rustosaur

I've got an 86 toyota pickup that still has the IFS, 22RE manual, with manual hubs.

When I got it the drivetrain had been pretty abused and when I locked the hubs I would get a roaring noise from the right front wheel area after a couple minutes of driving, a bad bearing type of noise.

I replaced the front diff with one from a 1990 4runner, swapping the drivers side axle off the old diff and using a new oil seal and drivers side outer axle bearing but I didn't touch the donor diff's passenger side stub axle, or the truck's CV joint, axle shaft or hub.

I'd hoped that this would solve the problem, and after an initial 10km test drive it had seemed to, but I was wrong.

-The noise only happens when I lock the right hub.
-If I lock the left hub and leave the right hub unlocked I can't hear the noise.
-The front driveshaft is firm and doesn't wobble or rattle around when wiggled by hand.
-It doesn't matter if the transfer case is in 4wd or 2wd, if the right hub is locked it will roar after a few minutes of driving.
-It does not sound like the rattle that seems to be associated with the inner spindle bushing.

Any ideas?
Could it be an issue with the hub?
How likely is it to get two bad diffs, from different years/applications?
Is this a known issue?

After doing some searching I found this post, which describes my situation EXACTLY: https://www.yotatech.com/50728839-post33.html


And for the comedians out there, SAS is out of the question for now

jsn_stockard

Search spindle bushing, it needs lubed. Welcome to YT

rustosaur

Thanks for the welcome, whenever I find the introductions thread I'll drop a line there

Ok, short answer which brings up a bunch of questions.
I read the thread about building your own lubing tool, lots of info but I want to clarify. All of the descriptions in there say it's a rubbing or light rattling noise. This is a "holy poop, it sounds like my front drivetrain is wearing through" noise... very very loud, loud enough to scare the mechanic who I got to listen to it.

Is that just an advanced symptom of the same condition?
What year did Toyota start putting roller bearings into the inner spindle to replace the bushing?
Are any of these newer spindles interchangable with my truck? For example, can I grab a spindle from a 1990 4runner and swap it for mine?
Is there a proper Toyota service description for lubing the spindle bushing? This truck is my daily driver and it is DAMNED cold up here right now, -18*F at the moment and going down to -34*F this weekend. I don't have a heated shop to work in and I'd rather not screw this up trying to DIY it while freezing the tips of my fingers off.

jsn_stockard

Mine sounded horrible, like it was about to fall off. I made the tool, but you can take out the cv shaft to clean and lube the bushing. Not sure about the roller bearings, don't think you can swap.

rustosaur

Thanks for the confirmation, you were right, I've since greased both sides and the noise is gone, even after a long (100km) drive with the hubs locked and intermittent use of 4x4.

4runninmuds

hey guys hoping for a thread revival answer here (fingers corssed). rustosaur, did youo make the lubricating tool or did you find another way? i dont think i will be able to make the tool but have heard of using a grease injector needle...you guys heard of this? Any info on how you managed to get the grease in there would be much appreciated!

cheers
kael

TNRabbit

The grease injector needle works, but the lube tool is BETTER~

4runninmuds

Is there a place that i can order on of the tools? or is it purely a DIY kinda secret?
As for the needle, do you just slide in between the axle splines? any particular process that I should know about?
thanks for the reply TNrabbit

rustosaur

I did make the tool and gave it a whirl. It didn't really help my situation but fresh lube is never a bad thing.
It was fairly simple to make, I can't recall which tutorial I followed but it went easy enough. I would suggest renting a pneumatic grease gun though, I tried it by hand and it took ages, then I wised up and borrowed the air powered greaser and it was a cinch.

In the end, I swapped wheel bearings and the noise went away... for a while. After my second set of wheel bearings, about 5 rounds of greasing, cleaning and lubing and plenty of cussing the noise came back. After a lot of soul searching and being broke as hell I sold the truck and the new owner did a solid axle swap to "fix" the problem.

4runninmuds

O wow so you never really got down to the root problem eh? I hope that's not my case! I dont wana lose my baby. What were you symptoms?

4runninmuds

Is any one able to explain where and how these spindles work? I am having trouble jumping off here because I cannot actually find the bushing in any diagrams (Haynes, and the Internet have proven unworthy candidates) is there another name for them that could help my identification issue? I like to understand the issue and area before poking my grease gun