Axle seals - To attempt or not bother... your opinions please

H

htomeheb

New member
I've done the searching and I understand the problem and the process to fix it. Just wanted some educated opinions on my predicament.

2000 SR5 with 245k, seen alot of time in the rustbelt...

My seals are shot, shoes are soaked. I've got a big trip coming up, and while I feel confident that I'll make it as is, having my rear brakes functioning as intended would be nice.

I dont have time to do the full job right now, as all the shops i've called claim they're too busy to have it done soon unless I want to pay a rush charge. I dont, because I'd like a new rear end sooner than later, so throwing money at this one seems silly.

I'm thinking If I just do breather and seals and put some new shoes in, I'll either fix the problem temporarily OR, I'll simply waste my time if they leak almost immediately...

Any alternative ways to keep the shoes dry? Slather grease around the outer seal? Use some thicker oil in the diff?

So T-4r, I seek your wisdom. I've got a couple hours free tomorrow that I can attempt to MacGyver my way into functioning brakes for the time being, or should I just let it ride til I can do it right...


Thanks in advance
 
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It will take more than just a few hours to do the brakes and seal, including cleaning up all the diff oil in order to try and avoid fouling the new brake shoes.

How far is your trip?
 
Do it once and do it right is my thinking. New seals, breather and shoes may work, but your 3/4 the way done there with pulling everything out and cleaning. If it leaks again on your trip your out the $$ for new seals and shoes.

The fluid is leaking through your bearings so only time will tell before they fail, depending on your trip length you might be fine but there is a level of risk you are taking.

If you do the seals, bearings, abs ring and breaks now, you can always swap things over to the new axel.
 
OrangeTexan said:
It will take more than just a few hours to do the brakes and seal, including cleaning up all the diff oil in order to try and avoid fouling the new brake shoes.

How far is your trip?
Click to expand...

The time problem is more the fact that of the few shops that I called, 4-5 days is typical turnaround to do the press work.

If I could get it all done in a day or two tops, thats one thing, I dont have half a week.

Trip is ~2600 miles. Unfortunately, you can have a plan A, B, and C, but when they all fail, you end up packing your entire life into a 4runner and moving across the country.


Diesel_Dog said:
Do it once and do it right is my thinking. New seals, breather and shoes may work, but your 3/4 the way done there with pulling everything out and cleaning. If it leaks again on your trip your out the $$ for new seals and shoes.

The fluid is leaking through your bearings so only time will tell before they fail, depending on your trip length you might be fine but there is a level of risk you are taking.

If you do the seals, bearings, abs ring and breaks now, you can always swap things over to the new axel.
Click to expand...

The ~15 bucks for seals and ~60 for shoes is easier to swallow than the ~400ish for parts/labor in doing the rest. Money aside, I still dont have the time.


At this rate, I'm kind of thinking just let it go and hope they dont self destruct on the trip.
 
htomeheb said:
The time problem is more the fact that of the few shops that I called, 4-5 days is typical turnaround to do the press work.

If I could get it all done in a day or two tops, thats one thing, I dont have half a week.

Trip is ~2600 miles. Unfortunately, you can have a plan A, B, and C, but when they all fail, you end up packing your entire life into a 4runner and moving across the country.




The ~15 bucks for seals and ~60 for shoes is easier to swallow than the ~400ish for parts/labor in doing the rest. Money aside, I still dont have the time.


At this rate, I'm kind of thinking just let it go and hope they dont self destruct on the trip.
Click to expand...

I know this doesn't help you, but that is ridiculous. any decent shop should be able to have it done in a few hours...not days.
 
I'm in the middle of this right now (2002 Limited)... I'm going with inner seals and shoes. The bearing seems tight: in/out play is about .43mm (.017"), which I think is within tolerance. I can't detect any up/down slack.

Lots of conversation about placement of the inner "retainer", and where the lip of the seal rides. It looks like mine was more or less centered, if I'm interpreting the photo correctly.
 

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Few days... BS!

I know it is growing out there but come on. With that long of a trip I would knock it out. That can be done in a day easy. Not that hard for shop to do unless they are sending the pressing work out to someone else and getting it back.

Sounds like they just do not want to do it in all honesty.

Let us know what happens.

Blue
 
heat said:
Thanks, I was just sayin' seals and shoes might last you, depending bearing wear, seal wear, etc. It's an annoying job, but not that hard.
Click to expand...

Yea, I hear you. I think I'm gonna rip it apart and if the bearings are thrashed I'll make a few more phone calls and see what happens.
 
