MN4runnerman
Senior Member
They opened up a shop in Bloomington on lyndale Ave recently. They bought out the old Freeway 66 shop, just haven't changed over the signs.
My 1997 SR5 5spd daily driver
- Thread starter flipty
- Start date
They opened up a shop in Bloomington on lyndale Ave recently. They bought out the old Freeway 66 shop, just haven't changed over the signs.
1985taylor1925
Senior Member
Op, going back to your first page . . . What were the symptoms you felt on the highway before replacing everything in the back end? I am suspicious that my bushings are bad @ 250k miles
Not sure if yours is stick or auto, but upon acceleration you'll feel the back end sorta swerve out, and then swerve back in. At street speeds it's hardly noticable but at freeway speed the back end will sway to and fro every time you hit a bump that's not perfectly straight basically until you lay off the gas.
The upper and lower control arms are there to keep the axle straight. if the bushings are gone, or if the frame is wonky, the rear axle will be angled at times, causing rear sway.
Changing the lower arms made a big difference. It didn't 100% solve the issue, but probably 75-80%. Old tires were also playing a big part as well as the upper control arms and the shocks. With all of those things new, there is no rear sway at all in any situation.
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I just got off the phone with them. They are done, and they did the upper ball joints as well, and they're only charging me for an hour of labor. Not bad!
Cape_runner
New member
Great job with the repairs so far!
Last evening I got both old tie rods off (difficult but not TOO bad since I was doing both inners and outers I just cut the boots off and used a spanner on the inners at the rack, and they both eventually gave) -- first time I can remember using a spanner as a 'primary tool' to actually accomplish the removal of something in a car. Around the house? Sure, but on cars it's pretty rare. The thing that made it difficult was that the inners I was removing only had two flat sides instead of 4 or 6, so it was hard to get the wrench in a position to apply torque.
Also got the passenger side brake line out at the ABS tee... WOOT. This means I get to do new hard lines and rubber to the new caliper. Very happy about that.
The new wheel bearings and upper BJ's are in the knuckles... I just have one question:
When I took off the knuckles I don't recall seeing an inner bearing seal anywhere. Now with the bearings pressed in and the seals installed by the shop I don't see how I could have NOT seen them. Unless they somehow did them wrong or reversed or something (please, baby jesus please say they didn't do them wrong) but they knew what kind of car they were from and I'm sure they've done them before over the years.... is it possible the old outer seals are still attached to the axles somehow? I can post pics of the axle ends later today for verification.
Also got the passenger side brake line out at the ABS tee... WOOT. This means I get to do new hard lines and rubber to the new caliper. Very happy about that.
The new wheel bearings and upper BJ's are in the knuckles... I just have one question:
When I took off the knuckles I don't recall seeing an inner bearing seal anywhere. Now with the bearings pressed in and the seals installed by the shop I don't see how I could have NOT seen them. Unless they somehow did them wrong or reversed or something (please, baby jesus please say they didn't do them wrong) but they knew what kind of car they were from and I'm sure they've done them before over the years.... is it possible the old outer seals are still attached to the axles somehow? I can post pics of the axle ends later today for verification.
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Latest update... spent some time being unable to make progress due to time and parts restraints... but that time is over.
I got both sides put back together and torqued. Just have to bleed the brakes again since I put a new caliper on. God I wish that were a one person job. I know there's a one-person way but I don't trust it.
I got both sides put back together and torqued. Just have to bleed the brakes again since I put a new caliper on. God I wish that were a one person job. I know there's a one-person way but I don't trust it.
theesotericone
New member
Gravity bleeding works, If you have the patience for it. With long runs it can take 30 minutes or more to fully bleed each side. I don't have that kind of patience so I just ask the wife to help. lol
So the more I think about it, the more I'm pretty sure there was no inner seal on either knuckle/bearing. I suppose that might be why both bearings died a painful death. Outer seal, I can't tell because I didn't look beneath the hub (obviously).
aaaaaaand fail.
I wasn't totally done with the lower ball joint on the passenger side. I forgot I had one more bolt to go, which I knew. I went to put it on today and WTF, it WILL NOT go in. Not the new one, not any of the old ones... so I finally stop cursing and resist the urge to get one thread to bite and airgun it in.... take eeeeverything apart again (which granted is much easier when it all just went back together) and what do I see....
look at the bottom right hole. It's 'sorta' round.
My only thought is that the shop must have put it in a clamp or press or something in some odd way (they did say they had trouble getting the bearing out) -- and there's no way any bolt is going in there.
So next question is: Should I have them drill and tap it for the original thread, have them drill it out completely and use a nut and bolt, or trash the entire steering knuckle and pay (either me or them) for another wheel bearing and more labor to press it in and out.
Thoughts?
I wasn't totally done with the lower ball joint on the passenger side. I forgot I had one more bolt to go, which I knew. I went to put it on today and WTF, it WILL NOT go in. Not the new one, not any of the old ones... so I finally stop cursing and resist the urge to get one thread to bite and airgun it in.... take eeeeverything apart again (which granted is much easier when it all just went back together) and what do I see....
look at the bottom right hole. It's 'sorta' round.
My only thought is that the shop must have put it in a clamp or press or something in some odd way (they did say they had trouble getting the bearing out) -- and there's no way any bolt is going in there.
So next question is: Should I have them drill and tap it for the original thread, have them drill it out completely and use a nut and bolt, or trash the entire steering knuckle and pay (either me or them) for another wheel bearing and more labor to press it in and out.
