Just completed my first CV axle replacement this weekend. It was very straight forward but I did have a couple of questions.

1. Do I need to grease the spindle where is goes into the hub? There was some grease in the hub already but its a little dry.

2. How important is the torque on the spindle nut? I dont have a torque wrench or the 54mm socket but I used a flathead screwdriver and a hammer to just get it as tight as I could. When I removed it, it was pretty loose.

 

1. Put some grease on it.
2. Get a torque wrench and 54mm socket. How important is it? It holds the bearing preload, that's pretty important. Very frowned upon when people use screwdrivers and hammers on the spindle nuts.

 

What is the correct process for torquing these nuts? I have found so many different answers in my search.

 

Should be in the FSM. Any how-to on Toyota trucks and 4runners of the same year range should be the same procedure

 

Quick google search.
http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=87200.0

 

Thank you sir!

 

It's important! Get it right!

 

Yeah I saw some guy do it with a screwdriver on Youtube and while the truck didnt blow up on a test drive, I just didnt feel right leaving it that way. I ended up buying the 54mm socket and a torque wrench so it is done the proper way.

 

Good

I even bought a pull-spring scale to test the pre-load. i was pretty nervous when I did mine, never had done such work before. Then for a few days after was constantly on high alert trying to see if I can hear or feel anything out of the ordinary...

I hate that we have to re-do this to do a rotor change.

 

Same here man. I did a head gasket with the help of my friend last month but besides that the most complicated thing I have done is an oil change and swapping out bolt on parts. For some reason I am scared my wheel is going to fall off now even though the swap was much easier than I expected.

 

do not use a screw driver. i had ALL the tools AND i set my preload to 18FTLBS on my SFA and the nut still managed to meld over the lock washers and back off - the only thing holding the knuckle on was the caliper and the caliper blew out causing me to lose my brakes but luckily i was close to home. my wheel bearings had so much friction that I had to put a grease fire out

 

1) It doesn't hurt to regrease the spindle/bearings/hub. nor does it hurt to replace the seals on your manual hub when you do this as well, they're like 15-20 bucks from Toyota.

2) dear lord, yes the torque on it is important. It sets the preload. basically if you put it too tight, your spindle wont turn, if you put it too loose, itll eventually fall off. safety first.

 

Glad I asked then. Not a fan of grease fires or hubs falling off.

 

New problem...

What to do about a rounded off nut? Impact gun was able to get all but one of the nuts off connecting the axle to the diff but rounded off this nut.

Pissed!!!!

 

Torch it. Go ahead and replace them with bolts that don't spline into the flanges on the diff for easier removal the next time.

 

I could torch it but the nut is rounded so how to get a socket onto it to actually turn it? Or do you mean actually use a cutting torch or something?

 

weld it

 

No welder...

Ever seen these? Irwin bolt grips.

 

Nut was fubared. Had to move on to more drastic measures!!

First I tried to use a dremel tool to just grind down the faces of the nut and make a new nut out of it. This went ok however the nut just stripped out again. At this point I am pissed.

GRINDER TIME!!!!

Stuck that grinder right on the center of the nut and went to town on that SOB.



Ground the whole thing off. No more nut!

The bolt...



How I am feeling right now:

 

lol. that's funny.