Self welding wheel bearing!

[Toycollector47]

I’m new to motorhomes, but not new to Toyotas!

 

I’ve wanted a little Toyota motorhome for years, and am finally in the financial position to get one.

 

After a few months of searching and a couple dead ends, I found this gem 800 miles away In Montana!

 

great shape, all the maintenance records, new tires and all.

 

So I booked a one way flight and went out to pick her up!

 

When I landed though, the owner had her back at the tire shop.  They had over adjusted the brakes, and the drivers drum was smoking!

 

Of course on a Friday afternoon, they wouldn’t even touch it which left me going through the back plate to back off the shoes.

 

No problem!  Got the brakes loosened up and everything stayed nice and cool as I got under way.

 

fast forward about 500 miles and I had to take a nap.  Bed is nice and comfy!

 

wake up after a couple hours and get back underway.

 

Round about half an hour into my new leg of the trip I hear a loud pop! Followed by a metallic ring and a grinding noise and a second pop.

 

When I pull over there’s a little smoke from the drivers drum, and it smells like hot brakes….  I’m guessing the shoe must’ve failed after overheating in Montana, so I call for a tow into Casper Wyoming.

 

on the way into Casper, I ask the driver about possible transport all the way back to Denver, to which he replied that his company would be wicked expensive, but he knows a guy….

 

After a quick phone call I get in touch with the owner of the other company and arrange to get hooked out of Casper and down to Denver on Sunday morning.

 

After an uneventful day parked at the flying J the driver shows up with his SuperDuty Ford and flatbed trailer.

tight fit but it works!

 

End of the story?  Nah, my buddy Murphy had it out for me!

 

About 6 miles outside Casper, “POP!”  His turbo straight out grenades!

 

we get turned around and head back to another truck stop, but get pulled over because he’s absolutely dropping a smoke screen!  After a warning, we get to the truck stop, his wife picks him up and he goes to get his flatbed tow truck.

 

We load up and head out.

 

Fin?

 

nah!  

We stop for a restroom break, and now the tow truck doesn’t want to start!!!!!!!!

 

after about 20 tries it finally catches and the driver is just like, I’m NOT shutting it off from here out!  (Good idea)

 

The rest of the ride was uneventful YAY!

 

Once we got to Denver and went to unload, I noticed a leak from his tow truck, and some wires hanging down and dragging…

 

Turns out the harness for his light bar got caught up in his driveshaft and ripped out, and one of the hydraulic rams for the bed had decided it was time to give up the ghost and was streaming fluid out!

 

Well, we got her unloaded and I drove the last half a block to get her in the driveway.

 

She’s home!  Story over right?  Nah!  Murphy had one more kick to the teeth for me!

 

When she first broke down, two scenarios played out in my head;

1:  The overheated brake shoe cracked during the cooldown and catastrophically failed.

 

2:  A wheel bearing had failed.

 

With a worst case scenario of a wheel bearing causing some sort of irreparable damage to the axle housing…..

 

Remember the title of the post?

 

You guessed it!  That guy right there straight up WELDED itself to the spindle!!!!!

 

After two hours of cutting and hammering and chiseling with an air hammer, I finally conceded defeat and deemed the axle housing a loss.

 

not just that though, nah Murphy couldn’t be that kind….  The hub is toast too.

not getting a seal back in that thing!

 

 

The silver lining? (If there is one).  Yoda Jim’s had a housing and hub!!!!!

 

So, over the next few weeks I will be updating rebuilding this rear end and getting her back on the road!

 

wish me luck! (I’m gonna need it!)

[Toycollector47]

Took the drivers side backing plate off, and got the frame supported on jack-stands so I could unload the suspension and form some kind of plan.

 

Anybody have links to part numbers for the seals and bearings?

 

(edit, I found the thread with links to seals and brake hardware, but no bearing part numbers)

 

The outboard bearing might be reusable, and the junkyard hub has an inboard bearing still in it.   I’d like to have backups though!

Edited October 14, 2023 by Toycollector47

[Toycollector47]

Speaking of junkyard parts, I took advantage of the warmer temperature today to hit the housing with degreaser and pressure wash the squatters out of it!

Mud dauber wasps made themselves at home 

[Toycollector47]

Napa to the rescue with the parts!

