So after last weekend and finally replacing my rear wheel bearings, I though about my front bearings. I have no idea how old they are or how many miles are on them, so I'm just going to replace them for peace of mind (plus they are making a slight humming noise driving down the road... or maybe that's just my tires... either way, if I tear everything apart, I'm going to replace them), and along with that rebuild my hubs; or rather get another set and rebuild them, and then just put that new rebuilt set on the truck when I'm done.

So I got to pricing up some bearings from the parts store, and the bearings alone per side come to about $37. This is before seals, grease, etc. Now check this out from LCE...

http://www.toyotacatalog.net/M1WebGe...F-2E06C90E8534

$2 more, and I get bearings, the seal, hub gaskets, and even a new star lock washer!

To me, it looks like one HELL of a deal, but I'm curious if anyone's ever gone this route. Now I know LCE turns out quality stuff that usualy carries a heafty price tag, but these being on the less expensive side, I'm curious about the quality; anyone know what brand of bearings they supply maybe?

To make things easier, I would also be getting the socket they sell...

http://www.toyotacatalog.net/M1WebGe...E-CD6463783E85

All in all, I could do my front bearings for about $100 worth in parts (well, before the shipping for those parts, the price of some old hubs to rebuild, plus shipping for those if I can't find them locally, and some cleaners and grease of coarse)

So what's your input; sound good?

 

http://www.trail-gear.com/knuckle-service.html

 

oh nice, a couple more products that LCE doesn't list, thanks!




also, another thought...

anybody have any word about Superwinch's hubs?

http://www.4by4connection.com/toyota4.html

or would I be better off just getting a set of originals to rebuild

Their about the same price as even some old Asian originals as far as I can find, plus their new... and they look nice, which is always a plus, but I dunno...

 

Appears to be for SFA, not sure if that makes a difference. In anycase, trail-gear doesnt use the best quality bearings..

I just went with oem replacments from the auto parts store, you guys are lucky. Parts are MUCH cheaper down there..

Check to make sure the wheel bearings need to be done, dont just guess from a sound

 

I am pretty sure wheel bearings are the same 84-95 on the 4Runners, IFS or SFA, but the inner seal is different. All the hub gaskets etc are the same.

I've sold hundreds of the TG bearings...they are just made in house. I've mic'd an OEM Koyo bearing in comparison to a TG bearing...same bearing dimensionally...and I've never had one single problem. I run them on my trucks as well.

 

I have heard many a people that have used the trail-gear rebuild kit and have had bearing/gasket issues.. Obviously I don't have any experiance with it..

 

you have to also remember that quality parts are ony going to be good parts if their installed right by the people who are installing them

 

Haha, true

 

Not picking on you Jay but that is hearsay at best and untrue totally at worst. Which many people? If there are so many why have I not seen one picture of a TG bearing exploded? Probably no more an occurance of explosion than any other bearing if it is on a wheeled truck.

Simply repeating something that you heard/saw someone else repeat when you have no idea if they were just repeating it themselves is just irresponsible IMO.

I have had firsthand experience with TG bearings on 3 trucks. No problems. Sold hundreds more to dozens of others, not one problem. Mic'd TG bearings vs. OEM Koyo bearings...no difference.

Buy what you want, but please don't bash something you have no experience with. Thanks!

 

so what do yall think about those hubs, or did I edit that post above too late and no one even noticed it, lol



oh wow, I just noticed I went over 1,000 posts
I feel old in "forum years", lol

 

out sourced.

 

Some of the quality of work out of China is far better than years past. Even Cold Steel is outsoursing some of their blades to better compete with competitors cost.

 

Other than the stealership, is there anywhere to get just the hub mounting gasket and hub cover gasket? I can't seem to find them anywhere outside of the whole kit...

The inner seal I can get no problem, and I can more than likely match the hub-dial O-ring up at Napa or another parts store (Napa matched up the O-ring in the rear perfectly).

I'm begining to think I can get away with just repacking the bearings, cuz I jacked each wheel up one at a time today after work, and they seem pretty good by the ol wobble test; I guess I'll know for sure once I dig in there.

And by the going price of hubs, I might even just rebuild my old ones on the truck now; they still work, but who knows how long it's been since they've been taken apart and rebuilt. I'll be doing it on a weekend anyway, so I'll be able to have the down-time on the truck while I figure everything out completely and wait for the hub-cover's fresh new paint to dry Anybody got any tips on getting the old paint off those things?

 

Not sure of the gaskets you asking about. Rebuilding the locking hubs is rather easy. Mine were dificult to lock and unlock, they are simple concept. I opens mine regreased and put back together no problems. As for repacking the wheel bearring search and look through the post, some one on here had a trick set up using an old 54mm nut, pipe cap, and a grease zerk. So you don't have to pull the wheel hub. I been meaning to set up myself.

 

well I have no doubts about my abilites of working on them; I've done many a bearing jobs in my past both on mine and others vehicle, and I've studied and gone through the FSM PDF files through and through, so I feel I can handle the job no problem...



The gaskets I'm reffering to are the ones on either side of the hub body...

 

I got the star gasket from toyota, could get the round one too, but I'd just cut it out of the roll of gasket material using the hub as a template. There's a spring in the dial face that you may want to replace as well, WabFab sells them. You'll also want to replace the o ring that goes around dial face.

Have no doubt of you ability, but there's a post on here about a homebrew tool/adaptor for repacking wheel bearings without pulling the wheel hubs and lock hub (body portion) off. It forces greese in... I thought it was pretty cool.

 

I remember that thread
But that tool was used to grease the needle bearings in the spindle.

To grease the wheel bearings you need to remove and get ALL of the old grease out. Then re-pack. IF they are within specs, mine were so bad I had to replace them.. (after I went to the alignment place and they said they where still bad )

 

meh, not all that dificult just to remove everything imo; the nost annoying part would probably be the cone washers it looks like, but I'll manage. I'd really like to disassymble the whole thing anyway; I mean, the truck has right at 290k on it, I personally don't know how many of those miles are on the current wheel bearings, so I'd like to have a look at the races and everything and replace the inner seals anyway...

I'm a big fan of "preventative maintenance", not "fix it when it finally breaks and leaves you stranded"; that's also why I change my oil and hit all my grease fittings every 2500-2750 miles


I may check a local dealership and see, how much could paper gaskets be anyway... I want to try to lean away from just cutting out some gaskets out of some material

 

I got all 4 hub gaskets from the stealer(2 on each side). Around 10 bucks here. Probibly around 6-7 in your neck of the woods.

 

that's good to know, thanks Jay