Wheel bearing question

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S

SnoFJ

Joined
Mar 11, 2016
Threads
9
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Location
Snohomish WA
So I rebuilt my knuckles last weekend. Everything seemed fine. On Wednesday I got a weird screech/grind sound 3 times that I could feel vibration from at the same time. No noises on Thursday. Then on Friday as I was headed home, the car squeaked (from what sounds like the front left knuckle) pretty much the whole hour drive home. It was most anytime I took a right turn or steadily pressed on the accelerator.

I have the hub off right now and there doesn't appear to be any scoring or physical damage. Are the rollers on the wheel bearing supposed to roll independently by just rolling with your finger? I can only get the ones on the outer bearing to roll if I put my fingers in the middle (like the spindle) and roll it on a surface. I'm using brand new Koyo bearings. Didn't use a packer, but I used a needle tip fitting on my grease gun to get grease between each roller.
 
Another problem was bearing preload. I couldn't get the proper preload by torquing to factory specs. If I torqued to 43, 43, 48 like in the FSM, the preload was about 25lbs vs the factory 6.4-12.6. I could only get the factory preload by barely hand tightening the adjusting nut, which is what I decided to do

IMG_20170211_130721033.webp


And just FYI, I dont think I put enough moly grease in the knuckle it self, so I'm going to pump more in. Could the bearings possibly be fine and the lack of grease in the knuckle be the issue? There wasn't any play in the bearing when I wiggle the wheel
 
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Did you go 48 ft-lb? The manual says 48 in-lb for the final inner nut torque, which is very slightly more than hand tight. I found that mine wouldn't hold preload at that torque and ended up closer to 15-20 ft-lbs on the inner nut.
 
Ridgerunner78 said:
Did you go 48 ft-lb? The manual says 48 in-lb for the final inner nut torque, which is very slightly more than hand tight. I found that mine wouldn't hold preload at that torque and ended up closer to 15-20 ft-lbs on the inner nut.
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I just hand tightened it until I could get the correct preload. I figured the preload was more important since there's a locking nut
 
Check that the spindle and bronze bushing were sufficiently greased...happened to me after a rebuild.
 
@SnoFJ --RE: birf / knuckle grease

You really ought to dip it with a zip tie, welding rod, chopstick - whatever you have.

When it comes to grease you can get away with shockingly little compared to grease-packing something - I've seen pumps running fine with ~25% grease where if someone greasebinds a coupler, or bearings in a case then you can count in days how long before the bearings make noise.
 
ewillis said:
Check that the spindle and bronze bushing were sufficiently greased...happened to me after a rebuild.
Click to expand...

This bushing? Isn't it pressed into the inside of the spindle? I don't recall and separate bushing from either side when I was rebuilding

IMG_20170211_144101534.webp
 
Yes to pressed bushing, I believe you can buy them separately if needed though - seems spindles were ~$200 ea 5yrs ago. Real Yota ones.
 
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LINUS said:
@SnoFJ --RE: birf / knuckle grease

You really ought to dip it with a zip tie, welding rod, chopstick - whatever you have.

When it comes to grease you can get away with shockingly little compared to grease-packing something - I've seen pumps running fine with ~25% grease where if someone greasebinds a coupler, or bearings in a case then you can count in days how long before the bearings make noise.
Click to expand...

If so, I might have put too much grease in the bearings. I can't get the inner bearing out since I don't have a new seal, but I took the outer bearing out, cleaned it, and lightly regressed it
 
Figured I'd take a picture for a accurate idea. Is this enough for the knuckle? And I took the spindle off, bronze bushing was dry so I put some grease on it. Cleaned and regreased outter bearing. I think I'm gonna just put it back together and see how it does. Btw, I'm using valvoline moly for the bird & knuckles. And Valvoline multi-purpose for the wheel bearings

IMG_20170211_151125076.webp
 
That has maybe half the moly grease that it needs. If it were at the correct level, the bushing would self pack.

For the wheel bearing, toss the fish scale, just torque the inner nut to ~30 ft/lb.
 
Tools R Us said:
That has maybe half the moly grease that it needs. If it were at the correct level, the bushing would self pack.

For the wheel bearing, toss the fish scale, just torque the inner nut to ~30 ft/lb.
Click to expand...
I have done this method the last few times I've done mine in the 10 years I've had it and it has worked great!
 
Tools R Us said:
That has maybe half the moly grease that it needs. If it were at the correct level, the bushing would self pack.

For the wheel bearing, toss the fish scale, just torque the inner nut to ~30 ft/lb.
Click to expand...

Both knuckles are majorly under greased than. Hard to tell exactly how much I'm putting in since I'm using a 14 oz tube in a grease gun filling through the plug on the top.
 
SnoFJ said:
Both birfs are majorly under greased than. Hard to tell exactly how much I'm putting in since I'm using a 14 oz tube in a grease gun filling through the plug on the top.
Click to expand...

Remove the plug, clear the skin of grease from the opening, look into the hole, the spindle bushing, most of the ABS ring should be covered with grease. When low, this isn't a one time deal, check, add some drive for a 100mi or so to allow the grease to settle, check and possibly add, repeat, until the level is correct. Should be ~1/2-3/4 full.
 
As it ages, can often get an good idea of grease level by glancing at the balls. The wipers weep grease, then push it into a line on the balls. So where the knuckles are full of grease will make a thicker line of grease, almost none above. This one is way low, should be leaving a line to the top of the axle.

photo2.webp
 
Yes...grease the s*** out of that bronze bushing and the axle that slides through it. Not sure if this is your problem, but it sure cured the grinding/whirring sound mine was making. Mine had small grooves in it when I pulled it.
2015-09-06%2020.09.30_zpsmnmwt7y3.jpg
 
SnoFJ said:
If so, I might have put too much grease in the bearings. I can't get the inner bearing out since I don't have a new seal, but I took the outer bearing out, cleaned it, and lightly regressed it
Click to expand...


You can never put to much grease in a bearing. "lightly" is bad

Here is a video on how to pack a bearing


If you are careful you can knock out the hub seal by using a brass drift to tap out the bearing from the inside by going around the perimeter of the bearing and lightly tapping making sure the seal comes out straight. It may take a few revolutions around the bearing to get this done.

When reinstalling put a lot of grease on the races and in the bore of the hub, The additional grease will keep water out.
 
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