Alabama thread!

Penguin goes into a mechanic, says hey my rear end is making this noise, need you to check it out. Mechanic says, no problem, it'll take about 30 min. Make yourself at home. Penguin goes across the street and gets a cup of soft serve, then proceeds to spill it on himself. Goes back to the mechanic. Mechanic says, well, looks like you blew a seal. Penguin says, nope, it's just ice cream.

 

That was great.

 

Noise and vibration could be the front diff needle bearing problem I posted earlier for lifted 4x4 guys. I noticed mine has that problem. The check for it is to put it in 4x when you feel it and if it goes away, you have the problem. For wheel bearings, it should be consistent noise that changes as you change speed.

 

hilarious

 

Well the front left has been disassembled, and as Alex suspected, water has indeed entered the bearing. The grease was milky in some areas, and some had even leaked out(but not much) It looks to me like the inner seal set (meaning the inner bearing seal, and the CV axle seal) failed and allowed the water intrusion.

If you can see in the photos, unlike many jobs I unbolted the spindle assembly from the lower ball joint, rather than unbolting the ball joint and tie rod. This allows me to simplify the work, reducing the number of items unbolted, as well as not disturbing the alignment. I also noticed that a bolt in the lower spindle/ball joint bracket was missing, so I will replace it.









EDIT: I inspected the left rear, and we def have a seal issue there. There is water intrusion into the rear differential. I honestly don't think the seal failed, I believe that the water that was inside has been there for a while due to the rust that I can see. I think that the rust caused the seal to be partially torn/cut allowing the fluid to leak out. enough fluid leaked out to soak the brake shoes(Gonna need new shoes Alex) and the bearing is shot. I am looking at the bearing and axle assy to see if I can remove it with my press. If not then I can still put it back together easily enough without charge, and you can talk to Toyota. I also think that it would be a good idea to consider taking care of the right side as well. Alex, pm me and I will work up the estimate and we will go from there.







If you look at this last picture, Toyota, in my opinion, did a poor job of designing the rear diff vent. I removed it so I could look at a redesign, but all that is there is a nipple that has the vent right there. This would allow even a small amount of time submerged to allow water to get inside the rear diff. I sent the fitting to my parts supplier and he is going to get me an adapter that I want, and we will see what we can do to get a better vent for your truck Alex. I think I can design something much better.

 

One of the first mods I ever did to my truck was the rear diff breather mod. Mine is run up into my bed side above one of the cubby's. Some people run them up to the gas filler area and some run them out into the cubby's.

 

Bill, holy cow man, talk about customer service.

 

wow Bill very detailed work keep up the great work nice write up so far.

 

http://tuscaloosa.craigslist.org/cto/2940715170.html

idk what this guy is smoking with his price but id like a hit haha

 

Gotta be that stuff they grow up at Ole Miss for the medical research.

 

Dang he is proud of that one....If any one is interested I got a 04 for $20,000 also.

 

bill...this is amazing!! its actually nice to even see that starting off you are giving awesome customer service. i really appreciate this!! rep for this! i am sending a pm in few min. i do need to relocate the diff breather and would like it to be where the gas cap place thingy ma-gig is, or if you have a better place for it lemme know. if you can do all the seals and bearings like we planned then thats perfect. if you can only do the front don't sweat it cause coming to you is well worth every penny.

 

I am looking into the plate that I need for the rear assembly. I will let you know.

 

Today just got a little better.

 

seriously guys, you keep quoting the largest picture post evar.

 

Ok... I'll quote a short picture post

Which packs are those? AP?

 

Allpro expedition leafs

 

alright guys, the vehicle hunt has come to an end. It's finally nice to have my own car again.






and of course, the most important thing. Pay close attention to the picture.

 

41.0MPG!!!!

 

Nice, less than 10k miles! And 41MPG! Grats