YoungFeller

To get to the wheel bearing adjustment you just have to remove the locking hub and hub body. Lift that tire off the ground so you can feel the bearing tightness better and to remove the load from the bearings. The hub end cap has the 6 small bolts around the outside. Carefully pull the cap out and then pull out the other locking hub pieces inside. The hub body has 6 nuts around the outside of the base of it and cone washers inside the holes. Remove the nuts first. To get the cone washers out, use a brass punch and hammer or similar and tap on the ends of the studs until the cone washers start to loosen and rattle out. They can be a little stubborn. Don't pound right on the studs with a hammer or the studs will mushroom and then the nuts won't go on or off of them. You can also leave the nut at the end of the stud and tap on that. With the washers out, you can remove the hub body. Inside, there's the end of the spindle with two large nuts around the outside of it and a retaining ring between them. There's also a snap ring in a slot near the end of the axle shaft that you'll probably have to remove. It can be negotiated off with screwdrivers but snapring pliers make it easier. Remove the outer nut and the retaining ring. If you don't have a socket that big, the hillbilly method is to use a hammer and chisel on the flat sides of the nut. The guideline I used to set the bearing pre-load was to tighten that inner nut as far as possible by hand and then loosen it about 1/3 of a turn to give the bearings a little room. They don't like much pressure on them from the side. See how that feels and re-assemble. The inner nut should be slightly lose. The that retaining ring goes over the nut to keep it from spinning and the second nut tightens onto the ring.

When you have things that far apart, you can completely remove the wheel rotor (and brake caliper) if you're inclined and inspect/repack/replace the wheel bearings. Put an old towel or some cardboard on the ground--when you remove the rotor--the back bearing and seal usually fall on the ground and they can get damaged.

On re-assembly and after doing a little driving, check the warmth of the hub. It should be a little warm but if it's hot to the touch and/or you can smell it, the bearing adjustment may be too tight. Then you'd want to disassemble back down to the adjustment nuts and back them off a little more. Too much bearing pre-load can destroy them quickly.

85Hilux

thats alot of info thanks for the detailed write-up on that one.
So even with a little bit of looseness on the bearing the wheel will be tight when reassembled? now I just need to find the time to give this a shot.

85Hilux

So I think I found it, the gearbox seems to have the play I don;t know how I missed it before, I can move the steering shaft coming from the steering wheel by hand right next to the gearbox, and I can move it a good inch either direction before it has resistance, this is with the wheels on the ground which don't move much and the steering wheel I can see turning with my hand.. lol, the funny thing is with the wheels in the air though it seems to move perfectly with the steering wheel, but now I can see its delayed or not moving enough.

So I had thought I tightened the nut on the steering gearbox, but it is very rusty so maybe I just thought I tightened it, when in fact It was probably jammed up. I think I am going to take some PB blaster to it and try again. This could be an easy fix I am really hopping it pans out will let you guys know.

85toy4runner

if the leaf spring and shackle bushings are worn out could cause some of the wondering to ? I just went to a leaf spring shop and they said my leaf spring and shackle bushings were warn out on my 85

85Hilux

I have a stock setup I just see springs I don't see any shackles on them. the bushings on the springs do look worn though I am starting to think everything causes wandering on these trucks.

I got the gearbox tightened almost a full turn more than where it was turns out it was stuck, it removed alot of the wiggle but the thing still feels pretty bad driving it.
Do I need to add more toe in?

79pickupian

You followed the FSM on tightening the gearbox right? if not you can blow it up pretty fast, if i remember correctly the input shaft must be centered before you tighten it otherwise the worm gear will be kaput.

Jack up one front tire, grab the tire at 6 o clock and 12 o clock, and try and wiggle it up and down. If it wiggles your wheel bearings are bad. Grab the tire at 3 and 9 o clock, try and wiggle the tire. If it wiggles ALOT you have an issue in your steering. do this on both tires.

Wandering is usually caused by a failure of something that locates the tires, therefore you must check wheel bearings trunnion bearings u bolts for tightness, shackles and leaf spring bushings, make sure your shackles and leaf springs are tight but not too tight, ensure all your tie rod ends are in good shape and that your steering box is secured to the frame. If none of those things are bad recheck your alignment, although i do my own alignment with a tape measure and even when its very bad it still drives okay as long as those other items are new.

85toy4runner

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85Hilux

I read a couple different posts on it and decided to tighten it as much as physically possible despite the chances of blowing it up or it leaking, I checked for binding before putting any serious loads on it and it works fine no binding but definitely feels tighter.

at 6 and 12 oclock I can move it slightly like a little click. I was thinking like you said that means I have bad or loose wheel bearings.
at 3 or 9 I get the same thing as above pretty much and it doesn't seem to be the tie rod moving, more like the whole wheel and hub itself.
and the passenger has slightly more play than the drivers side.

Ill play around with it more this weekend, it would seem to me that little click couldn't make it as bad as it is, so I think i am still missing something or it moves alot more when its under load, same could be for the tie rod ends.
I may just start doing all the maintenance items one at a time until its good again. The spring bushings and swaybar bushings could use changing thats for sure. How important is the swaybar on these solid axles?

