I have a rear wheel wobble, thought it might be a rim/wheel problem. Nope, put a new wheel on and it still wobbles. What am I looking to repair/replace? ball park costs? 94 4Runner 4wd 3.0 5speed
tk

 

What vehicle? Year?

 

Oops sorry, 1994 4Runner, 4WD 3.0 5speed.

 

Figure it out before this happens to you!



Could be a bent housing, bad bearing, a number of things - but if you don't get it fixed, the above picture is likely to happen!

The rear axle is semi-floating - the axle and wheel are only held on by the pressed on bearing and a small circlip.

 

Bent housing will not cause wobble, only affect the camber of the tire. A bent axle shaft is pretty common or a wheel bearing going out (should make noise). You can narrow down the source of the wobbly by putting the rear axle up on jack stands and then let the engine spin the rear wheels. Hold a pointer up to the tire and then move to the face of the rim to observe the wobble. Then pull the wheel off and see if the brake drum wobble, then pull it off and see if that wobble is present in the axle, if so, it is the axle. I paid around $100 for a new axle shaft at a junkyard, or AllPro and a few other places carry CroMoly rear shafts.

 

Gotcha - unless it's bent REALLY bad (and therefore bent the shaft):

 

Thanks 4crawler, pretty sure its not the bearing - - no noise heard. I'll check the brake drum and axle as you mentioned.
tk

 

That is so ridiculous...

 

I didn't hear/suspect anything with the bearing on Molly's truck until I saw the wheel bouncing past us ...

 

Carrier case could be worn to which leads to the axle flange warping which leads to a 'warped rotor' type feel in your brake peddle.

Or the axle flange could be the culprit or bad bearings (and bearings dont have to make noise to be worn out)

In my case, my carrier was worn so the axle shaft essentially pivoted on the outer bearing which gives you you're wheel wobble. If you have a dial indicator you can actually measure the runout on the axle. Forget the specs on my warped axles but it was rediculous.

I put in a new differential (Detroit), new chromoly axles (Alloy USA), new bearings and seals, new brake hardware, shoes and new drums.

Was over a grand to do all that tho. not including the tools I bought to do all this $$$$$

well worth every penny tho! =)

**** warped axle flanges on yotas is extremely common. a early 90's yota pickup drove past me the other day with some SERIOUS rear wheel wobble. Looked like it'd been on a few to many offroadn trips haha.. Anyway, get it fixed dont get lucky like tc and not kill yourself whe teh axle flies off ! ha