Just wanted to update everyone. I got the Land Cruiser back from the shop last Wednesday and made the trip back to Florida. Working great and the damage could have been a lot worse. So total recap of what actually happened:
I have been having issues with the bearing lock nuts coming loose. I replaced all my rotor brakes last year and since then the driver side bearing has come loose a couple of times. So a few things from that I think was causing the problem. One, I didn't replace the wheel bearing or really repack it properly. Two, I didn't change out components such as the bearing lock nut star washer, which definitely starts fatigue over time. I am really bad about trying to reuse parts. I also did not replace the snap ring that holds the cb axle to the wheel flange.
I got back from a deployment that got extended and had very little time to do prep work for the trip that I was taking with my family from Florida to the South West. When I was doing my check up maintenance, I checked the play in both tires and noticed both had a little. Nothing that was alarming but enough if I had time I would have fixed. Unfortunately I was pressed for time and wasn't able to make sure both sides were good and tightened up. This was obviously a mistake. Some indications of this becoming loose is grinding sound that comes from the caliper touching the rotor brake. Its almost what bad breaks sound like but is made when the wheel is overturned and the caliper touches the rotor brake.
We were at Toquerville Falls Utah, made the trip up and down the trail. Just finished airing back up and trying disengaging the center differential. There was a grinding sound and no power to the drive the vehicle forward. Hopped out and had my wife disengage the center diff multiple times until i notice from the front of the vehicle that the cb axle was free spinning every time the diff was disengaged. The axle had pulled out of the wheel flange. After a very long night we were unable to to get the axle back in all the way to put everything back together. The bigger problem was that the bearing lock nuts threads were completely destroyed allowing the bearing and the wheel hub to come apart.
Initially thought that bearing had destroyed itself but I believe it was the locknuts coming loose and the snap ring that holds cb axle in came off allowing the axle to pull out of the wheel hub. Anyways, I needed to get new bearings and new lock nuts. Bearing not so much of a problem but the nuts were more difficult to get quickly. I was contacted by
@woody who was kind enough to point me in the right direction and after some digging we were able to find some spare nuts.
The next day i had another issue with the threads for spindle or the knuckle (Im not sure what the correct nomenclature is) which the lock nuts thread onto. They were damaged as well. Was able to clean them up with some different files. Eventually got everything back together and was able to drive it to Pro Auto. Before I drove there, I ordered 2 wheel bearing kits from Cruiser Outfitters. The arrived the next day to the shop and the Pro Auto guys had it finished that afternoon. I cannot speak enough praise for those guys in that shop. They replace both driver and passenger wheel bearings for me. Alek and Sonny are great (sorry Im forgetting the last mechanics name) but thank you so much to them they are great and easy to talk to.
I want to also give thanks to
@woody for helping me find that part. To
@olive for reaching out to me providing support and offering a place to stay. Thanks to a guy Troy who was helping me in the middle of the night. And thanks
@Cola for just being my life line and who really opened up this forum for me, the truck might not have made it back if wasn't for him.
