Proper rear bearing setup???

My Tundra is the shop at this writing, getting the right rear axle bearing removed and replaced. Mechanic thought he "might" be able to unseat the bearing and gear and spacer the old fashioned way (pounding the assembly with considerable force to break them loose) but no luck. Axle assembly to be sent to a machine shop where they have the mother of all presses. This will be used to remove the old bearing and press the new assembly in place. The shop I use has a press, but not nearly tall enough to accommodate the axle. He told me a special jig is out there specifically for Toyota and Nissan axle assemblies but it is too expensive for as often as he has a need for one. All of this process may be old hat to some but it is all new to me. This guy even had the patience for me to take pics as he moved along. Had to get out of the way of the cutting wheel while the sparks were flying but you get the idea. I had never seen this process before. Some pics follow showing the disassembly process until he hit the road block. The truck will be up on a lift through the 4th of July holiday weekend. Hit it fresh on Monday morning. Fortunately, I have another vehicle to drive, a 2001 Miata, same dark green color.

 

Nice post. Thanks. Others had made reference to using an angle grinder or dremmel to cut part way through the ring and retainer, then whacking with a cold chisel to finish the removal. Looks like you have evidence that it works. Only problem is now you have to foot the cost of a new abs ring and retainer. Maybe a worthy trade-off if you don't want to deal with the special puller adapters that have been mentioned previously. Good luck.

 

Couple places I called when mine was done quoted the abs ring since apparently they can break while being pressed off.

 

Not looking forward to finding a shop to do this. May just have the stealer do it.

@Tundra2001 what signs/sounds were you seeing/hearing which lead to your replacement?

 

I had a dealer do mine, cost was within $50 of other mechanics and I figured if they screwed it up it would be easier to get it rectified.

 

Thinking the same thing.

 

I’ll do both sides. Buy twice and cry once.

 

Just do it yourself and screw it up royally the way I did!

 

Yeah. No.

 

I had a shade tree mechanic do both of mine for $450 labor. I bought the parts. Nothing leaked, made noises, or anything else for 30k miles. It making a slight noise now on the driver side, but that may be from me driving through Hurricane Harvey water for a week. Or it could be the $35 bearing KIT which had a super cheap China bearing in it. Either way, it would be my fault. Now this shade tree mechanic also works mainly on Toyota's, and has apparently done many of these rear bearings before, so maybe thats why it turned out ok for me.

 

Mine really only went bad due to the knuckle dragger at the machine shop pressing everything on till it stopped. So now my seals are leaking again. Therefore my shoes are probably bad again. And so on and so on.

 

This driving through deep water is something many don’t realize is very bad for the bearings. The water emulsifies the bearing grease. Deep Water driving and towing/hauling are hard on bearings. Water being the worst.

 

My total bill for just one side (bearing + seal + gear and spacer that were destroyed upon removal + machine shop) came to $510.00. I live in an area of VA that is well removed from the metropolitan areas. Labor rate at the shop I use is $90 per hour. Dealers here are charging $100 - $120 an hour, depending on make. I believe I read another posting in this string that said their passenger side axle bearing had been done twice. No issues with the driver's side yet. This may be due to the fact that it is a non-posi rear end? I know mine is. The sound I heard and had to wait for so it would develop more fully (get louder) was a "wump-wump" noise, definitely from the rear of the truck. It did not sound like it made the noise with each revolution of the wheel the way a flat-spotted tire would but it did increase with speed. I actually heard it better with my foot off the gas and coasting down a hill.

 

This guy's shop is in Bealton if you ever have need of another mechanic. He's posted a couple detailed videos on timing belt change and was generous enough to answer some of my timing belt questions.

https://www.otramm.com/

 

I have learned this the hard way. Although I can't say I regret it because my fiancee and myself saved many families from water (along with many trash bags full of personal items) that was rushing hard enough to sweep you off your feet in sections of water about waist deep high, but not strong enough to push my truck around in 4x4. Luckily also my truck is a work truck and has almost no electronics in it, and vinyl floors. I just put a space heater in it and a small fan in the garage and left the windows down and everything dried up and no smells at all. But we helped a good 30 people. One guy was actually a 80 year old man who was on oxygen on a machine and the power went out and didn't have I guess old school oxygen portable bottles, or maybe he already used it up, but he also said he had stage 4 cancer and can't be without oxygen for more than 30 minutes. They tried to get a ambulance to him, but the water was too deep, and it was slightly too shallow to get boats too. My truck with the lift and modded intake was a perfect inbetween, and we transported him to a nearby hospital. It was actually really exciting. But unfortunately years later has taken a toll on almost every bearing I had. Ive replaced pretty much every suspension, steering part, and bearing on my truck now to the tune of $1,500 in just parts.

 

The invoice from my repair shop lists the bearing "kit" from Toyota @ $229.00. This included the bearing and axle seal, not sure what else was in there, if anything.