If there is a local NAPA or something that does press work, most of them will do it while you wait, or at a maximum take a couple hours.
 
i agree, you should fix this before the trip.

oil soaked brake shoes can grab and lock up. it might not be happening NOW, but it can happen.
 
Find a shop that will do the press work (if you don't have a press) to throw the bearings on. If you go down there with everything disassembled and new bearings in hand, it should take them an hour max to get them back to you. I've done the seals and bearings on my Toyota pickup (very similar axle) and the seals literally take minutes to change. New shoes, and even new drums, are incredibly cheap so you may as well do them while you're in there. Go buy the seal driver kit from Harbor Freight, you'll be glad you did. A screwdriver works fine for removing the inner seals, just don't scratch the seal surfaces up.
I agree with everyone else. It'll take a day max, and you should do it before your trip.
 
If you have a buddy that can help you and about 2 hours, you can fix the seals with no issues. Harbor Freight was a saving grace for me. Bought a cheap seal puller and a seal set to hammer in the seals without bending them. While I was in there, I replaced the drum brake cylinders. I did this job close to two years ago and no leaks since. You don't want your brakes failing on you at any time, regardless of while on a long trip. TIP: Be careful when putting in the ABS sensor - over time the plastic flange is brittle and can break easily. GOOD LUCK!
 
There seems to be differing stories of seals, time and expense. There are seals on the axle shaft (along with the spacers, ABS ring, bearing, etc) that require a press to replace. There are also seals inside of the axle housing that only require a screw driver and at minimum (MacGuyer style) a soup can to replace.

I've had to do my inner and outer seals as well as the bearings. I started with the 'inner' seals, the one in the housing, as they were cheap and easy. I think they lasted a year. When it was time to replace them I did the outer seals and bearings as well.

Keep in mine you'll need to pull and bleed the brakes as well as replace the diff fluid. This is not a super quick and clean repair.
 
Well, I got under the truck this morning and it's worse than I thought.

Driver's side is soaked. The entire drum backing plate, abs sensor, inside of the wheel, etc is all covered in gear oil. Even the wheel well has a spray pattern. Oops.

Diff is covered in gear oil (presumably from the breather?), but the whole thing is soaked.

Passenger's side, just the bottom lip of the backing plate has oil on it.


Called all the local dealerships, I'd have to hit every dealership in town to get all the parts needed (none of them have ALL of it.), and of course they all want MSRP + tax (and they wont price match, I guess they choose no money vs. some money) Would've cost me over 600 after tax, plus I'd have to drive all over the Las Vegas valley to get all the parts required.

So, I ordered from Camelback Toyota in Phoenix, same place I ordered all my suspension parts from. Good people, good pricing, free shipping over $150 and they're close enough that it's overnight for me. $312 to my door. Beautiful.


I dont know when I'm going to have time to do the actual job, but atleast I'll have the parts if the time presents itself...
 
I had the stripe in the wheel well and the drums covered as well. once it gets leaking it's on. I first discovered I had a problem on the way down the hill from wheeling and camping. Downhill on highways until we got off for food. When I stopped the rears locked up and a huge stinky cloud of smoking gear oil floated forward.
 
4x4mike said:
I had the stripe in the wheel well and the drums covered as well. once it gets leaking it's on. I first discovered I had a problem on the way down the hill from wheeling and camping. Downhill on highways until we got off for food. When I stopped the rears locked up and a huge stinky cloud of smoking gear oil floated forward.
Click to expand...

Mine's been leaking since I've owned the truck. Nothing catastrophic has happened, thankfully.
 
heat said:
I'm in the middle of this right now (2002 Limited)... I'm going with inner seals and shoes. The bearing seems tight: in/out play is about .43mm (.017"), which I think is within tolerance. I can't detect any up/down slack.

Lots of conversation about placement of the inner "retainer", and where the lip of the seal rides. It looks like mine was more or less centered, if I'm interpreting the photo correctly.
Click to expand...

Your interpretation is incorrect. The seal has two lips. The outer dust lip and the inner seal. The polished ring you see is the outer lip riding in the center of the retainer. The actual seal lip is polishing your bevel on the retainer. That is why its leaking. If you want to get a few thousand miles from the repair, put a new seal in and replace the retainer with bevel outboard and moved inboard by 1mm from where it is now. That should get your seals to seal. But to do it right, you should change the bearings. Make careful measurements before you take it apart and put the new parts on. There is very little room for error with these seals.
 
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