Rear Axle Bearings ~ Nobody has a press to handle them

I am currently waiting to have the rear axle bearings replaced on my 2008 Tacoma. It has 214,000 miles on it so I am not upset that the bearing went. The truck has done me well. What I am pissed about is the following:

I live in the Great Cleveland area. Every shop around hear, including the dealership sends their axles out to a machine shop for having the bearings pulled and new ones pressed on. My truck is soon to be finished with almost a 3 WEEK WAIT !!! My mechanic said the shop everyone sends their axles to is backed up 2 weeks. He said (after calling around for nearly 2 weeks) he did find another one that could do it. Apparently, the local shops that my mechanic did rely on in the past all quit doing it or closed down.

Now, I am not that mechanically inclined to work on rear wheel bearings nor do I have any interest. Especially, since this will hopefully be the one and only time rear wheel bearings will ever have to be replaced on this truck.

But, it begs the question. Why in the hell do the local mechanics not have the press to handle these axles? Is there hardly a demand for it? Shit, my mechanic said he did have a press, but it was not long enough. I believe he said the one he had was 2 inches too short. Obviously, he must have felt that there is not nearly enough of a demand to spend the money to buy a longer press. However, after my countless calls to him over the course of my 2 1/2 weeks of waiting, my stress has caused him to go out and buy a press to handle the longer axles in the future. He then proceeded to tell me that he KNOWS the jeeps that he has worked on the past had the longer axles as well. Apparently, the machine shops around here quit doing it and now this type of job has the very few shops further away backed up in this area.

Is the greater Cleveland area the only place around where getting rear axle bearings pulled and new one pressed on a big stinking issue? My god, I looked up a press for Tacoma axles on ebay and saw one for $395. So what my mechanic is telling me, is that he as well as everyone around here never bought a press to handle longer axles because of $hundreds of dollars, not $thousands. I don't get it. Could someone please explain this to me.

 

Buy the press and start doing axle bearings on the side. Sounds like you’d have plenty of work to line your pockets.

 

we do them a work and there a real pain, you need the bazooka tube tool to get them off, once that's done going back together isn't to bad, just got to make REAL sure you don't push the ABS wheel on to far, poor design for sure

 

Here's a video that shows what all is involved with replacing Toyota axle bearings. It may not be exactly like a 2nd gen Taco, but I'm sure it's very similar. I don't like some of the things this guy does, but he's got it mostly right. The biggest issue is that you need the special Toyota only tube tool. You either have to buy one or make your own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVhSDnw2ugo

 

I can't believe there isn't a shop in your area that specializes in Toyota's that doesn't have a standard 20 ton or greater shop press and the specific $400 dollar tool or one they made up on their own. Especially with the long running issues with the Toyota 8" rear axle seal design that guarantees rear wheel bearings will eventually be washed of grease and then fail with predictable frequency.

When I changed mine on my first gen (with ABS), I was able to remove the bearing by bashing the axles on a 4x6 chunk of wood. I wore heavy leather gloves to protect my hands. The ABS rings I think I tapped off with a flat head, and the retaining rings I carefully cut and split with a cut-off wheel per the FSM instructions. Both sides done in a long afternoon and that was my first time.

 

We have plenty of axle and driveline shops in Houston. Is it possible for you to remove the axles and send them off out of state? I’ve sent dirtbike cylinders out to machine shops out of state for nikasil.

 

I agree on the lack of shop presses around here. I was told that even the local Toyota Dealer sends the axles out to a machine shop. GTBFKM Well, no sense looking now to having the axles shipped out, my truck is supposed to be done by tomorrow. The 3 week wait is finally over.

I hope you are wrong about the wheel bearings being of a poor design. Shit, your probably right. Naturally, I am having both replaced at the same time. If I can get another 100K miles out of this truck without another rear bearing failure I should be in a new one by then.

 

It's not the the wheel bearings that are of poor design, but it's the axle seals behind them. They can be tricky to install perfectly, and then when gear oil leaks out, it goes through the wheel bearing first. This removes the grease in the bearing and leads to failure of the bearing.

It's shitty because once you notice you have a leaking rear axle seal it's also a cue that you should probably change your rear wheel bearings too. The worst thing is that if you don't get the new seals installed perfect you won't know until they start leaking through your new wheel bearings, and you get to do it all over again.

 

There are certain years of jeeps that have that same design. Pain in the balls to do properly. I’ve actually considered having a spare rear end around for when mine take a shit so I can swap it out in a couple of hours and taking my time rebuilding the original one.

 

smelly, you ain't putting a smile on my face. Can't believe Toyota would continue with a poor design. With all the other replies about how difficult it is with doing this type of job, I'm beginning to wonder that maybe the reason every mechanic around here sends the job out for a machine shop to tackle, is because they don't want to be responsible for f???ing up the job.

Sheesh, well let me ask you this. Let's assume the seals are not installed perfectly. How many miles are we talking about before the leaking gear oil would be noticed and the bearing have to be replaced again? There's probably no way to predict that, I suppose. Thought I would ask any way.

BTW, thank-you and all for explaining to me the difficulty in this type of work. Seems like this is one area that the Toyota engineers need to put their heads together and figure out a way to improve the design of the seals or what ever it takes.

 

If the axle seals aren't installed correctly they will leak through the rear wheel bearings again within a few thousand miles in my experience. However, I could see them leaking faster or slower depending on how bad/good the install was.

Sending it out may be part of the problem. The machine shop is just removing and installing the bearing, the retainer rings, and the abs tone wheels. The mechanics meanwhile are installing the seals. The tricky part is making sure the retainer ring on the axle shaft is located correctly to have the right contact with the sealing surface when the axle shaft/drum plate is bolted up to the axle tube. There is a spec for the location in the FSM, but it can be difficult to measure correctly there is not much margin for error. Slight variance in the installation of the axle seals by the mechanics causes a stack-up tolerance issue, where even if the machine shop installs the retaining ring within "spec", it may still ride too close or too far away from the axle seal.

The correct way to confirm proper engagement requires installing the axle shaft and new seal with some grease on the sealing surface, spinning the wheel, and then removal and inspection to see if you're getting proper contact.

See this post for an explanation:

Toyota has changed the seal over the years in an attempt to improve this. Seems like most axles don't leak for quite a long time now when installed at the factory. It's subsequent repairs that are hit or miss due to people not adequately understanding the importance of proper location of the retainer rings.