Is this bad rear wheel bearings?

This is on the rear axle of my 1998 tacoma 4wd 5 speed

this is the truck/axle jacked up and i am pushing and pulling perpendicular to the wheel (in and out along the axle housing). i don't think there should be any play like this, my truck has had a rear end clunk while accelerating from stopped, or accelerating right after up-shifting gears - this may be the cause?

i originally thought the clunk was from the rear slip yoke needing grease, or possibly worn brake shoes catching in the drums? my rear drum brakes and possibly e-brake bell cranks may need servicing but that shouldn't be causing this??

there are no vibrations or growling noises while driving at any speeds. also, no gear oil leaks have been observed.

 

Hard to tell from the vid but it sounds pretty nasty.
Toyota allows a max .7mm or .028" of "in and out" movement. Typical for that size single row, non angular contact ball bearing.

 

Thats a nasty noise. Id pull the axle either way and inspect. Only takes a few mins to undo brake line and remove 4 nuts.

Worst part is having to re bleed the line is all.

 

I took another video of spinning the wheel, you can also barely hear the brake shoe dragging and the rough sound of the bearing spinning. Doesn't sound very good at all



If I take the axle out is there a chance that the bearing might completely fall apart? Also what are the chances of the bearing damaging the axle surface or any other parts that might need to be replaced other than bearings + oil seals?

I am worried to take it apart if there's a chance I might not be able to get it back together if I have to drive it to get it to a shop to have bearings pressed instead of mucking around with a hammer and block of wood, unless these ones are really easy to do?

I will be honest in that I've done wheel bearings on older Volkswagens before but never in a solid axle like this so a little unsure of how involved it is. Going to be looking up some parts diagrams and diys to try and learn

 

That vid sounds worse, definitely can here the bearing. Time to gather the family and make arrangements.

It's a pretty straight forward job. The bearing has to be really far gone to "fall apart" and you would know/see that with out any question.

If you have ABS or the TRD e-locker it is a little more involved than the standard rear. Same process just a few more parts and some very critical reassembly steps.

There should not be any collateral damage from a bearing that has not completely failed.
There is a shade tree method of slamming the shaft down on a piece of plywood and letting the weight of the brake backing plate/bearing case drive the bearing off. It's risky and frequently does not work or damages the shaft or both. This job is best done with a press and requires a press fixture to get the bearing off. There are as many home fabbed types of these fixtures as stars in the sky. The shaft should be spun between centers (lathe, drill press or improvised) and checked for run out. Many folks skip this and just chance it.
There are a good bunch of write ups on the process in this section of the forum and other forums. If your research doesn't pan out let us know. If you have ABS/e-locker most definitely get back to us and do not have the work done by any shop that does not have an intimate working understanding of the specifics to that type.

My home fab press fixture.

 

Thanks Dirty Pool, I was afraid of that. What amazes me is that while driving at any speeds, including highway speed 110+ km/hr, there are no vibes or noises at all. just a nasty clunk/thud/bang that varies in severity when taking off from stopped or when letting the clutch out after upshifting. not sure if that's typical or not for these rear ends

Thankfully, I do not have ABS or e-locker, just your regular standard axle so it should be the most simple case. I found this writeup on 4x4 wire that seems to describe everything pretty well: http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/rear_axle/wheel_bearing/

The bang-on-the-ground method sounds really tempting but I'm not interested in damaging anything. It's my last year in university and have no job lined up yet so money's a factor here. I am considering taking everything apart myself then bring the axle/backing plate assembly to a shop to have them press the bearings. If i brought the whole truck in to a shop, it would probably only take an hour or two to have them to do the whole job, but i know i'm capable of doing the work myself (aside from press and SST access), kind of a tough time of year with holiday hours and everything too...

Just to clarify that I've got the process right:
1) remove backing plate and axle assembly from the housing (disconnect brakes and 4 bolts)
2) remove clip and bearing retainer
3) press axle shaft down through the backing plate
4) hammer/press bearing out of the backing plate
5) pop outer seal out
6) replace everything in reverse order

I will also be replacing the inner axle oil seal and most likely full drum/e-brake service at the same time

 

Has that axle been off recently?
A real long-shot, but maybe the 4 backing-plate nuts weren't torqued properly.

 

I haven't had to do anything to the rear axle other than brake and fluid maintenance in the entire time I've owned this truck (over 3 years) - so backing plates and axles have never been removed by me before

The truck has 255k kms on it now, has had 33's a long time and the rear end occasionally gets dunked in mud+water, I don't know the average lifespans of these bearings but i guess it doesn't seem too unusual for them to fail around this point?

I talked to a shop I've gone to before and looks like I'm going to take the axle/backing plates out and bring them to this shop to have new bearings pressed then reassemble the rest myself to save some money

 

In a nutshell yes. Hit "expand" below for more.

 

Great, thank you for the info and for the heads up! you are right everything is nice and rusty.

I'm soaking the brake line fittings and backing plate nuts in PB blaster all day and will take a crack at it tonight. I will have to put some thought into what to do if the fittings are seized and also figure out a good way to plug the lines once they're disconnected. It'll probably take a day or two to get the axles to and from the shop and I don't want all of the fluid to drip out and let air in the system.

 

They make plugs that won't melt in brake fluid. In the past I have made plugs from wood and "slip over" caps from scraps of basic clear vinyl tubing with one end folded over then clamped. Vinyl seems to resist brake fluid pretty well.

 

I might run to the parts store and pick up some vacuum line plugs to try, or some vinyl tubing with one end clamped sounds like a good idea. I typically use that clear vinyl tubing when bleeding the front brakes so i might have some laying around already.

I thought about it now and am most likely going to put this off for a week or two since things are really busy this week and the shop closes this Friday until Jan 2. going to order some brake parts as well, take my time and get it all working nicely the first time.

I'll post the progress and results here afterwards to update the thread, thanks again for your help

 

update:

-removed everything without any problems, ie no brake lines seized solid from rust
-plugged disc. brake lines with fingers cut off from vinyl gloves and rubber bands. worked fine enough but capped flared fittings would be much better
-brought in axles to a shop and had new bearings pressed in
-deglazed shoes and drums, i didnt have any gear oil in the drums but the was the first servicing they had seen in a couple years
-new rear wheel cylinders on both sides
-tapped in the new axle seals very carefully with a block of wood, no leaks 1.5 months still after doing this job thank goodness
-adjusted the shoes manually using a screwdriver to get them very close
-bled the whole brake system, had some tricky air bubbles that got stuck at rear prop valve after the lines were disconnected over 24hrs
-did final shoe adjustment while driving in reverse/forward with e-brake lightly engaged and tapping the brake while moving
-greased the slip yoke and rest of my driveshaft

so far seems to work pretty good and no more loud clunks/banging while driving lately

 

Good job.

FWIW there is no need to back up or move the truck at all to adjust the rear brakes (won't do anything), assuming the parking brake mechanism and the self adjusters are working. On 1st gens the e brake is the sole thing that "self adjusts" the shoes. Simply toggling the e brake levers back and forth at the backing plate will do the job. And pretty fast too.

 

Thanks! And alright that makes sense, I had read something like the "rocking motion" of hitting the brakes while in reverse was needed, but from fiddling around with it under the truck seemed like toggling the bell cranks was enough to accomplish the same thing, good to know! My ebrake is tight and responsive again which is a very nice feeling.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond to questions and help out, I appreciate it and that's one more job I've learned to do now!