Noticed my hubs a little loose while I was changing tires. But the seals aren't leaking.. is it possible for the bearings to go bad and the seal still be good? Or possible that the bearing just moved a bit and just needs to be tapped down to tighten up again?

 

The bearing has a retainer collar that helps it hold position. I kinda doubt that moved, Just to get it off you have to cut through 90% of the collar and then split it with a chiesel.
The axle has a inner and outer seal. I'm guessing you're looking at the outer. The typical failure was the inner seal going bad, allowing diff fluid to hit the bearing. The diff oil would pass through the sealed bearing and wash all the grease out, causing the bearing to fail. Eventually the oil would make it past the outer seal and soak the brake shoes in oil.
How old are the bearings?

 

Currently doing inner/outer seals and bearing on my 4runner. You can see the bearing, bearing retainer and snap ring below. In my case gear oil got all the way into the drums, like Jimkola said. Redoing my shoes and hardware as well, not sure if I'll need new drums yet.

 

Not sure how many miles on my bearings, but I've put about 70k on the truck since I bought it, and it has about 330k total.

I've been reading and watching every little trick there is to get the bearings out, since I'm the type that refuses to let a shop do the pressing work, which has led me to realizing that the main column of my Harbor Freight tire changer unit is almost EXACTLY the perfect dimensions of the "tool" that is needed to be fabricated to pull the bearings out with a press , I'm just waiting on my batteries to charge so I can finish cutting a hole in the bottom of it so it will slip over the axle.. lol.

 

Very cool! I'm going to attempt to do the bearing and retainer myself as well, though I don't have a press or tire changer handy. I was looking at the price of presses the other day, $150.00 to be able to do my own bearings is not bad at all.

 

ok, when I did my rear wheel bearings I did it in a way I'd never imagine. Especially as a former Parts and Service Director.
1) I cut the retainer with my Dremel using a cut off wheel. Cut to about 1/8" of the axle. I then took a chisel and split the retainer with a couple of good hits with a hammer. So retainer is out of the picture.
2)with drum off, but everything else still on the backing plate(shoes, etc) I take the axle and hold it about 18" over a thin piece of plywood on my concrete floor.
3) and I drop it. The end with the splines right onto the plywood.You want to make sure you hit the wood squarely so you don't damage the splines.
4)after 3-4 good drops the weight of the backing plate has driven the bearing right off. Took all of 1-2 minutes.

There's an equally backyard method for the bearing and retainer!

 

I bought seals and bearings from Marlin Crawler for $130 pair, then paid a fellow Yota owner $30 for use of his press. Piece of cake.

Yotatech's very own Alexman's Procedure:

And another procedure:

My Thread: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116.../#post52399442
Got my bearing and seal kit $130 for pair from Marlin Crawler, one of our favorite sources.

 

Great info! Thanks Jimkola and Rad. Hoping to get my bearing and retainer off this weekend, then start reassembly.

Jakez: Have you started this yet? I will be following along and updating my progress in my build/maintenance thread.

 

Well I gave up on using the column piece from the tire changer because the bottom plate was too thick to cut through and kept killing my 4ah batteries and diamond blade on my angle grinder.

So bought a bearing separator/puller kit from harbor freight and a couple 3/8 rods to use for extensions to reach the top of the axle. It worked enough to get the retainer off an axle. Then realized it isn't gonna do ˟˟˟˟ about the bearing..

THEN had a eureka moment and noticed that I can just knock 2 of the studs out of the backing plate and put 2 long bolts through the holes backwards with nuts on the underside and crank the bolts down until it pulls the whole ˟˟˟˟ apart... well it was working until the bolts started bending sideways on the backside and eventually broke.. sucks I really thought this was going to work and surprised I've never seen anyone doing it in all the researching I did before this. Maybe bolts made from a stronger metal?

So I got frustrated and took my anger out by trying the 'slam the axle into the ground' method with a THICK rubber mat on the ground. Nothing would budge. Which created more frustration which led to me setting the hub on something where it was supported by the brake plates facing axle up and put a square of the rubber mat over the axle tip to protect it and slammed the bejesus out of it with a 5lb sledge/axe about 10-12 times and STILL would not budge the bearing!

So, does anyone know what a shop would charge to press out and in if I brought them just the axle/hub with the retainer already removed and a bearing/seal kit from marlincrawler?
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The rubber is absorbing too much energy. I first tried it on a piece of 6x12 wood and it didn’t work. If you take a piece of 1/4” plywood and lay it flat on concrete that should do it.
when I did it I just went straight down on the concrete, no plywood. I just made sure I hit it dead even to minimize the impact on the splines. Worked great. But I was prepared to buy a shaft if I ˟˟˟˟˟˟ed it up. So I hesitate to tell others that.

 

Well I forgot to say I also tried putting a flat 5lb steel slab on top of the axle and wacked that about 3 times with the sledge and that didn't help.. I'll try the axle into the ground method later with less cusion and see if that does anything lol..

 

Here’s a YouTube video. I think the mistake this person made was not cutting the retainer off first. Or at the very least grinding/cutting through 90% of it. I removed the retainer completely, and needed only 3-4 drops to drive the bearing clean off.

 

I plan to use the drop/slam method onto a piece of 3/4" plywood on my concrete garage floor. I've been debating about cutting the retainer off first, or just attempting to pound both off. Sure sounds like cutting the retainer makes things easier..

 

You have to cut the retainer off first. Even the genuine Toyota special service tool for pulling the bearing required the retainer be removed first. You can take it to a grinder or use a cut off wheel. Cut/grind to within about 1/8” of the axle, then split it with a chisel

 

IIRC, I did as Arlindsay did.
I do not want to accumulate things I seldom use so didn't buy a press. paid fellow yota owner $30 to use his press.

 

I tried doing the backyard "pound it on a piece of wood" method. I got really sore hands, a really beat up piece of wood, and a bearing that was still stuck.

I highly recommend you find a press and someone with the SST close by. Doesn't have to be "THE" SST, I think most people use an old axle house that has some square tube welded to it. I made my own tool similar to Alexman's and that broke a couple of studs with my press. Those bearings can be REALLY stuck on there. (Yes, I had already cut the retainer off)

Just my 0.02. I've seen the youtube videos where the banging on the wood works, but it also doesn't sometimes, so be prepared for plan B.