Novice locker install (1 Viewer)

[TeCKis300]

Would anyone happen to know whether this harbor freight race driver kit would work for our rear diff?

Bearing Race and Seal Driver Set, 10-Piece

Amazing deals on this 10Pc Bearing Race And Seal Driver Set at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

View attachment 3479248

Yes, that's what I used.

There's still a couple spots where you'll need to get creative to drive the bearing past the snout. Check the install thread in my signature.

You might keep the old bearings around too as they make great "tools" to drive other bearings.

 

[bloc]

Yes. When I set up taller gears for my diesel 4Runner I changed bearings at the same time. One of the old pinion races got sanded down a bit around the outside diameter then became the adapter to press the new race in. If I didn’t sand it down it wouldn’t come back out of the recess for the new bearing, since it is just a bit deeper than the new race.

I also have the older version of that HF driver set.. it’s great for axle seals and some other parts. But most of my tooling for pressing races and such are older bearings I’ve collected in an ammo can.

If nothing else you can get a length of 3/8” X 1.5 or so flat bar. Not too difficult to cut and grind to a length/shape that will let you bridge and push evenly on two sides of a bearing race. I’ve done this a handful of times over the years.

 

[highfructose]

Would anyone happen to have advice on drilling air tube holes in the diff? Specifically ensuring I get the location and direction correct?

I think I get the idea, but it’s a one and done type of thing and I’ve never done it before…nor do I know anyone that has that can instruct.

 

[highfructose]

Would anyone happen to have advice on drilling air tube holes in the diff? Specifically ensuring I get the location and direction correct?

I think I get the idea, but it’s a one and done type of thing and I’ve never done it before…nor do I know anyone that has that can instruct.

 

[highfructose]

Once drilled the next step is to tap, from the outside, for 1/4” npt.

That’s not a size found in the standard harbor freight tap and die set…it cost about $5 (plus a drill bit) on Amazon.

Arb wasn’t clear on how far to tap threads though in a diagram they indicate the threads don’t have to go all the way through.

I tapped threads until the nose of the tap was barely proud of the hole…it was at an angle because my initial hole I drilled was at an angle…and this meant that at some places on the tap, I was clearly proud of the holes and at others, just barely.

After trying to hand fit the fitting, I think this won’t be an issue…that fitting only makes it 2-3 threads before it will require a wrench…which means I think it won’t need to “fully seat” against the bulkhead/diff once everything is in…

As someone who has never done this: it was handy to use a 12” adjustable wrench as a leverage helper to apply controlled torque as I was cutting the threads. Additionally, only torquing an 8th of a turn, then backing of an 8th, was recommended and seemed to have helped…as well as using a lubricant to assist with the cutting friction (I used wd40 silicone spray)

 

[highfructose]

Cleaning the ring gear:

• My 4.10 rear ring gear from my donor diff has an extraordinary amount of red loctite at the base of the threads…like someone poured a dumb dumb of red liquid candy in each hole. This is likely why I had such an extraordinarily difficult time getting the ring gear bolts out…I did a bit of scraping with an inexpensive set of dental tools…and brake cleaned it. Once I got a tight set of impact sockets (icon internal tolerances are tight like snap on supposedly) removal and replacement of the bolts became easy with an electric impact…without tight sockets, I was rounding off bolts.

installing ring gear onto the locker….

• I smeared a very thin coat of sil glyde on the face of the locker where the ring gear would set. I had already took a file to hone down any high spots on the ring gear from where the ring gear bolts may have previously “pulled” the metal out of shape.
• I froze the locker for around 15 minutes.
• I heat the ring gear to 350 in the toaster oven for 15 minutes.
• I slid the ring gear onto the locker and used a 17mm socket to, with my fingers, hand tighten 4 ring gear bolts into the ring gear in the locker…then I used a ratchet to hand tighten the ring gear bolts.

Torquing the ring gear bolts:

• Paint marked the existing initial bolts so you know which ones haven’t been torqued
• Red loctite, Install and tighten the remaining bolts…having really tight sockets are, again, handy for this…icons are $50 for a shallow well impact set and, according to YouTube, tend to be as tight or tighter than snap-on…these are about as tight as it gets…these ring gear bolts aren’t very tall so there’s not much to grab onto…and you’re gonna be torquing to over 100 lbs…not a good mix for cheap loose sockets.
• Remove the paint marked bolts, loctite, and reinstall
• Snug bolts to ring gear in a cross pattern
• Clamp carrier into press using aluminum bearing race drivers ($26 set from Amazon worked) as spacers so you don’t mar/damage the steel of the arb locker/carrier.

