Humpty Dumpty is back together, but the top nut is not adjusted yet.
Getting the ball bearings in was the trickiest part. I put the internal shaft into the piston until the it was one groove past the hole in the middle of the piston. Then I started feeding the BBs in. After putting in 3-5 I used a tool to hold them down in the hole while doing a 1/4 turn back and forth once or twice, and then ending with a 1/4 rotation further inwards. Repeat a bunch of times until the shaft was bottomed out, pop 3-4 BBs into the top hole, and 10-11 in the two piece channel. And you’re good. FSM says to put som grease on either end of the channel to hold the BBs in when you install and that is good advice. Also the channel may not want to seat at first, but a little 1/8 rotation of the shaft back and forth helps. I tapped it with the back end of a screwdriver too.
I used this flat-ended drift to hold the BBs.
Assembly was straightforward except for the Teflon ring at the end of the piston. Where the two bores come together inside it forms a sharp lift. I rounded it over with 220 sandpaper (make sure to clean out any metal dust) and still cut the seal. Second time around I used a small screwdriver to gently get the lip of the seal tucked inside the lip. Done.
Here’s my first attempt, with the lip already cutting the Teflon ring. Oops.
After that, just follow the FSM and you’re home free. Here it is painted and with fresh OEM bolts - they’re still available! Yes I cleaned the paint off the machined flats. The big spanner nut on the side of the box was stuck to the lock ring, but I was able to free them up in a vise with homemade tools. Rust and staking were keeping them together. I filed out the staked threads, cleaned, reassembled them for the proper preload, and re-staked.
Here’s my best attempt at preload check. Not ideal. I mostly did it by feel. No wobble in the shaft, but not so tight the bearing drag was excessive or notchy. Checked with the fish scale and preload was in the lower-middle of the FSM range. Called it good.
The only remaining question is about the brass fittings for the hoses. When I took apart the box, those just fell right out. The Toyota rebuild kit comes with new ones, but they just kind of lay in there, they’re not snug and they fall right out too. I’m assuming that since they’re brass, they’ll deform under pressure when the hoses (with flared ends) get tightened down and compress into a shape that seals everything up. It’s kind of concerning that the old ones weren’t compressed into place…