79pickupian

yes that is indicative of either bad wheel bearings/loose wheel bearings or trunnion bearings that are blown. Check torque specs on your knucle studs as well, if they are loose you may be able to just tighten them and coast for a few more miles.

if it moves at 3 or 9 and doesnt seem like the tie rod, and the movement at 3 and 9 is similar to the one at 6 and 12 then that is indicative of wheel bearings, check them for proper torque specs as well, there should be 2 nuts and a lock ring in between the 2 nuts, theyre 54 mm and theres a specific sequence for tightening them properly, if they havent been super loose for 2 long you can sometimes get away with not replacing them, although you should inspect them for wear.

What are sway bars ive never heard of those things no sway bars are not important.

Bushings only need replaced if theyre cracked in half or part of it is missing, you can get by on old dry bushings for a while as long as you grease them, 2 of my bushings are missing there top halfs and i just drive it anyways because they break every couple thousands miles on my heep and im sick of replacing them, however there on the rear and the front is much more sensitive to worn parts.

Judging by what you described i would be almost certain that your wheel bearings is causing your wanderings, if you think about it a centimeter or 2 of play at speed can be deadly because that tire and hub assembly is rotating very quickly. Wheel bearings are a simple job and the FSM or even a chilton has pictures step by step.

Once you take the hub off and you remove both 54 mm bolts and disconnect the brake caliper you can take off the outer assembly piece, at this point the outer wheel bearing will most likely fall out, check and inspect it for wear. They say you need a factory service tool to remove the rear seal on this outer assembly but what i do is put the outer assembly back on without the inner wheel bearing in, thread one of the 54mm nuts on until its all the way threaded, and just yank it towards me as hard as i can and woila, rear bearing and seal pop right off.
And my last piece of advice is if you have tires in the 35 to 40 inch range youll need to overtighten your wheel bearings just slightly, 40+ and you prety much just crank on it on the final tighten and call it good.

TLDR: Check your wheel bearings

85Hilux

Thanks for the tips thats going to be helpful. I am going to tackle this myself pretty soon here as it doesn't look too bad.

If I just want to try repacking it and tightening it, do I need any replacement gaskets or parts that I should get before hand? I see Marlin has a full rebuild kit on their site.

79pickupian

No man you can get away with reusing all the old gaskets despite what everyone says, some silicon rtv is good to dab on all the things that seal stuff. To be honest i use silicon on everything though.

post up after you're done so we can see how it goes. Looking at your pics i saw youre on a stock set up so ignore my comment about 35 to 40 inch tires lol!

only tools u need to repack them other than your basic tool kit is a 54mm socket and a torque wrench, its cake just dont give up if some of the cone washers dont come out!

And if everythings broken and you give up, dont worry you can always just buy my truck

85Hilux

lol, thanks. I think 1 solid axle truck is enough to keep me busy =)
Looks like I should pick up a 54mm socket then and get to it.

Yeah I have stock everything bought it from the guy who bought it in 85 and seems like he just got in it and drove it for 240k without replacing much.
I put Tundra wheels and tires on it they are around 30-31", but I am still interested in getting it tight and as stable as possible I may go to a 33" tire later on when these go.

85Hilux

I just realized it does have shackles on the back side of the front springs I can't believe this is the first time I am seeing them.

Skeeter05

I recently bought a 92 and had the same wandering problems "like scary to drive" long story short I replaced the wheel bearings and it is like a totally different truck. I also had just a small amount of play in the wheels but I guess it was enough to make it horrible to drive. So I'd bet your wheel bearings need some attention. Hope this helps

85Hilux

Just got a trail gear axle socket, getting ready to repack these bearings.

85Hilux

Wierd question, I just researched into the Zuk coil mod, and I want to go that direction because the thought of using coils sounds alot better to me, and I don't need lots of travel or flex.

Has anyone ever done it to the front axle? I know there is no bump stop on the top to mount a coil on the front, but I could easily have a shop weld in a coil perch for me and run the mod both front and back. has anyone ever done that before to the front axle?

If I keep it under 3" im reading all I need is a dropped drag link and longer bolts for the swaybar, which doesn't sound too bad, so I will choose spring lengths that will hopefully get me right around there.

With the truck resting right now:
In the front, from the spring to the frame is 4" (yikes)
In the back, from the spring to the frame is 10"

I have picked up a full set of the TJ coils, and can use a 12" or 14" or 16" in the back.
For the front I probably need alot smaller spring maybe 8" or 10" they may not come any smaller.

85toy4runner

just curious what the measurement from the end of your front bump stop to the frame is. mine is only a little over 1 1/2 inches of up travel

85Hilux

So you are in the same boat as me.. lol
I just measured from the bumpstop to the frame is 1.5"

Im going to go ahead with doing the coil mod to the front, I just realized how much higher the rear sits, It looked level to me before but thats before I looked at a lot of pics of these trucks. once I fix the front, I will either use the 12" tj coils in the rear, or I have the tj front ones which are just over 16" I can cut down a little at a time to balance it perfectly.

85toy4runner

yeah same thing, 28 year old front and rear leaf springs and all

85Hilux

I am wondering what the distance was on the original springs, because from here its hard to tell what a lift would be, I think I could raise it a few inches and be back to factory, so its going to be an experiment to say the least. I am just going to start out with the front end and then match the rear if possible.