Rear Axle Seal/Bearing Replacement Videos

[mtbtim]

Hey Dudes,
[MENTION=102606]infamousRNR[/MENTION] and I have a double feature for you. If you were looking for a video tutorial to do the whole job on your own so you don't get bent over at a shop or have to pay a machine shop to do the press work for you, we got you covered. We have a video for ABS Rearends and Non-ABS Rearends.

Here's the videos and Enjoy the Show!

 

[alumarine]

Awesome, thank you!
Just gotta get some popcorn.

 

[SDmtnbkr]

Wow Tim you must have posted this in the time it took me to write my thread out and post it.

Excellent video! This really helps a ton with the process and best practices. I just acquired an e-locker and axle housing to swap into my 2002 4Runner with ABS. I have all of the tools to do the job, except for that special tool, and was planning on doing the job myself, but after watching your video and seeing how crucial having the tool is, I might not do it after all.

So if I take the axles out and take them to a shop to get them done (there's a couple good shops in SD that do this work) what would you recommend for the last retainer ring? Should I have them only barely press it on the axle and then use my press at home to finish it? Or just use the length from axles from my old housing and then adjust from there?

 

[infamousRNR]

Wow Tim you must have posted this in the time it took me to write my thread out and post it.

Excellent video! This really helps a ton with the process and best practices. I just acquired an e-locker and axle housing to swap into my 2002 4Runner with ABS. I have all of the tools to do the job, except for that special tool, and was planning on doing the job myself, but after watching your video and seeing how crucial having the tool is, I might not do it after all.

So if I take the axles out and take them to a shop to get them done (there's a couple good shops in SD that do this work) what would you recommend for the last retainer ring? Should I have them only barely press it on the axle and then use my press at home to finish it? Or just use the length from axles from my old housing and then adjust from there?

do the grease test before taking any components off and see where its riding.. then install your new axle seal (toyota redesigned it so it rides differently on the last retainer) and do the grease test again to see where the seal rides...

make a note of that, then note where the retainer is currently pressed on, and make adjustments as necessary.

our videos claim that approximately 5mm of polished axle should be the magical spot.

after you get your axle back from the press shop, do the grease test again to make sure its not riding close to the edge of the retainer and tell the shop to flip the retainer that rides on the new axle seal. the [MENTION=78997]Drcoffee[/MENTION] method.

 

[LittleCaesar]

I wish my garage could be as neatly organized as Tim's garage is.

Going to be on a plane next week, sure to be delayed at some airport, will catch them then.

 

[Herculean T4R]

Tim & Sean, thank you!!

 

[fblainen11]

You two are the mans!

 

[Mark_BC]

You da man!

 

[SDmtnbkr]

do the grease test before taking any components off and see where its riding.. then install your new axle seal (toyota redesigned it so it rides differently on the last retainer) and do the grease test again to see where the seal rides...

make a note of that, then note where the retainer is currently pressed on, and make adjustments as necessary.

our videos claim that approximately 5mm of polished axle should be the magical spot.

after you get your axle back from the press shop, do the grease test again to make sure its not riding close to the edge of the retainer and tell the shop to flip the retainer that rides on the new axle seal. the [MENTION=78997]Drcoffee[/MENTION] method.

Yeah, that's actually a good idea. Since I'm using a different housing, I'll just install the seals on the new housing and install my old axles and with the grease test to and than just have them adjust forward or back accordingly.

The grease test wasn't 100% clear in the video... so I want the grease line (the line the seal makes by pushing the grease back) to be in the middle of the last retaining ring? Or at least a few mm last the edge of the ring towards the ABS rings?

 

[kolelt]

Awesome video. I think my seal is slowly leaking. It's brand new OEM SEAL with brand new OEM bearing and stuff. But I think the retainer isn't flipped like you suggested and it's fully pressed on. Like bottomed out.

 

[mtbtim]

Yeah, that's actually a good idea. Since I'm using a different housing, I'll just install the seals on the new housing and install my old axles and with the grease test to and than just have them adjust forward or back accordingly.

The grease test wasn't 100% clear in the video... so I want the grease line (the line the seal makes by pushing the grease back) to be in the middle of the last retaining ring? Or at least a few mm last the edge of the ring towards the ABS rings?

The retainer is made up of a 2-3mm non-polished bevel and a 10mm polished section. Ideally, if you could get the seal lip to ride right in the middle of the polished section, that would be ideal. You don't want to be riding really close to either end of the polished section so as time goes on and your bearings get a little play in them your seal lip won't be riding either on the bevel or off the other side if you happened to leave space between the retainer and ABS gear. Perfection isn't necessary. When we did Charlie's rig, we were around 4mm from the edge and that was good enough. But, if you're really patient and maybe a little anal with the pressing process, you could get it perfectly dead center.

 

[MACT4R]

That was great a tutorial video. I just finished mine last night but I serviced out the bearing press due to not having the 20ton press and special tool. I thought about buying the tools but would have cost me way more than servicing the job. Funny you made a point of having the right diameter seal press so you won't bend the inner part of the seal cause I had to redue one for having done just that. I bought extra seal just in case of rookie mistake. Learned a lot from your other tutorials. Your videos are my go to. Thanks for putting it out!