 

After pulling the bearings out of the junkyard hub I took the seals and bearings to Napa.

 

Using the part numbers found here for the seals, and referencing the numbers on the bearings, I got the needed parts!

 

Then it’s back to cleaning up the Junkyard housing.

 

No way to tell how long this thing was in storage, and no clue why they wrapped the spindles in plastic tape rather than grease for storage….  Even tho it was in a container and out of direct weather, this is a sad state of affairs.

 

this is the left side and the worse of the two before wire brushing…

 

and after!

 

(edit)

 

lastly, aside from the first post I never took a decent picture of the overall axle housing condition.  (You can see how dirty/greasy it was in the wasp pics)

 

Suffice to say, I’ve improved on that aesthetic.

Edited October 15, 2023 by Toycollector47

[WME]

Well the good news is that the bearings have inner races so the axle is good to go. The bad news is you have a lot of polishing to do the axle so the seals will live. MAYBE there is a suitable Speedie-Sleve.

[Toycollector47]

1 hour ago, WME said:

Well the good news is that the bearings have inner races so the axle is good to go. The bad news is you have a lot of polishing to do the axle so the seals will live. MAYBE there is a suitable Speedie-Sleve.

Yeah, that’s one of my concerns.

 

the seal races cleaned up fairly well, and I plan on polishing them with Emory cloth before final assembly.

 

Regardless, knowing now that this axle is set up with packed wheel bearings instead of fluid lubed bearings, I will be keeping a close eye on them!

Edited October 15, 2023 by Toycollector47
I can talk the englush, jus not gud.

[IdahoDoug]

Great story!  Sounds like you two will get along just fine with a trip home like that.  I've had a few similar trips to get collector cars end with me limping in the driveway at 2am with baling wire and duct tape holding things together.  Those stories all seem to end well, you know?

 

Thanks for the p/n's!  I have located an axle and will go through it before dealing with the fit issues of different spring spacing.  I have a question - what axle do you have on the RV now? It's on the plate underhood on right inner fender.  And what axle did you acquire?  Not sure it that will have a tag or stamped info...

[Toycollector47]

I’ve looked, apparently I’m blind because I don’t see a plate anywhere under the hood, inner fenders, firewall, frame rails, nothing!

 

 

Like I said in my opening post, “New to RV’s”

[Toycollector47]

And I get the feeling she loves me!

 

just testing my devotion…..

[IdahoDoug]

Hmm.  Not sure what year they switched to stickers, but you are looking for a dull aluminum rectangular plate about 2"X 3" riveted onto the vertical surface of the right inner fender. Its visible from the engine bay and usually just a few inches below the hood seal.  Perhaps with late 80s models they switched to the firewall behind the engine?

[fred heath]

11 hours ago, Toycollector47 said:

Regardless, knowing now that this axle is set up with packed wheel bearings instead of fluid lubed bearings, I will be keeping a close eye on them!

I was also surprised by the packed wheel bearings. Most every ff axle I’ve worked on uses the “splash” method for lubrication.

 

You can look upon it as a learning adventure. 😮

[linda s]

The only thing you're going to find out from your plate is your gear ratio. There's only one full floater and it has an 8" gear, the V6's are 4 pinion and because yours is an automatic it has a 4.10 gear ratio. Only other gear it was made with was a 4.30 but only on V6 with a 5 speed manual tranny. It's common to upgrade the diff to better handle the weight and on the v6 the preferred gearing would be 4.56. Common in 4x4 trucks and 4runners if you wanted to look. Your doing an amazing job.

Linda S

[Toycollector47]

Pulled the right side hub apart today. 

 

Turns out the seal had failed allowing gear lube into the bearings…. 

not convinced that was a bad thing though, as I’m starting to think whoever actually replaced the brakes back in 21 didn’t pack the bearings correctly.

 

 

Super pretty new brakes tho!

 

[Toycollector47]

Once I had that hub apart I dug my sand blaster out and proceeded to make a complete train wreck of my driveway!

before pic of the right side hub

 

after pic of the junkyard hub 

 

 

 

From here they’ll both get a super deep degreasing and cleaning then a fresh coat of epoxy paint.

