Last weekend I disassembled the USDS rear hub on the unmodified “soccer mom” ’93 I bought about four months ago at 145K (FF, ABS, F/R diff locks). I recently serviced the other three hubs and hoped this would be a routine seal replacement and repack job. The first hint of trouble came when I pulled the wheel and discovered about a millimeter of axial play in the bearings. The e-brake shoes and everything else inside the rotor were oily, indicating that both hub seals had failed on that side. After removing the lock screws I noted that I could tighten the hub nut a little more than half a turn before feeling any resistance. I suppose we could call that “negative preload”. It’s anyone’s guess how long it had been that way.
Disassembly of the hub showed that the inner races of both bearings had been spinning on the axle for a long time, but most of the damage was at the outer bearing. As I wiped the gear oil off of the spindle (no grease, only diff oil in the hub and bearings) I could feel the groove through the rag where the inner race of the outer bearing had worn into the underside of the axle spindle
. The spindle shaft measured 45.20mm diameter in an unworn area and 44.94mm in the area of greatest wear. The 0.26mm (.010”) difference is entirely on the weight-bearing lower side of the spindle. Though it may sound small, 10 mils of wear on the radius creates a BIG step.
When I serviced the front hubs a couple of months ago, the knuckle spindles showed similar wear patterns but the steps measured only 3-4 mils. I may have over-reacted, but I replaced both knuckle spindles (and the front wheel bearings) because I was concerned about the amount of bearing wobble that was possible with 3-4 mils of wear. As a result, I now have one of the few 80’s with the new roller bearing knuckle spindles 8). The front’s were easy because the spindles just bolt on. Now I have to decide what to do about the rear, and I could use some advice.
Unless I’m missing something, the rear axle spindles are an integral part of the axle housing, which my local Toyota dealer lists at $1016. I’ve also checked the local junk yards without success. So here are my questions:
1) Do I have any reasonable alternatives to replacing the entire axle housing? Welding and sleeves come to mind, but they leave almost as quickly. Does anyone know of a fix for this problem?
2) What is the worst that might happen if I put everything back together, preloaded the bearing properly and pretended that I didn’t notice? Most people never would have repacked the hub in the first place, right? (Suppose I’m going on a 1000 mile trip soon, do I really need to fix this first?)
3) Let’s say I bite the bullet and install a new axle housing. Other than a lot of work, is there anything about swapping my differential into a new axle that requires more than ordinary skill and equipment? (Toyota didn’t even include the FF axle in the ’93 FSM, so it’s not much help.)
Thanks,
Sage
Disassembly of the hub showed that the inner races of both bearings had been spinning on the axle for a long time, but most of the damage was at the outer bearing. As I wiped the gear oil off of the spindle (no grease, only diff oil in the hub and bearings) I could feel the groove through the rag where the inner race of the outer bearing had worn into the underside of the axle spindle
. The spindle shaft measured 45.20mm diameter in an unworn area and 44.94mm in the area of greatest wear. The 0.26mm (.010”) difference is entirely on the weight-bearing lower side of the spindle. Though it may sound small, 10 mils of wear on the radius creates a BIG step. When I serviced the front hubs a couple of months ago, the knuckle spindles showed similar wear patterns but the steps measured only 3-4 mils. I may have over-reacted, but I replaced both knuckle spindles (and the front wheel bearings) because I was concerned about the amount of bearing wobble that was possible with 3-4 mils of wear. As a result, I now have one of the few 80’s with the new roller bearing knuckle spindles 8). The front’s were easy because the spindles just bolt on. Now I have to decide what to do about the rear, and I could use some advice.
Unless I’m missing something, the rear axle spindles are an integral part of the axle housing, which my local Toyota dealer lists at $1016. I’ve also checked the local junk yards without success. So here are my questions:
1) Do I have any reasonable alternatives to replacing the entire axle housing? Welding and sleeves come to mind, but they leave almost as quickly. Does anyone know of a fix for this problem?
2) What is the worst that might happen if I put everything back together, preloaded the bearing properly and pretended that I didn’t notice? Most people never would have repacked the hub in the first place, right? (Suppose I’m going on a 1000 mile trip soon, do I really need to fix this first?)
3) Let’s say I bite the bullet and install a new axle housing. Other than a lot of work, is there anything about swapping my differential into a new axle that requires more than ordinary skill and equipment? (Toyota didn’t even include the FF axle in the ’93 FSM, so it’s not much help.
) Thanks,
Sage
