Any experts out there on the replacement process? Looks pretty simple by my Chiltons. However, my NAPA service center is quoting a hefty price and telling me the bearing is likely to be damaged by the process. I don't see this by my manual; looks pretty straight forward. Four nuts and slide her out; pop it out; put new in and slide her back together. Well, disconnect the brake line and cable of course.

I'd really like to tackle it myself, however I'm only about a week post surgery for carpal tunnel release.

What say you?

 

might as well do both sides while you are at it, the other side wont be far away from failing. youll have to be careful reinserting the axle so you dont muck up the new seal. take the axles and have the old bearings pressed off and the new ones pressed on. make sure you remove the clips from infront of the bearings, any one who has done rear brgs before knows why!

lee

 

I agree with leebee, do 'em both while you are at it. One side of mine failed, I figured it was just the seal. Turns out it was the bearing. I did the one side and about 6 months later the other side failed. I had a buddy with a press take the bearing off each time. As I remember, that was a mother to get off. The bearings aren't cheap, something like $90 each. Aside from the time spent getting the bearing off and on, the rest of the process should only take an hour or so per side.

 

I just did both sides inner seals, outer seals, and bearings. one seal is like 8 bucks, one is like 15, the bearings are like 35 or so, thats for each side. try rockauto.com, they have all the parts you need. if you are doing the bearing, make sure you get new bearing retainers, in case they get damaged coming off. you have to have an sst or make one as described on 4x4 wire site. my seals blew out because the breather on the diff got clogged. if you are going to ever replace seals on the axles, make sure you clean out the breather, to make sure you are not pressuriseing the housing and forcing the seals to fail. if you need help on making the sst to press the bearings out with, or have any questions on the seals, assembly, or reassembly, pm me.

 

If you only wanna do it once, I would recommend OEM toyota bearings and seals. The bearings are stamped Koyo..whatever you do...dont buy trail gear wheel bearings

 

I just did it, it cost me a little more but i replaced all seals and bearings with oem parts. My local 4x4 store let me press everything at his shop and we made a weird jig for pulling off the bearings.

 

These guys have the install pretty much covered, just wanted to point out that you should defantly check your diff breather. ITs probibly clogged and forcing the gear lube past the seals. Happend to my 3rd member>housing seal.

 

did you recieve something other than koyo in your tg box? I've been installing tg wheel bearings for the last 9 months because they were koyo's and half as much as napa's china no names

 

good point.. and dont forget to check ur diff fluid whilst your at it

 

get the bearings from napa, they should be about $60 each and they are koyo, same as oem. they must be pressed on and off, also check your front pinion seal for leaks while you have it torn apart, it only takes 5 minutes to pull the axle, the axle bearing is the fun part