Wheel bearing preload way too high

[Spook50]

Still haven't completely finished the rebuild. Stupid auto shop hours...

Anyway, On both wheels today, when I set the preload (torqued the nut to 43 ft. lbs, rotated wheel a bunch of times, retorqued, backed off, then torqued to 7 ft. lbs) and checked it, the scale I was using showed each wheel at about 20 lbs preload. 19 for the right and 20 for the left, to be specific. Is this normal when using all new bearings/races, real cold grease (it was damn near freezing in there) and using the factory toque specs? I debated backing everything off, using less torque on the adjusting nuts, then trying again, but thought against it since the book still specifies 43 ft. lbs. Also, even without the bearing preload set, the resistance of the seal on both hubs (rotating the wheels with the nuts on just enough to hold the bearings in place) was 14 lbs. So the way the FSM describes how to gauge the preload, the final settings WERE within spec, but damn, it just seems way too high. I had been under the impression that you wanted from 6.5 ft. lbs to 12 ft. lbs for the wheel bearings.

Also, the preload on my steering knuckles was at the very bottom of what the book specified, too. They were still within spec so I left 'em alone. Just thought it was kinda weird for those to be so low and the wheel bearings to be so high.

 

[overhanger]

Installed new wheel bearings and Longfields today so have a pretty good idea what you are asking. You must have been using a fish scale to measure the preload, right? You are supposed to check the oil seal drag with the adjusting nut backed off to finger tight after doing the 43 ft/lb. setting in of the bearings. Then after retightening the adjusting nut to 4 ft/lbs - 48 in/lbs and tightening the lock nut to 65 ft/lbs, you add the oil seal drag with 6-12 ft/lbs to get the new reading which is going to be close to what you have measured. You are using synthetic grease too, right? It could be 40 below and it wouldn't make any difference to the measurements. You are on track and the FSM says to add 6.2-12.6 lbs to the oil seal drag so you have nothing to worry about there. There is no correlation between wheel bearing preload and trunnion bearing preload so if your findings are all with in spec don't sweat it.
Just got back from a test drive around the hood and on the Interstate and with the hubs locked in at 80mph I couldn't even tell they were locked in - smooth as silk. Hope you have the same results.

 

[Spook50]

Installed new wheel bearings and Longfields today so have a pretty good idea what you are asking. You must have been using a fish scale to measure the preload, right? You are supposed to check the oil seal drag with the adjusting nut backed off to finger tight after doing the 43 ft/lb. setting in of the bearings. Then after retightening the adjusting nut to 4 ft/lbs - 48 in/lbs and tightening the lock nut to 65 ft/lbs, you add the oil seal drag with 6-12 ft/lbs to get the new reading which is going to be close to what you have measured. You are using synthetic grease too, right? It could be 40 below and it wouldn't make any difference to the measurements. You are on track and the FSM says to add 6.2-12.6 lbs to the oil seal drag so you have nothing to worry about there. There is no correlation between wheel bearing preload and trunnion bearing preload so if your findings are all with in spec don't sweat it.
Just got back from a test drive around the hood and on the Interstate and with the hubs locked in at 80mph I couldn't even tell they were locked in - smooth as silk. Hope you have the same results.

Cool, hopefully mine will be just as smooth. Once I start some heavier wheeling, I'll be looking at the Longfields too. Pricey, but the piece of mind alone would be worth it to me.

Funny, both my axle oil seals were completely FUBAR. That, and the tech who did the job at about 100K miles put one of the gaskets on wrong (according to the FSM, there's a gasket between the dust shield and the large seal. This gasket was between the spindle and the dust cover on both wheels when I pulled everything apart). Hopefully everything will stay the way it's supposed to for a good long time after this. With the DBA rotors up front, and slotted disc going in the back soon, my truck's gonna stop in shorter distance than my sister's Civic

 

[lovetoski]

There are some posts on the 80's forum about wheel bearing adjusting...and keeping in mind that 60's in particular were designed for rough conditions repair...the FSM is a good guide, but in the end it boils down to this simple equation: Adjust the wheel bearings so that they are as loose as possible, without any detectable play. Said another way, adjust so that there is just a bit of play, then tighten 1/8 turn and recheck. I think the FSM is good for getting you in the ballpark, from there you need to use the good judgement and fingertip sensitivity that we all came equipped with. FWIW, I've noticed that that a re-check after a few hundred miles is a pretty good practice.