• Torque ring bolts to 101 lbs in cross pattern (19:13 or so into video). Then go around twice just to be sure everything was torqued…harbor freight torque wrenches, when new, tend to be accurate within 4 lbs-like the rest (they come with slips of paper indicating they were tested)…over time, however, essentially every torque wrench short of a $450 snap-on will become out of spec by more than the 4% they’re all generally sold at…I can’t remember but I think it’s somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 torque cycles before you should start looking at replacing the torque wrench (they’re only like $18 at harbor freight).

• Once bolts are all torqued, Draw line with paint marker from bolt down onto carrier to see if bolts move or come loose later…also reminder that everything is torqued

 

[highfructose]

Carrier side bearing installation:

• The side bearing for the carrier on at least one side presses beyond flush…meaning just a set of bearing press plates won’t press the side bearing deep enough. One solution for this is to use part of the old side bearing (the race of it I think), sand the inside and perhaps outside of it so it’s no longer a “press” fit on the side of the carrier and can clear the bearings/cage easily…and then use the newly sanded carrier side bearing race as a spacer/press tool to push the new carrier side bearings onto the new arb/locker/carrier.
• How to remove the old carrier side bearings for making your new press tool though? The guy in the video seems to use a specialized tool…which will likely preserve the integrity of the carrier side bearing totally in the event you want to reuse it:

• I don’t know what that tool is called and I don’t plan to reuse the old carrier side bearings…so what was recommended was to cut off the carrier side bearing “cage” and remove the bearings…and then use a 2 jaw puller (I used an oreilly tool rental 2/3 jaw puller 67020…it converts from a 3 jaw to a 2 jaw by removing one of the jaws and swapping another so that the two remaining jaws are parallel from one another)…you need a 2 jaw puller because there are two reliefs cut into the carrier for 2 jaw puller…not 3. Additionally, you’ll need something for the puller to “push” against in the center since there’s a hollow in the side of the carrier for axle shafts... I used an aluminum bearing driver with a bolt in the center of it…
• I sort of “pulled”/tore the cage off partially, then pulled the rest of the cage off With a set of channel locks (could have used a dremel)…the bearings then fell out and I was able to pull the race off relatively easily with an electric impact and a bolt placed in the center of a bearing press plate (seen below)

This combo worked pretty well and doesn’t seem to have damaged anything to “pull” the carrier side bearing (race I think) off the side of the original carrier…having the electric impact not turned all the way up seemed to work better than having it on full power/torque.

 

[bloc]

Fwiw the cage material is pretty soft metal and can be cut with a simple pair of side cutters.

Good work figuring this out!

 

[highfructose]

• Press carrier/side bearings on using bearing press plates and your homemade (internally) enlarged race (that should easily slips onto the carrier)
• do the long side of the carrier first (if there is one)…
• if you do the short side first, you’re going to have that bearing on the bottom like in the attached picture…which means there will be a bearing on the bottom that you’re potentially using as a backstop for the pressing of the top bearing on…I accidentally did it short side first. If you do the short side first like I did, you can use an old race as a safety spacer to put on the bottom of the bearing in order to ensure you’re not squishing the cage during the pressing…or galling the side of your carrier. As you’re pressing the new bearings down (using your homemade extra sized race as a press tool and aluminum pucks to ensure you’re not marring/galling anything), spin the cages to ensure you’re not pressing the cages/bearings inappropriately. You want to be pressing the internal races only so you don’t bend anything out of spec on your bearings)

-I think the next step is to remove old pinion bearing from the pinion and place a new one on.
Autozone rents/loans bearing splitters (or sells them for $50) that can supposedly be used to remove pinion bearings

 

[bloc]

• Press carrier/side bearings on using bearing press plates and your homemade (internally) enlarged race (that should easily slips onto the carrier)
• do the long side of the carrier first (if there is one)…
• if you do the short side first, you’re going to have that bearing on the bottom like in the attached picture…which means there will be a bearing on the bottom that you’re potentially using as a backstop for the pressing of the top bearing on…I accidentally did it short side first. If you do the short side first like I did, you can use an old race as a safety spacer to put on the bottom of the bearing in order to ensure you’re not squishing the cage during the pressing…or galling the side of your carrier. As you’re pressing the new bearings down (using your homemade extra sized race as a press tool and aluminum pucks to ensure you’re not marring/galling anything), spin the cages to ensure you’re not pressing the cages/bearings inappropriately. You want to be pressing the internal races only so you don’t bend anything out of spec on your bearings)

View attachment 3559257

-I think the next step is to remove old pinion bearing from the pinion and place a new one on.
Autozone rents/loans bearing splitters (or sells them for $50) that can supposedly be used to remove pinion bearings

Good stuff, seems like you are moving along nicely.

The bearing splitters autozone/oreilly rent are petty good as long as you get them big enough.. they make a pretty wide range of sizes. I have a medium sized splitter made by OTC, on which most of the knock-offs are based, and it has been a great tool.