[Toycollector47]

16 hours ago, linda s said:

The only thing you're going to find out from your plate is your gear ratio. There's only one full floater and it has an 8" gear, the V6's are 4 pinion and because yours is an automatic it has a 4.10 gear ratio. Only other gear it was made with was a 4.30 but only on V6 with a 5 speed manual tranny. It's common to upgrade the diff to better handle the weight and on the v6 the preferred gearing would be 4.56. Common in 4x4 trucks and 4runners if you wanted to look. Your doing an amazing job.

Linda S

Thanks Linda!

 

I have a set of 5.71 gears sitting in my toolbox…. Would be great if it was a 4x4 on 38” tires!

 

My 87 4Runner will be getting a high pinion front 3rd member in the next year or so,… however the lowest gears available for that are 5.29…. So my spare gears will likely go unused.

 

[Toycollector47]

Aaaannnd, the old housing is out!

 

That’s enough for a Wednesday morning! (Afternoon for the rest of the world)

 

found a couple surprises along the way, but those will be in a future post,…. Time for a shower and make something to take for lunch!

[Scott iv]

Cool to see this process in images. Many have done this, but I don't recall anyone documenting in photos. 

[Toycollector47]

Thanks!  
 

Figured I’d put it out there so everyone could have a good laugh at my expense, stop me before I completely foul it up, or maybe learn a thing or three?

 

Anyway,  as far as pulling the old housing out, i simply unbolted everything in the simplest way possible. 
 

Took the backing plates off, unbolted the whole hard brake line assembly as one piece and bungied it up to the frame.  Shocks are still attached to the U bolt plates, I’d have left the sway bar attached to the frame if it wasn’t just in the way,….

 

those shortcuts won’t save time in the long run, but will allow me to better remember how things should go back together!

 

While I was doing all that tho, I noticed a couple things;

 

1:  someone bolted the proportioning valve bracket to just the top hole and welded it so it wouldn’t wobble!

Anyone have any idea why they’d do this?

 

2:  torch cut marks under the airbag mounts where they cut these brackets off for fitment.

 

guess I should’ve held off on the paint since I need to grind them off!

[WME]

There is a very long post about the brake bias valve. 

Basic thing is because its supposed to be a pickup truck and its now sitting level, so the bias valve thinks that the pickup is empty and sends most of the breaking force to the front brakes.

The higher the arm is the more brake is shifted to the rear. A lot of people just unbolt it from the bracket on the axle and bolt/bailing wire the arm to the house floor.

[Toycollector47]

Copy that… something I can deal with once she’s back under her own weight.

 

 

 

I’ve been jokingly telling my friends and coworkers that I’m lucky she didn’t burn down because they don’t understand the attraction to these little motorhomes.

 

The truth really showed itself tonight as I cleaned up the backing plates and took a close look at the brake hardware!

 

As soon as I pulled the hub I found this..

 

It takes temperatures of 1600-2000*f to forge weld steel like that!  So those bearings got warm to say the least!

 

The lack of fire had me thinking the heat was very confined, likely to just the bearing as it failed.

 

The rubber dust seals on the left wheel cylinder were the first thing that caught my eye tonight, one was partially melted and distorted!

 

Then I ran the backing plates through the parts washer.

 

The right one cleaned up nicely!

 

A huge amount of paint was blistered and pealed right off of the left plate though!

 

I truly am lucky it did not catch fire!!!!

 

 

 

I wasn’t planning on sandblasting the backing plates, just a scuff and fresh paint….  But that left one needs some extra love!

[Toycollector47]

Didn’t get much accomplished today beyond sandblasting that left backing plate and getting it refinished.

 

I did get the extra brackets ground off the new housing,

 

After touching up the paint, almost can’t tell they were there anymore!

[extech]

you should remove the paint from the pads the shoes sit on and be sure to lube them with brake lube

[Toycollector47]

45 minutes ago, extech said:

you should remove the paint from the pads the shoes sit on and be sure to lube them with brake lube

Absolutely!

 

Whoever did the brakes last time actually GLUED the shoes down with red RTV silicone!?!???

 

I should’ve take some pics, I was absolutely blown away.

 

I spent the last few hours of tonight wet sanding the seal races on the housing with 600 grit to polish them up some for final assembly.

