Urgent Wheel Bearing Help

Hi All,

Am changing a rear wheel bearing and have come across 2 problems i need a bit of help with,

1) Hub carriers off the car, however i have been trying to remove the hub flange so i can get at the bearing. As per an on line manual i have been using a slide hammer with a hub puller but with no sucess. Ive been pulling on it for a couple of hours solid until my arms hurt but it wont budge. Am i missing a trick here, is it siezed up or is there an easy way to pull the flange of?

2) on the back plate there is a 14mm allen key which holds on the handbrake springs. Does this just undo as ive broken a 14mm socket adaptor trying to shift it. It either dosent undo or is siezed. Again is there an easy way to undo this to get the back plate of?

Any suggestions anyone has would be really appreciated as im getting hacked of with it now, and its only a matter if time before i break something or injure myself

Cheers:helpsign:

They are a nightmare, I have a 75 ton press that sometimes gets in a flap on stubborn ones but always wins. Air gun on the big Allen bolt. Press the flange out of the bearings, you need to make a fixture to hold the irregular shaped hub on the press table. To be honest, if you are struggling getting the flange out of the bearings you have no chance getting the bearing outer out of the hub, they can be REAL bar stewards..I have done one for a forum member today, just waiting for a new hub flange from Toyota, I too smell a bit sweaty now

Cheers Chris, i had a feeling they were both just very tight. I have a press, not a beast like yours though so hopefully it'll be up to the job. I'l make an adaptor plate of some sort and try to press it out tomorrow. Dont have air tools at home yet so i'l just have to persevere with the 14mm bolt.

Thanks again

This may sound like a bit of a 'cowboys' trick but when i cant get the bearing outer i take the mig welder to it and use the torch to get it glowing red then tttttttttttt... wat them out

My method was to buy a 2nd hand hub with a known "good" bearing. Only £40 and a lot cheaper/easier than messing about changing the bearing A cop out, yes.

Try and undo the Allen bolt whilst it is still fully constrained on the suspension, if you don't have impact tools available, they really are a PITA.

Bought a proper 14mm hex adapter for a half in drive socket, that combined with a 2 foot breaker bar and she popped of easy. Now just constructing a Heath Robinson support plate to use the press.

Not sure about the welding idea!!!!!! but buying a new hub sounds a lot easier

I just bought two guaranteed old ones to fit, I've put new bearings before and when pressing the hub flange back into the bearin it goes in with no effort atall.. So then back to Toyota to get a new flange.. That's about 220 quid of parts before u fit.. Expensive job.. I paid 160 delivered for guaranteed good ones with 3 month warantee.. Bargain lol

When the flange is out of the bearings clean it in solvent. If there is any wear ridge AT ALL, or sign of fretting or galling on the sleeve that goes within the hub bearing inners, you MUST renew the flange, or it will fail in no time again. Likewise if there is rusty dust where the nut's worked loose and the C/V splines have been "working" inside the hub flange splines, you need a new drive shaft outer C/V joint and a new flange. You may have to buy a new complete shaft, not sure if they still list an outer joint on its own. It will fail again if you don't... No short cuts, or it'll bite you

It's a heavily loaded and only modestly specced part.

Excellent advice Chris, havent done a lot to it today but will check it for sure when its out. Out of curiosity please could you tell me how the flange gets worn and needs replacing. Do the inner bearing shells spin on the flange, i trust what your saying but cant understand how the damage occurs

When the bearing cassette wears the drive shaft nut loses its pre load, and the assembly moves about and frets. This further wear escalates the situation rapidly, and the drive shaft and hub flange splines also start to fret and wear. Very soon the majority of the bits are scrap.

I understand, thank you

Pressed it all out today, pictures attached. It looks fine to me but if you can see any problems Chris, please let me know before i put new bearing in tommorow.

I have noticed another problem which may have resulted in me taking out a perfectly good bearing. The top aluminium suspension arm has loads of play, probably about 5mm and clonks on the 2 bush mountings. There has always been a clonk when accelerating/decelerating and i assume its this. Before stripping this apart and finding it, i thought it was play in the diff or driveshafts but obviously not.

Could this have been the cause of what i thought was wheel bearing noise, where one wheel has been massiveley out of allignment. The noise used to be worse with a wider tyre and almost immediately put a black scuff mark on the outside inch of the tyre.

It could be both reasons as it definately sounded like a bearing, but who knows. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Could be, the arms are one piece units only available from Toyota. Plastic bushes are no substitute for the proper wishbone unit that has spherical bearings. It's these that are worn, and they can't be bought separate from the arm itself.

The wheel flange looks fine.

Excellent, glad the flange is okay. I'l get it put back together again tomorrow. I didn't realise the bushes were plastic though, assumed they'd be rubber. Either way i'l put a new arm on.

Thank you very much for your advice Chris, its been very helpful. If i lived a bit nearer to Shropshire i'd have let you do this, much less hassle for me.

This may sound like a bit of a 'cowboys' trick but when i cant get the bearing outer i take the mig welder to it and use the torch to get it glowing red then tttttttttttt... wat them out

Good trick is this, and has always done the trick for me

I've never had to use oxy/acetylene though. A good run of weld round the inside of the bearing guide has always been sufficient, on various vehicles over the years. Although i'm yet to change a bearing on a MKIV Supe. (touch wood)

Excellent, glad the flange is okay. I'l get it put back together again tomorrow. I didn't realise the bushes were plastic though, assumed they'd be rubber. Either way i'l put a new arm on.

 

Thank you very much for your advice Chris, its been very helpful. If i lived a bit nearer to Shropshire i'd have let you do this, much less hassle for me.

The stock "bushes" are actually spherical bearings in a rubber outer sleeve. There are suppliers who sell plastic bushes to take the place of the spherical bearings, but by the time you remove the bearings and press in the bushes for a job that still keeps the old outer ball joint on the arm, and an inferior inner bearing, you'd be far better to replace the lot with a new OE arm, IMO.

Got it all pressed back together, even cleaned and painted the hub, looks like new again.

Just one last question, i clamped the wheel flange in a vice to hold it to rotate the hub to make sure all smooth, which it is, however if i put upward pressure on any of the ball joint arms i can feel very slight play in the new bearing. I just wanted to know if this is normal and will be taken up by the driveshaft nut. The bearing is definately pressed home, and i even re pressed it this morning just to be sure.

I didn't want to put it back on the car until i know for sure all is well

Cheers

It should be fine once the drive shaft C/V joint nut is torqued up properly.

Ok Chris, thats a relief. Thank you once again, you are a star!