And now that I think about it too big of a splitter doesn't work either, as the knife edge won't contact much of the bearing. It's a balance.

Mostly based on this

 

[highfructose]

• remove old pinion bearing from the pinion…an “up to 4.25”/108mm bearing separator ($50 or it can be rented/loaned from Autozone) seem to have worked, along with a press and some aluminum bearing race press plates
• 
• Catch the pinion when it comes out so it’s not damaged. It’ll have a small spacer on it underneath the bearing. This video is of a 9.5” rear differential rebuild may be of assistance…13 minutes into the following video is when he removes the inner pinion bearing from the pinion

• The next step may be to clean up the differential housing and tap in the new pinion races…photos and brief instructions appear to be in this write up:
• 
  
• Harrop FJ80 - http://gearinstalls.com/ArchieHarropFJ80.htm

 

[bloc]

• remove old pinion bearing from the pinion…an “up to 4.25”/108mm bearing separator ($50 or it can be rented/loaned from Autozone) seem to have worked, along with a press and some aluminum bearing race press plates
• View attachment 3559975
• Catch the pinion when it comes out so it’s not damaged. It’ll have a small spacer on it underneath the bearing. This video is of a 9.5” rear differential rebuild may be of assistance…13 minutes into the following video is when he removes the inner pinion bearing from the pinion

• The next step may be to clean up the differential housing and tap in the new pinion races…photos and brief instructions appear to be in this write up:
• 
  
• Harrop FJ80 - http://gearinstalls.com/ArchieHarropFJ80.htm

When you go to install the new large pinion race into the housing you’ll probably need to reduce the diameter of the old race to get past the shoulder while not getting the old race stuck in the recess. Kindof like what you did for the ID of the carrier race to get over the stub without sticking.

 

[highfructose]

• I ran into a bit of an issue and am still trying to sort it out.
• 
  
• I tapped the race that was sent in…while it did press in, it is proud of the place it presses…according to the 200 series forum, zuks photos, AND my extra diff, that race is supposed to be inset, not proud…also the old bearing has a chunk of metal above it and the new one doesn’t…also the parts have different numbers.

Old large pinion bearing: nsk stf r40-64g

Old large pinion races: nsk stf r40-64g



New pinion bearing: nsk 30308jr

Photos are of old pinion and new pinion bearing…old inset pinion bearing race…new pinion bearing race proud.

There is a thread where someone has similar part numbers and similar issues…though I don’t know whether it was ever resolved or whether these are alternate part numbers that, while dissimilar in appearance, may work just as well.

Thread:Diff rebuild question - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/diff-rebuild-question.1277533/

Does anyone have any insight? Will the new style of pinion race bearing be fine?

 

[highfructose]

• The pinion needs a spacer before the large pinion bearing goes on..mine from the oem 4.10 100 series rear diff appears to be to be .0495”…I used an anytime tools tube micrometer (0-1” 0.0001”) to measure its thickness
• 
  
• There are some issues to consider as when installing…the pinion, from the factory, is a certain distance from the ring gear because if the pinion is too close to the ring gear are, unnecessary wear/bite can occur…if the pinion is too far from the ring gear, inappropriate wear/not enough bite will occur…
• if you’re lucky enough to have THE EXACT SAME bearing as what was oem, using the oem shim is likely to be fine…however, as is the case with the cruisertek kit I purchased (details of part numbers listed above), if the bearings are of not only a different brand, but of a different design altogether, it’s not clear whether the oem shim will be a good place to start.
• according to a brief survey of the internet, one person seems to have had an issue with this change in bearing design…but the company claims they’ve been installing this alternate bearing type/brand for years and that they’ve had no issues. Time will tell. If I was doing it again and knew all of this at the time, I would have purchased individual oe parts of the exact brand/part number so as to reduce the incidence of potential problems. Who knows, though-these parts might be superior/more beefy in the long run. Cruisertek recommended starting with a 0.06 shim.
• I am considering purchasing a secondary large pinion bearing as some installers recommend having a “loose”/sanded large pinion bearing when ascertaining shim thickness…that way you can relatively easily test various shims without the necessity of “pressing” the bearing on or splitting/removing the bearing if the shim size is off. These are apparently called setup bearings. “Setup bearings are commonly used by some gear installers. While others instead will shim the inner pinion bearing race against the housing to set depth” so they don't have to worry about taking the bearing on and off. “This is the most common method with most modern gear installers.”
• While there does appear to be a dedicated pinion bearing removal tool, they appear to be between $100 and $600.
• I need to look into shimming the inner pinion bearing race against the housing to set depth so they don't have to worry about taking the bearing on and off…and see whether that, using a bearing removal tool (expensive) or purchasing an additional large pinion bearing to convert into a setup bearing makes the most sense

 

[bloc]

• I ran into a bit of an issue and am still trying to sort it out.
• 
  
• I tapped the race that was sent in…while it did press in, it is proud of the place it presses…according to the 200 series forum, zuks photos, AND my extra diff, that race is supposed to be inset, not proud…also the old bearing has a chunk of metal above it and the new one doesn’t…also the parts have different numbers.

