Broken rear axle update

[dieselguy]

Thought I’d start a new thread on what I’ve found so far on the axle and it ain’t good, a prime example of why I do all of my own work no matter what it takes to get it done right, When your stupid enough to start hacking at an axle bearing with a torch you need to find another line of work, and just think, the last guy payed good money to get his stuff totally fubared, now I get to fix it right, anyway, as you can see, some goober torched the retainers and bearings off, nicking the axle and over heating it also I’m sure, no wonder it broke, torched through the bearing and was so excited he blew a hole through the bearing support in the backing plate, gee whizz !

 

[Jungoes]

Good grief.. what a moron.. glad you were not injured..

 

[mtbtim]

Yep, all the more reason to do your own work.

 

[gamefreakgc]

It was like that already when I took it out. Promise.

 

[JZiggy]

Got the receipt for that repair?

 

[snow junky]

Wow that’s bad.

 

[kolelt]

He scorched the metal. Either way, he’s a *******. I’m sorry. That’s why I don’t trust any shops. Just can’t. Only one shop I trust. And it’s because my friends work there. And I know the bosses....

 

[dieselguy]

Got the receipt for that repair?

I haven’t been through all the records we got when we purchased it so I’m not sure if this repair is in the pile, the previous owner looks to have had all his work done at a local dealership and a local repair shop, Houston area btw, if I come up with the actual paperwork for the repair I will definitely post it .

 

[mtbtim]

Things like this help support my belief that this is the #1 repair dealerships and other shops screw up. With the right information and right tools, this job is super straight forward.

The biggest mistake shops make is not understanding that Toyota redesigned the seal and placing the inner retainer in the original position on the axle is going to give a poor mating with the seal. If they simply performed a grease test, they would have realized something wasn't right. But, mechanics blindly follow the FSM spec and slap it back together without confirming they have a good mating of the inner retainer and axle seal.

Another common screw up is shops cutting of the parts rather than pulling them off. This not only wastes parts you can reuse to save yourself some money, but it also risks gouging the axle shaft if the person doing the cutting isn't careful. You can reuse both ABS tone rings and reuse all 4 retainers. For the retainers, you just swap the positions they had on the axle so the inner retainer with the seal witness mark is next to the bearing and the outer retainer with a perfect polished shoulder is mating with the new seal. Reusing these parts saves you $150 based off online pricing.

And then you get other variation of screw-ups like the OP has experienced. This has been the most egregious manhandling of a rear axle I've seen to date. The "mechanic" that did this job is a complete idiot and should have realized he didn't have the right tools to do the job and just sent the customer somewhere else to get the job done right. I fully appreciate when people MacGyver ingenious ways to get things done. But, this guy wan't ingenious. What he did to that axle was criminal.

 

[Wedgy]

Wow..... can we assume the other side received a similar torch-torture job ??

I have found a few OP screw ups but nothing that remotely comes close to this.

 

[T.A.Kirk]

I've seen neater work performed on the side of a trail a hundred miles away from the nearest shop, and without any of the right tools available.

Really makes you wonder about the wisdom of turning your vehicle over to Joe Random the mechanic, sometimes. Even dealers aren't immune--I once helped a guy out with an axle rebuild on an FZJ-80, and discovered with him that the reason his birfs were clacking was that the last guy who'd been in there, a documented "factory-trained service technician" (we had the previous owner's invoice from the dealer...) had put the birfs back together on an axle rebuild that cost the PO $1200.00 <i>without lube</i>.

The amazing thing was, there was something like 20,000 miles on the truck in between us cracking those birfs open and the supposed "axle rebuild" at the dealer. I still haven't figured out how they managed to last that long, TBH.