there is play in my right front on my 95 4ruuner 4x4, while its jacked up you can hold the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock and feel the play but not at 10 and 2. how do you tell if its bearing in the rotor or a bad spindle.

 

That's usaully ball joints

 

when i shake the wheel the ball joints dont appear to move or is that something i could not see?

 

it depends, is there any play at 9 and 3?

 

no, i checked 10 and 2 but not 9 and 3. right now i have the rotor off of the spindle now i dont now all the right verbage but the shaft with the groves on it has play in it and also the bearing inside the rotor is also loose.

 

i just got off the phone with my g-pa. very knowledgeable guy, and he said if there is play at 9 and 3 it's your bearings. and for the ball joints, the vehicle must be jacked by the arm going out to the hub (so the spring is compressed and the weight of the truck is transfered on spring) But he and i agreed it sounded like wheel bearings.

 

thanks, i will try the ball joint test the correct way and i dont know the maintenance history on the vehicle so i will go ahead and replace the bearings i dont think it can hurt. thank you very much.

 

yeah it cant hurt.
these trucks are darn tuff, but wear and tear will take its toll on anything. people usually let things like that go, and screw themselves later. good luck with the yota.

 

could be they just need repacked and tightened up a little, but if you overighten, they'll ooze out all the greas and be worse yet. but they ain't real expensive, so you might just go ahead and replace them. Good luck, and have a great night.

 

replace them, my pass side brg went on the way home from work friday. no noise, no warning, just a sharp shimmy some squealing for a second or two another shimmy and mushy brake pedal. i limped to the shoulder and called the happy hooker. mech called to tell me the brg had welded itself to the spindle, so, new spindle, brg, nut, seal and labour = 860$ cdn. sigh.

lee

 

Ouch! I had that happen on my 85, and it just about wrecked me! BEaring cage disintegrated and the bearings got wonky (that's a Canadian word that means "screwy" ) and the LF wheel quit turning for a sec before the race spun.. scared me sh...less! Good thing I was slowing to turn into my driveway at the time. Imagine what it would have done at 65mph!!
I had to cut the race off the spindle, then used emery cloth to dress the spindle and slip on a new bearing. Still going strong (far as I know,) and that happened in 1993.

So I say - REpack those bearings often. $20 worth of special tools, and it's easy to do. And if ever in doubt - new bearings. They're cheap.

Not to dis your mechanic friend, but you cannot tell if wheel bearings are bad by shaking the tire, at any position on the clock. You can tell if they're loose, but not bad. Bad wheel bearings make noise. Loose wheel bearings can allow the same play while shaking the tire that bad balljoints can make. With that said, I'd still probably replace them. Then test again for balljoints...

 

I was going to repack my front bearing last weeked, but I have Warn hubs and couldn't find a rebuild kit for it locally. I didn't want to go through trouble of taking the hubs off and not rebuild them. Anyway, I was checking on the prices of the hub bearing seal at the dealer and they said they were $25 ea! I don't remember them being that much...does that sound right to you guys?

 

Yep, cheap and easy. I try to repack mine every spring, just for the piece of mind.

 

hey phil!

i was on the highway at the time and yes, it was scary! im sure the guy behind me wasnt too pleased that i signalled and cut over pretty quickly. more preventitive maintenance to schedule in.

lee

 

The key words are "at the dealer."
Try the local auto parts store...

If your hub locks engage smoothly (and when you pull them off there is no grungy water/grease inside) then there is no need to "rebuild" them. Ever.
If you want you can clean them out and regrease them. They will last longer than the truck. Probably why you can't find a rebuild kit for them.

 

Mushy pedal , This just happened to a friend of mine with an 88 4Runner. He replaced damn near every part in his brake system trying to repair it. When the truck was parked it had great pedal pressure . However as soon as he was moving it had very little pressure on the brakes. I'm still scratchin my head over that one.