Wheel bearing question (1 Viewer)

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Feb 25, 2019
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Whitefish, Montana
Quick question, did my brakes and wheel bearings over the weekend and torqued the hub nut to almost 60 lbs. I checked with the scale method and it was about 10lbs breakaway. Now I didn’t obsess about making sure the nut and washer were super clean of grease prior but now I’m questioning if it feels like it’s dragging while driving. Is that even something I should be questioning? Is there a test without dismantling it again? Thanks
 
Grease on the nut and washer is no problem, even if you kept it spotless on install it will get covered once that wheel starts rotating and grease flows around the hub. If you think it is dragging, you can jack up one wheel and give it a spin. It should have slight resistance, but spin without a lot of muscle needed, and listen for any kind of brake noise, or bearing/hub noise. If your preload was good, then I doubt it's bearing/hub. If your bearings were super loose, and you were used to wheels spinning without any drag it might be adjusting your expectations :).

If you did brakes it might be glide pin or brake shoe clips not allowing calipers/shoes to release they way they should.

If you drive a bit, you can also do a hand or IR temp check and feel if the suspected dragging wheel is in any way hotter than the other side, could be a tip off.
 
Grease on the nut and washer is no problem, even if you kept it spotless on install it will get covered once that wheel starts rotating and grease flows around the hub. If you think it is dragging, you can jack up one wheel and give it a spin. It should have slight resistance, but spin without a lot of muscle needed, and listen for any kind of brake noise, or bearing/hub noise. If your preload was good, then I doubt it's bearing/hub. If your bearings were super loose, and you were used to wheels spinning without any drag it might be adjusting your expectations :).

If you did brakes it might be glide pin or brake shoe clips not allowing calipers/shoes to release they way they should.

If you drive a bit, you can also do a hand or IR temp check and feel if the suspected dragging wheel is in any way hotter than the other side, could be a tip off.
Thanks , yeah I was thinking maybe they were to loose prior. I checked by hand after driving and didn’t notice heat to touch. When doing the scale method for breakaway it seemed like 14 was a lot but my torque was what seems to be normal reading on here.
 
I almost don't really pay attention to the torque reading it's the breakaway load that you're after, if that was in the ball park, then I agree with the others if you have drag, it's the brakes. Try going for a drive where you don't need to use the brakes hardly or any at all. Get out and feel the rotors, if one is hot and you didn't just apply the pads to stop, then something is up.
 
I went with a youtube video posted by low range offroad titled building a solid axle Toyota. They show how they set the torque and it worked flowlessly for two axles I did on a hilux and the 100. Did about 5000 miles on lc and it is spot on
 
I almost don't really pay attention to the torque reading it's the breakaway load that you're after, if that was in the ball park, then I agree with the others if you have drag, it's the brakes. Try going for a drive where you don't need to use the brakes hardly or any at all. Get out and feel the rotors, if one is hot and you didn't just apply the pads to stop, then something is up.
Thanks for the tip
 
I find rotors on LC heat up more than any other Toy I own. It dont have a drag and I can feel the truck is rolling when stopped so no binding but just heats up. I get good gas mileagw as well.
 
Just went on another drive and I do notice the front end feels tighter and doesn’t clunk. I was having a pretty good vibration issue and thought it was the rotors so i replaced them when I did the bearings and brakes. Everything feels good as far as vibrating goes and I’m thinking maybe they were sloppy prior and now it’s just tighter. My breakaway was 10lbs because it started to feel like I didn’t want to chase 14. Been doing auto work forever just never done the scale thing since reading on this forum and I think that’s what has me paranoid. I always just go by feel.
 
Many folks have had to torque the locknuts above 60 or 70 ft-lb to get a breakaway force above 12 lb., so yours sounds about right.

 
Many folks have had to torque the locknuts above 60 or 70 ft-lb to get a breakaway force above 12 lb., so yours sounds about right.

Yeah, if I remember correctly from the last time I did mine, I had to torque DS to 54 ft-lbf and PS to 58 ft-lbf to achieve 12 lb breakaway @ 90*. That was after a full cleaning + repack of bearings that had tens of thousands of miles on them.
 
Many folks have had to torque the locknuts above 60 or 70 ft-lb to get a breakaway force above 12 lb., so yours sounds about right.

Thank you
 
I did the driver's side recently and if memory serves me correct, I was at 65lbs to get to about a 13lb breakaway on the trusty luggage scale. Same as most people are saying here.
 
While we are on the topic, what is a good indicator of wheel bearings needing to be serviced?

I don't have any bearing humming noise or play while wiggling the tire, is it possible that after almost 20 years she is still good to go? I pretty much told toyota to just service them last time and they said no need it looks fine.
 
While we are on the topic, what is a good indicator of wheel bearings needing to be serviced?

I don't have any bearing humming noise or play while wiggling the tire, is it possible that after almost 20 years she is still good to go? I pretty much told toyota to just service them last time and they said no need it looks fine.
Repack at least every 30 k miles. Check tightness every 10 (6-12 o'clock).
 
Repack at least every 30 k miles. Check tightness every 10 (6-12 o'clock).
Every 30k? I'm going on 200k and they seem fine. I'm all for preventative maintenance but maybe I need to stop being lazy and get it done.
 
Every 30k? I'm going on 200k and they seem fine. I'm all for preventative maintenance but maybe I need to stop being lazy and get it done.
Yes, factory service interval is 30k miles, as @uHu stated.
 
Bearings are cheap. I can't understand why people repack old bearings after they've removed everything to service a wheel (unless you're opening it up after a rebuild to check something, then I can understand it; but then again, if you were careful, it would be right). Pull them out and replace them.
 
Bearings are cheap. I can't understand why people repack old bearings after they've removed everything to service a wheel (unless you're opening it up after a rebuild to check something, then I can understand it; but then again, if you were careful, it would be right). Pull them out and replace them.
These bearings are toyota OEM and lasts a long long time. Any aftermarket (even Koyo, Nachi, NTN, SKF etc.) bearing you buy will fail way before the factory toyota wheel bearing.

I use the specs shown in this video:

READ: IMPORTANT : At 4:53 THE TORQUE is 21 ft-lb (not 4 ft-lb as they say) : IMPORTANT

 
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