive nuts on the engine-bay side of the firewall broke off trying to get it's bolt out. The other three bolts fortunately came out ok but as the bottom of the threads are exposed to engine bay environment they had become very crusty. One comes through hidden behind the outside of the brake booster.
Right I finished it all off today and this is the pic of the final setup with all the components in and connected:
pic page[URL="http://
How this will all hold up in practise is yet to be determined"]
How this will all hold up in practise is yet to be determined.[/url]
pic page[URL="http://
How this will all hold up in practise is yet to be determined"]
How this will all hold up in practise is yet to be determined.[/url]
jjdeneen918
SILVER Star
Finally I've figured out something that seems to work... Sourced a pair (so I have a spare) of Borgeson #700010 3/4" bearing units with two-piece steel 'clamshell' type holder for the bearing itself, and have worked out a way to mount this behind a factory seal on a new firewall plate (RHD version - still avail from Toyota):
pic page
pic page
50 mm long M6 bolts with a large washer above/below the bearing clamshells, then three M8 nuts, another large washer, then factory seal, and the bearing unit is held away from the seal enough so the clamshell pieces do not hit the factory firewall plate plus there's about 5mm of gap between bearing and seal so that allows room to spray a bit of lube into back of seal.
At the same time I've had the whole shaft out and been replacing both uni-joints (the one above the flex coupler and the one that attaches to the steering box input shaft) and the special bolts that join all that stuff together. I found the bottom uni joint very loose and both of the uni's are originals (so probably both 'adding' to total play in the assembly).
Getting the top uni to re-attach to the flex coupler was not difficult as with the bottom uni joint only loosely bolted the shaft will slide up/down through the bearing unit. There are two grub screws in the bearing unit to tighten on the shaft once I'm happy with positioning of everything.
Craig.
Ps. If you ever need to take out that firewall plate that supports the steering seal, be careful with the bolts. They're M8 non-cutter 20 mm bolts and one of the captive nuts on the engine-bay side of the firewall broke off trying to get it's bolt out. The other three bolts fortunately came out ok but as the bottom of the threads are exposed to engine bay environment they had become very crusty. One comes through hidden behind the outside of the brake booster.
Has anyone tried to mount this clamshell bearing on a left-hand drive 80?
I have all the parts, but the bearing will only side about halfway down the shaft. Not far enough for the 50mm bolts to reach the captive nuts on the backside of the firewall.
I can’t find my micrometer, but I definitely can feel the steering shaft becomes a larger diameter half way down.
any help would be appreciated.
Why didn’t you just get the OEM unit which is readily available?
jjdeneen918
SILVER Star
hey mate I’ve got the exact same problem leaning shaft did you ever get it centered ?
It's a really worthwhile mod IMHO. The only thing to keep in mind is that this does negate the ability of the shaft to 'bounce' (via the rubber part of the flex coupler) if driving over really rough/rugged terrain where there's a harmonic to the road surface vibration that might make the body 'flex' on it's mounts to the chassis, but I don't see that as a big issue.
Craig.
Hi, So this to keep the rubber seal in good shape? Mike
jjdeneen918
SILVER Star
That is the theory. I ultimately chose not to go that route after a few negative comments regarding it.
If the seal was made longer with ridges like a tunnel shape it would last longer .4 wheelers have a seal I think would work on their drive shafts. Mike