 

[kolelt]

The retainer is made up of a 2-3mm non-polished bevel and a 10mm polished section. Ideally, if you could get the seal lip to ride right in the middle of the polished section, that would be ideal. You don't want to be riding really close to either end of the polished section so as time goes on and your bearings get a little play in them your seal lip won't be riding either on the bevel or off the other side if you happened to leave space between the retainer and ABS gear. Perfection isn't necessary. When we did Charlie's rig, we were around 4mm from the edge and that was good enough. But, if you're really patient and maybe a little anal with the pressing process, you could get it perfectly dead center.

So does this mean the retainer Isn't fully flush to the bearing ?

 

[mtbtim]

That was great a tutorial video. I just finished mine last night but I serviced out the bearing press due to not having the 20ton press and special tool. I thought about buying the tools but would have cost me way more than servicing the job. Funny you made a point of having the right diameter seal press so you won't bend the inner part of the seal cause I had to redue one for having done just that. I bought extra seal just in case of rookie mistake. Learned a lot from your other tutorials. Your videos are my go to. Thanks for putting it out!

You're welcome. On my first attempt to drive a seal in when we did the Non-ABS rearend, I damaged the seal. Now I believe i have the right technique to avoid destroying one again but it's always a good idea to have a spare because they aren't expensive and it's really annoying when you have to drop everything and drive over to the local dealership and hope they have one in stock.

 

[nissanh]

TIM Thanks for a great video.
One thing to point out is get the seal into the axle WITHOUT the use of the seal driver (at 26:30 mark). Tap 12 and 6 O clock then 3 and 9 O clock marks with a soft hammer until all 4 ends are pressed in equally. Then use the seal driver. This method works for me always.

 

[mtbtim]

So does this mean the retainer Isn't fully flush to the bearing ?

If you have a Non-ABS rearend, the retainer has to be pressed against the bearing to get the c-clip in place. Due to the fact that Toyota redesigned the seal at some point and the seal lip is sitting more inboard towards the 3rd member, we concluded without a doubt it was necessary to flip the retainer like [MENTION=78997]Drcoffee[/MENTION] came up with to get a better mating of the seal with the retainer. Watch the Non-ABS video and we go into great detail about the need to flip the retainer.

With an ABS rearend, the outer retainer is still pressed on all the way against the bearing to get the c-clip in place. The inner retainer and ABS gear are pressed on together at the same time and we determined that using [MENTION=78997]Drcoffee[/MENTION] method of flipping the retainer was a good idea with the ABS rearend as well. In the OEM set-up, the inner retainer has the bevel facing the seal and there's apprx 5mm of polished axle showing. With the newly designed seals, the seal lip is now riding 2mm more inboard towards the 3rd member. When you flip the retainer, you gain that 2mm back because the non-polished bevel is around 2-3mm wide. So, if you flip the retainer (DrCoffee Method) and press it on with the same 5mm of polished axle showing as before, the seal lip will be riding close to dead center of the polished part of the retainer which is 10mm wide.

 

[mtbtim]

TIM Thanks for a great video.
One thing to point out is get the seal into the axle WITHOUT the use of the seal driver (at 26:30 mark). Tap 12 and 6 O clock then 3 and 9 O clock marks with a soft hammer until all 4 ends are pressed in equally. Then use the seal driver. This method works for me always.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[SDmtnbkr]

The retainer is made up of a 2-3mm non-polished bevel and a 10mm polished section. Ideally, if you could get the seal lip to ride right in the middle of the polished section, that would be ideal. You don't want to be riding really close to either end of the polished section so as time goes on and your bearings get a little play in them your seal lip won't be riding either on the bevel or off the other side if you happened to leave space between the retainer and ABS gear. Perfection isn't necessary. When we did Charlie's rig, we were around 4mm from the edge and that was good enough. But, if you're really patient and maybe a little anal with the pressing process, you could get it perfectly dead center.

Awesome, thanks! I found Dr. Coffee's original thread and it explained it all very well.

That was great a tutorial video. I just finished mine last night but I serviced out the bearing press due to not having the 20ton press and special tool. I thought about buying the tools but would have cost me way more than servicing the job. Funny you made a point of having the right diameter seal press so you won't bend the inner part of the seal cause I had to redue one for having done just that. I bought extra seal just in case of rookie mistake. Learned a lot from your other tutorials. Your videos are my go to. Thanks for putting it out!

So who in SD did you have to the press work and how much did it cost? I'm trying to decide if I should just buy the tool he used ($190 shipped) or just pay a shop to do it since I'll probably never use it again. If the shop wants anything close to that much, I'd rather buy the tool since I have all the other tools needed.

 

[mtbtim]

Awesome, thanks! I found Dr. Coffee's original thread and it explained it all very well.




So who in SD did you have to the press work and how much did it cost? I'm trying to decide if I should just buy the tool he used ($190 shipped) or just pay a shop to do it since I'll probably never use it again. If the shop wants anything close to that much, I'd rather buy the tool since I have all the other tools needed.

Buy the tool and maybe help somebody else you know in the future that has a 3rd Gen 4runner, 1st Gen Tacoma or other older Toyota pickup. If you decide you don't want it, just sell it at a reduced cost but recoup most of the money you spent. Just know the limitations of the tool like I discuss in the video and use some longer M10 bolts to press out the axle. I wouldn't spend the money to alter the tool at a machine shop like I did if you don't plan on keeping it.

 

[kolelt]

If you have a friend who has a welder. Or if you do yourself. You can easily make the tool to pull the bearing. Me and my friend did. Took us 30 min.