Weird scraping noise. Can brakes make this kind of racket?

Oh yeah I’m not concerned about those bolt remnants. I figured if I gave it a shot with large vise grips I’d probably have gotten them out now that the pressure of the bolt head was gone. Anyway, the driveline shop said they’d just do it so I didn’t bother.

Yes, I had to cut off the bolt heads for the two that have exposed threads on top of the lbj. The outside ones with no thread showing to get all rusted up spun out with no issues at all. And I had already at some point touched basically every other interface I interacted with so everything else was torqued to spec and came out with no issue.

 

So... what else can I check on while I'm in here and waiting for the shop to get bearing pressed in? Upper ball joint is getting replaced at the shop while the spindle is out. Lower Ball Joint is in the mail, so those are taken care of.

I think that my CV axle was clicking when making tight turns, but maybe it was the wheel bearing the whole time. Can I do something to check that while it is free that I wouldn't be able to do when it is all buttoned up?

 

Well, that escalated quickly



Because I suspect that the failed bearing may have something to do with a sticky caliper and/or collapsed flex hose, and I ain’t dealing with rusty brake line fittings.

 

Damn, I bet that cost about what @Tundra2 paid for his entire truck

 

Shiiiiit @HAL69000 what are you into just for that one picture?????

 

I'm gonna guess ballpark $1,600-1,700 if that's all Stoptech, on the very conservative side. Most of the kits I looked at were north of $2k.

 

No way! They calipers are just Power Stop 13WL. Bunch of brake lines from Toyota and stainless flex hoses. No more than $500.

If I had $1500 for brakes I'd have just bought a better truck to begin with!

OK but now that I have your attention, riddle me this:

(1) why is it that the generally accepted bleed order for our trucks has you doing the driver's side wheel last, when that wheel goes through the abs block on the passenger side and so seems to be further from the master cylinder by line length? My manual actually doesn't mention anything about wheel order, so maybe this doesn't apply to newer trucks with ABS anyway (independent lines to ABS block).

(2) when I go to swap the lines, I'm fine with just unhooking the brake line going from the abs block to each wheel and making sure that the brake fluid reservoir is filled, right? I'm not going to get air in the abs module unless the reservoir goes dry, yeah? Figured I'd get all the lines roughly in place next to the old ones and hooked up to the new calipers hanging in the wheel wells, then just undo the old line at the ABS block and make sure the brake fluid reservoir stays filled. After that I'd crack one bleeder at a time and gravity bleed. Sound good?

 

You mean the ABS block or the prop valve/LSPV? I was taught the general rule of thumb on any car is to bleed wheel closest to MC and work out to the farthest from MC. Special consideration required to bleed LSPV on these trucks in certain cases, IIRC, but don't ask me what those cases are, I would assume in the event of a complete drain, or significant air into the lines.

Sure, if you want to risk mushy pedal. I've never had luck gravity bleeding modern cars. You ideally should to put air pressure at the reservoir using mityvac or similar, so when you go to bleed the end of your line, fluid is actively pushing into it and won't allow air in. I know guys who've gotten lucky popping the line off and capping immediately, then putting the line back on later, it's no doubt possible, but if you're starting with new calipers and need to flush anyway, may as well just get it done.

Thing is, a mityvac may cost you just as much as a local shop would charge. If you have no intent to work on brakes again, there may be an obvious choice here.

 

Im referring to the abs block on the passenger side of the engine bay, not the proportioning valve.

I don’t trust a gravity bleed alone. Would definitely finish with a helper pumping the brakes. Would replacing the whole run from abs to caliper in one go and just making sure the fluid reservoir doesn’t go empty be sufficient to get to the point where I can do a traditional 2 person bleed though?

Basically I’m paranoid about unhooking the line right at the abs block and somehow getting air in there.

 

Started futzing with the brake lines since the spindle install took all of 15 minutes (+10 minutes for taking the lbj studs out since the shop forgot to and I didn’t have the heart to insist). Was maneuvering the new abs to drivers wheel well line into place when I basically ripped off the old one on accident.



Alright, it’s 10 pm and it’s on baby. All I had at hand to cut with was an angle grinder so I snipped the old lines in 2 places to get the brackets off of them. Then I tightened everything up on the new line except for the connection at the abs module. Proceeded to go around and do that. Fluid started coming out of the module slowly when I loosened the old line—perfect, means it wasn’t sucking air in.

Slapped the new line on the module and opened the bleeder on the caliper. After a few minutes I got liquid in the hose I had attached to it, hell yeah. Closed bleeder, pressurized system, opened bleeder and a ton of air came out. Had it mostly bled by the time my helper arrived to give it the finishing touch.



Back on 4 wheels after a full work week. Feels good man. Brake pedal feels good too.

 

@HAL69000, glad you're up and running again!

I'm almost positive that my son's 06 Dbl Cab (2wd) is also needing the bearing/hub replaced (passenger side). I've been hearing a similar sound coming from it and earlier today finally jacked it up and spun the RT front wheel/tire and confirmed.

I'll remove knuckle and take to a trusted mechanic and have him replace (along with upper ball joint). My questions are: 1. Should I have the hub replaced also or just bearings (truck has 150k miles). 2. Is this another case like the LBJ, where only Toyota OEM parts are recommend? If not, which aftermarket are y'all going with? 3. How many hrs of labor should I expect to be charged for, on average?

I appreciate any and all advice as I've never tackled a bearing issue myself. I have done plenty other repairs to this and other vehicles though, just not bearings/hubs.

 

oem looks to be koyo, which Napa has as Altrom (and likely other places too). That’s what I had pressed in. Altrom dust shields also have “made in japan” stamped on them. Good enough for me!

I did not have to replace the hub. I think you’d need some catastrophic damage to have to do that.

 

Thanks @HAL69000 ! I'll check out Altrom at Napa.