Thoughts?
Bijan
New member
I've never understood this.... do you block out your license plate where you park everyday? Ya know.... cuz criminals, thieves...
Do you *67 every call so you show up as private caller?
Get real. :horn:
It's kind of like always throwing a pinch of salt over your shoulder three times when you leave the house to ward off the evil eye.
Wait, you don't all do that?
spoonsports86
New member
i dont get it either not like any civilian can take your plate number and find you or where you live
you would have to know some one at the dmv or police department to do that
Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Nice work man!
It's gonna be really nice having everything fresh. Did you paint the calipers or rotor hats? Most part store calipers come raw, and rust like crazy as soon as they get wet. I use silver wheel paint from- I believe- Dupli-Color, and the same line of clear. It's a super nice silver, shoots awesome, cures smooth and fast- I love it. Anyway, just don't want all your hard work to look like crap after the first rain!
Hope those Moog lower BJs work out well for you [emoji1360]
It's gonna be really nice having everything fresh. Did you paint the calipers or rotor hats? Most part store calipers come raw, and rust like crazy as soon as they get wet. I use silver wheel paint from- I believe- Dupli-Color, and the same line of clear. It's a super nice silver, shoots awesome, cures smooth and fast- I love it. Anyway, just don't want all your hard work to look like crap after the first rain!
Hope those Moog lower BJs work out well for you [emoji1360]
I didn't paint anything brake-related at all and probably won't. You can't really see my rotors or calipers very easily, and to be honest my #1 by far concern is getting this badboy back on the road. I'm getting really sick of driving my wife to work just so I have a way to get to the parts store, and getting rides to work myself as well. Ready for my 4runner to be 4running again!
Yeah me too... I don't drive my cars hard, I even take it easy going into parking lots and stuff, just out of habit so I've got faith that they'll be just fine. That said, now that I've replaced everything except the axles up front it's a piece of cake to get to everything... and I have all the sizes and torques memorized... :mmph:
Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Suit yourself! [emoji12]
That's awesome. Once you get into these front ends a time or two, it really is a piece of cake to do just about anything on them!
Keep up the good work man.
That's awesome. Once you get into these front ends a time or two, it really is a piece of cake to do just about anything on them!
Keep up the good work man.
JZiggy
Senior Member
I'm a pinch of salt guy I guess!
I am interested to know how the shop managed to booger that tapped hole so badly. That must have taken a lot of force. Were they able to just retap it?
They were not. They were only able to drill the threads out a little bit so I could get a similarly sized bolt and nut in there, which is what I suggested when we checked out how loosely things fit in that hole (a noticeable wobble) after trying to re-tap. As it is, I got the strongest near-fit bolt I could find (10.9) and put it on there good with red loctite and "a little more" than the torque spec.
I am going to be religiously looking at that LBJ for the next several weeks as I drive it around for any signs of weakness, and if anything even sorta feels wrong I'm going to go to the junkyard and get another knuckle to start over with. I already ordered a Koyo wheel bearing from amazon just in case.
Here's today's video update. NOW all that's left is torque, cotter pins, and bleed. Already got the new caliper filled with fluid, just have to burp the lines.
Front end rebuild DONE
Alright... I hesitate to say "DONE!" because it never really is.....
...but I got the front end all put back together, brakes bled, and back on the road.
The good news: MAN she feels great to drive. Steering is tight, I swear the alignment is perfect (I was able to take the tie rods off at one time since I was doing inner and outer, so I matched the length of the old and new exactly) so now even my steering wheel sits dead center and there's absolutely 0 drift to any side with no hands on the wheel, and the tires look straight as an arrow. Naturally I'm paying for an alignment ASAP, but overall roads feel smoother, everything front-end related seems groovy. Calipers aren't sticking, nothing's getting hot while driving, things are looking up in front.
Now the bad news: It did NOT solve the wheel bearing-dying sound that I can also feel through the frame. So clearly I have either bad rear wheel bearing(s) or something driveshaft related since the noise always matches road speed.
Theoretically it could be tire related, but they are all brand new high quality Michelins, professionally installed and I just don't see it being tires. I'm going to take it to the shop and see if I can have them diagnose the issue. If it's anything other than tires I'm gonna end up paying for the work, because I don't have time, space, or tools to do a rear wheel bearing.
Alright... I hesitate to say "DONE!" because it never really is.....
...but I got the front end all put back together, brakes bled, and back on the road.
The good news: MAN she feels great to drive. Steering is tight, I swear the alignment is perfect (I was able to take the tie rods off at one time since I was doing inner and outer, so I matched the length of the old and new exactly) so now even my steering wheel sits dead center and there's absolutely 0 drift to any side with no hands on the wheel, and the tires look straight as an arrow. Naturally I'm paying for an alignment ASAP, but overall roads feel smoother, everything front-end related seems groovy. Calipers aren't sticking, nothing's getting hot while driving, things are looking up in front.
Now the bad news: It did NOT solve the wheel bearing-dying sound that I can also feel through the frame. So clearly I have either bad rear wheel bearing(s) or something driveshaft related since the noise always matches road speed.
Theoretically it could be tire related, but they are all brand new high quality Michelins, professionally installed and I just don't see it being tires. I'm going to take it to the shop and see if I can have them diagnose the issue. If it's anything other than tires I'm gonna end up paying for the work, because I don't have time, space, or tools to do a rear wheel bearing.
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