Old large pinion bearing: nsk stf r40-64g

Old large pinion races: nsk stf r40-64g



New pinion bearing: nsk 30308jr

Photos are of old pinion and new pinion bearing…old inset pinion bearing race…new pinion bearing race proud.

There is a thread where someone has similar part numbers and similar issues…though I don’t know whether it was ever resolved or whether these are alternate part numbers that, while dissimilar in appearance, may work just as well.

Thread:Diff rebuild question - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/diff-rebuild-question.1277533/

Does anyone have any insight? Will the new style of pinion race bearing be fine?

View attachment 3569330

View attachment 3569331

View attachment 3569332

What bothers me most about the bearing changes is the angle of the rollers.. I'd have to assume toyota designed theirs the way they did for a reason.. for that angle to change so much seems pretty significant. Had you considered ordering these specific parts in Genuine Toyota flavor to see if they changed too?

For the gear setups I've done I just remove/reinstall the large bearing with the splitter. Assuming identical bearings (you can't do this with the pictures you've posted unfortunately) the original shim will usually get us very very close to final spec, if not perfect. Setting up new gears as Zuk or the big shops do, there's more incentive to have setup bearings or a more efficient tool ready than setting the splitter up over and over.

 

[highfructose]

Good idea, the stark difference between oem and what was in the kit kind of bothered me too.

At $60 for an oem bearing and race (supposedly part # 90366-40088) I get exactly what Toyota designed…and can use my old one as a setup bearing to reduce the chances of an issue.

 

[bloc]

I get exactly what Toyota designed…and can use my old one as a setup bearing to reduce the chances of an issue.

Good idea.

 

[bloc]

Are the small pinion bearings the same between your kit and the old part?

 

[highfructose]

It doesn’t appear so.

• small pinion bearing in this kit is koyo hi-kap 30306j-n, stock/oem was nsk stf 30306djAag Japan L…which are visually dissimilar in thickness…essentially both of the oem/stock pinion bearings have thick rings of metal on top of them (kit pinion bearings in the bag/foreground, oem in the background)

• Similarly the pinion spacers included are not “in front of the large pinion bearing” like oem, they are “under the large pinion bearing race” style spacers (pic follows)

In light of learning more about the items in this kit, I ordered an oem large pinion bearing for around $60 shipped…that way I can sand and use my old oem bearing as a sizing tool (rather than pounding in and out the large pinion bearing race in order to try different spacers)…I’ll, thus, potentially order some oem spacers in lieu of using the kit’s “behind the race” spacers (if needed).

In order to reduce the complexity of the project, I’ll may end up ordering the oem/stock small pinion bearing/race too…since kit bearings are so different in size than the oem ones…I haven’t gotten that far though so I don’t know whether that will be necessary/advisable.

 

[bloc]

It doesn’t appear so.

• small pinion bearing in this kit is koyo hi-kap 30306j-n, stock/oem was nsk stf 30306djAag Japan L…which are visually dissimilar in thickness…essentially both of the oem/stock pinion bearings have thick rings of metal on top of them (kit pinion bearings in the bag/foreground, oem in the background)

View attachment 3585933

• Similarly the pinion spacers included are not “in front of the large pinion bearing” like oem, they are “under the large pinion bearing race” style spacers (pic follows)

View attachment 3585934

In light of learning more about the items in this kit, I ordered an oem large pinion bearing for around $60 shipped…that way I can sand and use my old oem bearing as a sizing tool (rather than pounding in and out the large pinion bearing race in order to try different spacers)…I’ll, thus, potentially order some oem spacers in lieu of using the kit’s “behind the race” spacers (if needed).

In order to reduce the complexity of the project, I’ll may end up ordering the oem/stock small pinion bearing/race too…since kit bearings are so different in size than the oem ones…I haven’t gotten that far though so I don’t know whether that will be necessary/advisable.

For the record the roller angle difference might not be on my radar if I hadn’t seen Zuk write about it a long time ago. Seems it was an issue with Koyo install kits as well.

Landcruiser differential rebuild Toyota

ZUK shares many close-up good pics of Toyota gear installs

gearinstalls.com

Since the roller angle is so different on the large bearing I’d absolutely get a factory small bearing too.. in theory they should both be able to handle the forces involved but if somehow NSK designed those bearings to work together and you change one of them, I can see a hypothetical situation where the other isn’t happy.

Also good plan to run the spacers on the pinion itself, as Toyota did.