Ritzy4Runner

iTrader: (1)

Ron, once again thank you for some gr8 info and not to worry that you "let me down". it's all good! I had seen this write up and it is very good. I did not have nearly the amount of fluid leakage as in that write up. Mine was barely preceptable. How i found mine was I had Midas do one of their free brake checks. In the course of doing this check they found some "gray grease" in the rear right drum. I had the driver side inner seal replaced last year this time after I did a tire rotation and noted the drum was "wet" looking and when I pulled the drum , yep there it was, "gray grease". That one was worse then my passenger one this time and I had one of those aftermarket warranty on my truck so it was covered then but not now.

So if there is any leasson here , I would recommend that you do a tire rotation every 5000 miles or at least once a year. Pulling the wheels will give you a chance to check everything and the upside to this, especially if you wheel alot in wet conditions, is you can check hoses, hubs and it helps to keep the rear brake drums free. They wont stick quite as tightly to the hub (a.k.a. rusted to). Just a firm tapping with your palms breaks mine loose. If you are starting to lose that inner seal you can tell right away and catching it early may save your brake shoes as well as the wheel bearings.

I took the axle to Toyota and had a tech check it out and it was definitely bad. Most of the oil had settled out of the bearing and you could really see the seperation in the bearing and the axle. I ended up spending with the labor from Toyota $200 to have the bearing replaced($85) along with the outer seal ($6), bearing retainers (2 - $11 each), ABS sensor ring ($45) and the time to press and fit them.

I did verify the part numbers on the inner seal and yes the new seal does end in a '6'. I noticed the difference in the seal as the inner edge of the new seal has ribs on it wher the original inner seal was smooth. Maybe the ridges help the axle to seat better. I was able to install the axle with my son's help, as I had him push the axle into position while I held the axle with my hand in postion so as not to pinch the new inner seal during installation. I had to go by Sears and purchase a Craftsman 2 1/8" socket as I did not have the SSR or another socket that big. Socket cost me $22. I lubed the inner seal with gear oil, set in position, inserted the socket and began to lightly tap the socket with a ball pean hammer. I actually "rotated" the tapping of the hammer and that seems to drive the seal in fairly even. It was tough to tell when it was truely fully seated so I kept tapping the socket and checking untill the seal edge was flush with the first bevel of the inner axle housing. It seemed to be fully seated and was even all the way around. I did not have any general purpose bearing grease handly so I used 75W90 gear oil to lulbe the seal. Replaced the axle flange oring then installed the axle.

Acouple of interesting things as well. It was really hard to get the rear lower nut to full torque but the other three were not too tough at all. I had jacked up the passenger side and when on the jack stand, I had the Runner about 2 inches higher then the driver side. When I removed the axle, I did not get hardly any gear oil from the axle tube. I tried to remove the fill plug from the tranny but had issues trying to get it loose so decided to wiat until I did the oil chage at the base on a lift. I pulled the differential breather valve and it checked out fine, pressure out nothing in.

During my oil change I was able to get the differential fill plug out. With the vehicle level I noted the oil was just at the edge of the fill hole so installed the plug and it was good to go. After a short test drive everything seems to be good to go. Hope this helps the next guy.

smithoman

I've got leaking oil out of my left rear axle so I know it's all bad in there. Mine's a 92 but this information has really helped me out. I hate to do it but I'm going to have the shop repair this one. I've got a good guy but the price of this repair made me wince. $600 for both sides. Time to get out and paint a couple of houses.

Thanks for all the info on this thread everybody. It really helped me out.