 

Honestly, they look good to go, though a bit on the shaky side…..  definitely gonna keep a close eye on them for the first few hundred/thousand miles!

 

Thats pretty much the worst of the pitting, and there’s absolutely nothing I can even catch a fingernail on.

 

Hopefully the seals will survive! 🤞

[WME]

A quick glance at the Speedi Sleve book shows they have sleves for inner and outer seals, bad news is they are $40-60 ea 

Edited October 23, 2023 by WME

[Toycollector47]

1 minute ago, WME said:

A quick glance at the Speedi Sleve book shows they have sleves for inner and outer seals, bad news is they are $40-60 ea 

And not available…. At least to the Napa catalog.

 

 I’m about 2k into this swap, and still slightly under my overall budget for the rig…

not gonna sweat $400 for peace of mind!

 

Got links?

[Toycollector47]

Speedy sleeve or not, I’m going with the seal races being in better shape than the ones that came out of the truck and weren’t leaking….

 

So, I’ve moved forward to a major milestone in this process….

 

Installing the new housing.

 

im gonna wish I had a creeper before this is over for sure!

Edited October 23, 2023 by Toycollector47

[WME]

Well if it works, great, if not you can return to the stone age,, a couple wraps of wetndry, a couple turns of a leather boot lace and a stick to make a bow. Pretend like you're trying to start a fire.🤪

Learned this at a machine shop in the back country jungles in the Philippines

[Toycollector47]

1 hour ago, WME said:

Well if it works, great, if not you can return to the stone age,, a couple wraps of wetndry, a couple turns of a leather boot lace and a stick to make a bow. Pretend like you're trying to start a fire.🤪

Learned this at a machine shop in the back country jungles in the Philippines

Surprisingly I think I understand what you’re saying there! 👍

 

Did you find a link for the sleeves?

[Toycollector47]

 

Weight back on the axle!

[WME]

8 hours ago, Toycollector47 said:

Surprisingly I think I understand what you’re saying there! 👍

 

Did you find a link for the sleeves?

I really didn't look for availability, just that they were in the catalog.

Outer 99-138

Inner 99-243

I THINK that's the right ones

[IdahoDoug]

I've had great luck with non leather shoe laces, fine sandpaper, and WD40.  The lubricant properties (it's NOT a lubricant...) seem to keep the paper clean and the bits in a suspension that results in a finer polish.  A great trick to be sure.  I used it a year ago to polish the crank on a Supra engine I rebuilt, and I got terrific oil pressure when I assembled it.  Just be sure your new bearings have a nice fit onto the housing so they won't spin or rock.  If you think it might, I'd be tempted to use that bearing epoxy that secures the race on a damaged situation from prior race spinning.  Forget who makes it, but it can be later released with torch heat, so you don't trash the component - even if you live long enough to put enough miles on this to wear out a set of HiCap bearings.  My original HiCap Toyota bearings on my LandCruiser (full floater rear) are still going strong at 256k with regular repacks.

[Toycollector47]

4 hours ago, WME said:

I really didn't look for availability, just that they were in the catalog.

Outer 99-138

Inner 99-243

I THINK that's the right ones

Yep, that’s the number Napa looked up, they didn’t have any in the whole nation.

[linda s]

Parts at Amazon

Outer Amazon.com: SKF 99138 Speedi-Sleeves : Automotive

Can't find the inner anywhere

Linda S

[WME]

From the other guys

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234605990645?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338590836&toolid=10044&customid=ded8051a21ab108274be602d15b9bb52

[Toycollector47]

So I used my old bearing races and a drift to seat the new bearing races into the hubs.

 

Got the backing plates and brakes reinstalled

 

When I pulled the old housing I left the 3rd member in so that I could sandblast and paint it without getting grit into the bearings and gears.

 

Of course, now that I’m going back together, it needed to come out of the old housing…..

 

I’m not sure what they used to glue that gasket,.. but yikes that was the hardest fight I’ve ever had trying to get one out of a Toyota axle!

 

I still won.

 

Frankly, I plan on just using RTV to reseal the 3rd member, it’s always worked on my 4x4s so why not here?

 

Anyway, there’s my update for now, thanks for looking!