rear axle seal DIY?

[diverscale]

But the machine shop told me something about gear oil leaking past the bearing wears off the factory grease in the bearing. True?

You've been producing many, many posts in multiple axle seal threads over the last few weeks, enjoying the help of many forum members.

I was, too, going to advice you at changing only the seals before I read the rest of the thread.

Now, lug1 and doc2012 both offer you an easier way out, offering their experience and time for free, why not trusting them over that ''machine shop guy''

I feel like it's a lack of respect for everyone helping you if you just keep questioning the advices given and never get on with the job already.

Good luck of you attempt it, but with your level of confidence, I would just bring the truck to your mechanic and shell the money. You could create much more expensive problems if you do a mistake out of stress, for example, scratching the internal part of the axle where the seal sits while removing it, or mis-adjusting your drum brakes after re-assembly. You will also have to re-new your drum brakes, since your shoes are not salvageable after having soaked in gear oil, which is also a ''shitty'' job.

 

[mendozer]

I was in no way putting off the advice from others. I highly welcome it. Now one had mentioned the grease part so I was just curious about it. I'm looking forward to saving $$$ and doing just the seals. And I've done rear brakes before so it's not that bad.

 

[repo]

If youre doing it yourself and there is no big play (a little is normal) and the backing plate spins smoothly I would just put them back in with extremely carefully driven seals, a new breather plug and conventional oil. People will say the oil doesnt matter but there was a tsb for some other vehicles that said to use conventional so worth a try. Also someone on yotatech said they used a 2mm shim behind the seal to get a good seal with the new design instead of adjusting the retainer. Mcmaster 3088A478.

The bearing parts cost $300+. I tried 2 machine shops, 2 dealerships, 1 indy shop, 1 offroad shop and nobody wanted to do the bearings. Finally found a driveshaft shop to to it but they made a total pigs arse of it. Apparantly toyota is the only one who likes to air gap the abs rings. They are trying to fix it now but i dont trust they havent heated, bent, gouged, stressed something. Besides that they didnt even press one of the bearings all the way and there was obviously a huge difference between the axles just from looking at it. Not sure if they even bothered with the clip ring.

Either take the whole 4runner to a shop or buy a HF 20 ton press and the durasolid puller and do it yourself.

 

[diverscale]

Also someone on yotatech said they used a 2mm shim behind the seal to get a good seal with the new design instead of adjusting the retainer. Mcmaster 3088A478.

If I could have know this before replacing my seals... Thanks for the input in case they leak again.

 

[mendozer]

That's new information for me. good to know. I was going to go Dr Coffee's route, but if I dont' pull out that flange piece (since I won't do bearing) then I can't reverse it. Good to know about the shim.

I have a race and seal driver set from HF so I'll use that and a seal puller to do the job. I'll just have to be careful pulling the axle out

 

[SLO_Rob]

seals

hey OP...also while you're under there, pull your breather off and make sure it's getting air to pass through. I had gear oil everywhere and it was most likely caused by it being clogged up and the pressure pushing it past the seals. I'll be extending it to a higher location, now that I learned where it is and how easy it is to clog up.

(you may already know this)

 

[mendozer]

I will be replacing the breather plug. I didn't know about relocating it though. It's kind of hard to get to with my spare tire under there so it would be nice to relocate it.

 

[mendozer]

Did my seal today. Didn't notice much or any play with the bearing. I am lucky to have bought two seals because I drove the first in crooked and couldn't take it out well so I just wrecked it ripping it out.

I had the seal puller from HF. It broke at the shank!!! Every place I looked have two tip style seal pullers. Those just won't work for this axle because of how deep it is. So I rented a pivot bearing tool and slide hammer for it. It didn't go wide enough to grab both ends of the seal, but I got one hook on it. After about 15 minutes it hammering here and there (and it slipping off all the time since it's not really meant for that) it was dented enough for me to grab it with my needle nose pliers and twist it more to break the metal. Once broken, I could bend it a bit and it deformed the seal thereby ripping out.

I probably spent 2 hours before I even got to the seal too since everything was rusted or gunked up so tight. I relocated my breather plug, although it was technically fine. I bought the parts so why the hell not.

Right now I can't open the drain plug for my rear diff. I've used breaker bars and a correct 24 mm socket. I ended up rounding some of the corners of the plug off. I'm afraid to keep trying. What now???

 

[Drcoffee]

This thread is hilarious. But I wont go there.

If you have pulled or will pull out the axle, you can flip the retainer without a machine shop. Simply cut off the old retainer with a dremmel cutoff wheel. Dont gouge the axle. Then mark where you want the new retainer to seat on the axle. With a propane plumners torch, heat the new retainer. It will enlarge with heat. Then slip it down the axle into position and let it cool. It will tighten on the axle and you are done.

As for the drain, ya that sucks. But what you can do in a pinch is reverse the tubes on the gear oil hand pump, push the longer tube down to the bottom of the pumpkin and suck out the old gear oil. You will get 95% out which is just fine for this repair.

Sometimes you need to find a work around when servicing older vehicles.

 

[mendozer]

I already did the axle seal and it went fine, albeit slowly. I had no plans to do any retainer cutting or anything.

 

[Drcoffee]

I already did the axle seal and it went fine, albeit slowly. I had no plans to do any retainer cutting or anything.

Great.

Now pop the ABS sensor out and see if its sealed or leaking.

 

[mendozer]

well I need to fill the pumpkin with gear oil first. I'm gonna try using my impact gun to take off the drain plug.

 

[repo]

spray deep creep or whatever on it repeatedly and let it sit over night then try a 18" breaker bar carefully.

 

[mendozer]

yeah it's been sitting overnight with PB blaster. Digesting my breakfast before I head out there in the rain to try again. Unfortunately my Oreilly only had a 12 point socket so that's what I got.

 

[mendozer]

also, if I can't loosen it, I don't wanna mix my new synthetic red line oil with what MIGHT be dino oil in there.

 

[mendozer]

I tried everything I could. That sucker's stuck.

I used my OTC siphon/pump to suck out as much oil as I could and fill it with my new oil. It was messy, but whatever works right?

In the future I'll probably take it to Toyota to let them break it off or something then use a new plug, part 42110E I believe

 

[shahsmerdis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvtkn3WoyM is a great video on how to do it. i really should go check my vent, i have a feeling its gone.