jimrockford

My front end rattle is fixed! I replaced the passenger side front steering spindle bushing with needle bearings today. I'd planned on doing both sides and cranking my torsion bars up a bit, but things took longer than expected. Well, not really. I expected it to take all day, but I was hoping to get farther than I did. Regardless, it looks like the passenger side was the problem. The noise is gone.

It took 6 hours. I would have finished sooner, but I messed up the threads on the tie rod end while trying to take it off. I wound up replacing it. And, yes, it's true that you don't have to remove the tie rod end to replace spindle bushings. I felt like an idiot when I realized it. Oh well, it was cheap to fix but a bear to get off.

A few gotchas I ran across:

• The cone washers in the ADD hub cover were tricky to figure out. My Haynes manual said to drive a tapered punch in the "slit" in the washer. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. Turned out the punch I was using was too large. I got a much smaller one which fit inside the slit and tapped on it with a hammer until they popped out.
• The bushings were difficult to get out. I removed the outer bushing with a slide hammer. It popped out fairly easily. I slid a socket down the axle housing from the end where I'd just removed the bushing and hammered the hell out of it. The inner bushing eventually popped out. That was after trying the suggested method in my Haynes manual - hammering it out with a drift.
• Reinstalling the bearings and bushings required a hydraulic press. I'm sure it would have been possible to just hammer them in, but the press worked well.

I took some pictures of the job, but missed several steps. When I do the drivers side, I'll fill in the pictures I missed and do a write up. For anyone who's interested, though, here are some pics (if montypics happens to be up...):


The new bearings, bushings, and grease


Removing the brake caliper


Caliper and hub cap removed

Bunch of steps skipped...


Rotor and steering spindle removed


Steering spindle after removal


Back of spindle showing worn out spindle bushing


Close up of spindle bushing


Hydraulic press used to install bearings


Pressing in bearing with large socket


Close up of installed bearing


Pressing in new shallower thrust bushing


A closeup of the thrust bushing


The bad spindle bushing

Vato Loco

Congratulations! Welcome to the sound of silence Must be way better without all the noise you've had before. Goodjob

MonkeyElvis

hey man, this is a little off the topic, but i noticed you have the Edelbrock shocks up front.... I was thinking about getting some, but wondering if they were worth 70 bucks a piece. How do you like them?

jimrockford

I've only had them installed for a couple of weeks but like them a lot. I guess the real test will be when I try them out off road.

I did have Rancho RS5000s. The Ranchos seemed a bit stiffer than the Edelbrocks. The Edelbrocks look way cooler though . They also seem to be put together really well. The construction quality looks top notch.

Would I buy them again? Yes.

Victor

The Edelbrocks provide a great ride on the street and don't bottom out off-road.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Yep, been using Edelbrocks F&R since Oct. of '99.
Great shocks on & off road.

Nice job on the spindle bushings Kevin.

Lethal

The noise you were complaining about? Kinda of a clunking rattle (?) at slow speeds or when decellerating and/or cornering?

I may have the same problem.
:cry:

jimrockford

Sure was. Check out this thread for details of my problem and how I came to a solution:

Shocks Causing Rattle?

It's got a lot of good suggestions from the guys here and definitely helped me out. I think several people are having the same symptoms.

There should be an MP3 of the sound somewhere on there that I recorded. You can compare it to the sound you have. Let me know if your problem turns out to be the same.

Lethal

heard the mp3. EXACT same sounds. very annoying when rolling through the mall or around downtown where EVERYONE can hear it. Cranking the stereo helps a bit. At least I can't hear it then.

Do you have a parts list on what you replaced?

My 93 V6 SR5 4x4 p/u is the culprit.

tpg013

I had the same problem with mine a few years back. The master Tech at the dealership knew what it was right away. He said it was caused by Toyota using an inferior grease when it was assembled. Hence the loud grinding when it was cold. He told me that once Toyota discovered the problem they changed the grease they were using but never did a recall. Using this info as ammo, I wrote a letter toToyota USA and placed a few phone calls. I finally got Toyota USA to foot the bill. I laid out $680 to have it fixed and sent the reciept to Toyota. About a week later I had a check in my hand.