 

[Spook50]

There are some posts on the 80's forum about wheel bearing adjusting...and keeping in mind that 60's in particular were designed for rough conditions repair...the FSM is a good guide, but in the end it boils down to this simple equation: Adjust the wheel bearings so that they are as loose as possible, without any detectable play. Said another way, adjust so that there is just a bit of play, then tighten 1/8 turn and recheck. I think the FSM is good for getting you in the ballpark, from there you need to use the good judgement and fingertip sensitivity that we all came equipped with. FWIW, I've noticed that that a re-check after a few hundred miles is a pretty good practice.

Good point. Since it's still within Toyota's specs, I'll leave it be for now, but I'll give 'em another check in a couple weeks and make sure everything's good.

I can't believe how long this has taken me since I started. If I hadn't had to do so much cleaning, I probably could've knocked it out in just a few hours.

Word of advice for those of you getting ready to tackle this: use the manifold stud trick! Get a couple manifold studs from Toyota, thread them into the knuckle a bit once it's mounted back onto the axle, and use the studs to hold everything (gaskets, spindle, dust shield, and retainer). When you've got a couple bolts in, pull out the studs and put in the rest of the bolts. And for the oil seals (and bearing races inside the hub), use a race driver set. It makes it 10x easier and quicker to install the races and oil seals.

 

[overhanger]

A trick I learned from Robbie Antonson for setting preload: After tightening the lock nut see if you can slide the thrust washer sideways a little bit with screw driver. If you can't, the preload is too high and the adjuster nut needs to be backed off a hair. He also says to give the bearings about a thousand miles and then recheck the preload. Both of these cooments mirror your comments Doug.

There are some posts on the 80's forum about wheel bearing adjusting...and keeping in mind that 60's in particular were designed for rough conditions repair...the FSM is a good guide, but in the end it boils down to this simple equation: Adjust the wheel bearings so that they are as loose as possible, without any detectable play. Said another way, adjust so that there is just a bit of play, then tighten 1/8 turn and recheck. I think the FSM is good for getting you in the ballpark, from there you need to use the good judgement and fingertip sensitivity that we all came equipped with. FWIW, I've noticed that that a re-check after a few hundred miles is a pretty good practice.

 

[overhanger]

Funny, I know what you are talking about regarding the gasket placement being confusing. The directions describe the gasket where your mechanic put it and the parts diagram show it being where you wound up putting it. The spindle has the groove on the bottom and the gasket in question has the little drop out that sort of matches the groove. I've looked at the situation before and can't makeup my mind as to where and why it goes where it goes! I wind up following the parts diagram.
It's been over 100,000 miles since the axle has been serviced, Spook? Bad boy!!

Cool, hopefully mine will be just as smooth. Once I start some heavier wheeling, I'll be looking at the Longfields too. Pricey, but the piece of mind alone would be worth it to me.

Funny, both my axle oil seals were completely FUBAR. That, and the tech who did the job at about 100K miles put one of the gaskets on wrong (according to the FSM, there's a gasket between the dust shield and the large seal. This gasket was between the spindle and the dust cover on both wheels when I pulled everything apart). Hopefully everything will stay the way it's supposed to for a good long time after this. With the DBA rotors up front, and slotted disc going in the back soon, my truck's gonna stop in shorter distance than my sister's Civic

 

[Spook50]

Funny, I know what you are talking about regarding the gasket placement being confusing. The directions describe the gasket where your mechanic put it and the parts diagram show it being where you wound up putting it. The spindle has the groove on the bottom and the gasket in question has the little drop out that sort of matches the groove. I've looked at the situation before and can't makeup my mind as to where and why it goes where it goes! I wind up following the parts diagram.
It's been over 100,000 miles since the axle has been serviced, Spook? Bad boy!!

Yeah, mostly due to me not having money to have it done by a dealer, and up untl now, not being confident in my mechanical abilities enough to do it. Though if I had known it would be this easy, I would've done it long ago. Despite all the oil that had leaked into my hubs though, all my bearings and races (including the trunnion bearings) were in perfect shape. There was slight discoloration on the old trunnion races, but no grooves yet at all. I guess that speaks for Toyota's build quality with these things.