My main complaint was that Toyota knowingly used inferior parts and expected the customer to correct their mistake. The rep finally admited they should do a recall but nothing was planned. I guess that's why they paid for it.

jimrockford

Sure do. I ordered the parts from Jay Marks Toyota through www.parts.com. Afterwards I realized you can go to parts.com and choose a dealer closer to you.

I replaced the inner spindle bushing with needle bearings and a brass collar. According to my local Toyota dealership, the original bushing is a weak spot in the front end. The needle bearings prevent reoccurance of the problem. Part numbers are:

Roller Bearings (replacement for stock brass bushings)
Toyota Part Number: 90364-30011

Collars (thrust bushings)
Toyota Part Number: 90381-32001

Toyota Grease
Toyota Part Number: 08887-80219

The first photo in my post shows what the parts look like.

You're right about the annoying sound. I just couldn't handle it and had to fix it. I don't know how people are able to just live with it.

EOD30

Kevin,

Did you also replace your balljoints while you had it all apart? Just wondering as I need to do mine and I was wondering what everything looked like apart. Now I know. Good job.

Mat

jimrockford

My ball joints are in good shape so I didn't replace them. Also, the way it comes apart, the lower ball joint stays on the truck and the upper ball joint comes out without disturbing it. It's actually designed fairly well. I thought I'd have to pull the joints apart to get the spindle out, but it's set up so you don't have to.

Erich_870

Great job fixing it!

I get scared when I have a problem that needs a press or something. How did you find a place that would press your new bearing in?

Also, what as wrong with the old one? I saw all your great pics, but can you describe what you think it was doing in there when it made all that noise? Where is it worn out, I guess thats a more direct question.

Thanks



The bad spindle bushing [/B][/QUOTE]

4x4CPOSEADOG

Looks like that place is the good ol' base auto hobby shop. They have all the tools in there including the machine to remove/install tires.

Noel

jimrockford

Yep. Base auto hobby shop. I've been spending a lot of time there lately. So far, they've had every tool I've needed and then some.

It's hard to say what was wrong with the bushing. I don't have a good one to compare it to. I did slide both the bushing and the new bearing on the axle to see how they fit. The new bearing fit perfectly. The old bushing had some play. I think the interior walls of the bushing had just worn down over time and the axle smacked back and forth as it turned. I had expected to find it all chewed up. It really doesn't seem to be in all that bad of shape, but it definitely rattled like hell.

I don't know if you can make it out in the pics, but there are machined grooves in the collar on top and also inside the bushing. I hadn't expected that either. I thought it would be smooth inside. The only reason I can think of for the grooves would be to hold grease. Other than that, I don't know.

I did a write up for the tech section and sent it to Corey tonight. I'm not sure when he'll post it, but I put a lot more details in it than in this post, if you're interested.

keisur

your pic links are dead.

keisur

you know you can get a 12 ton bottle jack shop press from Harbor Freight Tools for around 100 bucks, which is an overkill. they have a 6 ton for around 80 I think. I got the 12 ton and it's proven itself invaluable for axle seal replacements where the abs rotor, bearing, and retainers need to be pressed off and on. not a bad investment when you think about it.

jimrockford

Looks like they're back for now. Montypics keeps going down. I'm not sure what's going on. It looks like they just updated their DNS record on Wednesday. I wonder if they're moving to a different server or something.

From www.samspade.org:

Organization:
Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy
268 West Alfred Drive
Tooele, UT 84074
US
Phone: 801-971-0322
Email: paul@leadmaxx.com

Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: MONTYPICS.COM

Created on..............: Thu, May 09, 2002
Expires on..............: Sun, May 09, 2004
Record last updated on..: Wed, May 28, 2003

Administrative Contact:
Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy
268 West Alfred Drive
Tooele, UT 84074
US
Phone: 801-971-0322
Email: paul@leadmaxx.com

Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Register.Com
Domain Registrar
575 8th Avenue - 11th Floor
New York, NY 10018
US
Phone: 902-749-2701
Fax..: 902-749-5429
Email: domain-registrar@register.com

Domain servers in listed order:

DNS17.REGISTER.COM 216.21.234.79
DNS18.REGISTER.COM 216.21.226.79

Register your domain name at http://www.register.com

keisur

yep. I just wanted to copy them to put in my notebook incase I ever have to do the same thing. thanks.