Landcruisers 

 

Checking, maintenance and replacing the front wheelbearings on an rig fitted with diskbrakes and manual 'hubs'.

Here I describe, step by step, how to check, repack and - if necessary - replace the front wheelbearings of my Landcruiser 7-series.

NOTE: As far as I know, Toyota advises to repack the bearings every 50.000km (approx 32.000 miles).

Needed tools:
Wheelwrench
Torquewrench and sockets sizes 10, 12, 17 en 54.
Open/ringspanners sizes 10, 12 en 17
Punch (bronze/brass)
Hammer (mallet)
Screwdriver (old)
Needle-nose pliers
Springscale (range 2 to 7 kg's)

Have handy:
rags/garage-paper
A good quality of bearing grease. (about 1/3 greasegun cartridge per wheel)



Parts:
1. Oil-Seal (Always replace!);
2. Inner bearing Toyota partnr.: 90060-36064(a is innerrace and rollcage, b is outerrace)
example: Timken JLM104948, innerdiameter 50,00 mm and outerrace JLM104910 outerdiameter 82,00 mm;
3. Outer bearing Toyota partnr.: 90080-36067(a is innerrace and rollcage, b is outerrace)
example: Timken LM102949, innerdiameter 45,25 mm and outerrace LM 102910 outerdiameter 73,50 mm, width 15,9 mm.

Watch the difference in dimensions of the bearings. The inner bearing is bigger than the outer bearing. Always replace both bearings in case only one is damaged.
4. Lockwasher Toyota partnr.: 90215-42025(arrow pointing to the notch) always replace;
5. Paper gasket for hub;
6. Paper gasket for selector-dial (not on picture).

Remark:
The rear-axle bearings are identical to those of the front-axle. The oil-seals differ!!
The locking system for the bearingnuts in the rearaxle is different as well.
On the front axle locking is achieved by bending one of the outer tabs of the lockingplate.
On the rear-axles a lockingring is used. That ring in it's turn is secured by a bolt and is re-usable. To torque this lockingring a special tool is needed, but can be fairly easy made yourself.

The job:

Some remarks about safety:
Be carefull to work in a safe manner.
Position good (axle-)supports under axles and chassis and do this on a stable underground (concreet?). I myself have the habit to put the wheels (after having taken them off ;) ) underneath the rig so they act as a safety should something go wrong.
If you're doing this on your own and there's no-one nearby it is an option to have your cellphone with you ( if not yet) or to have your wireless home-phone at hand. In case of an emergency this could be your only means to call for help.


Let's turn to what has to be done:

Unbolt the wheels and take them off.
Remove the brakecalipers.
They are bolted on by two 17mm head bolts. Remove these bolts, pull the calipers from the disk and use a piece of wire or rope to attach them that way that the brakeline is not under unnecessary stress. Put a piece of wood or alike that has a thinckness simular to the brake disk between the brakepads. This way the pistons cannot get pressed out of the caliper should somebody press the brakepedal by accident.
 

Removing the manual locking-hubs.
This is the system that you turn by hand to connect the wheel-hub to the drive shaft. This is done by turning the dial towards the "Lock" position if you intent to use the fourwheel-drive capability of your rig. In general the dial will be set to "Free" when driving on the road.

The selector-dial is fitted by means of six bolts.
Put the dial to the "Free" position, remove the bolts and then the dial.
Depending upon the production date you now have two options. Either there is a circlip or a bolt on the driveshaft inside the hub-housing. Without removing the circlip or bolt it's impossible to remove the housing so remove the circlip or bolt first.
Next remove the six nuts that are used to bolt the housing to the wheelhub.
Underneath each nut you'll find two washers. The first one is an ordinary locking washer. The second one -not very obvious- is a conical washer, hardly visible in most cases because the main part of this washer is inside the housing. If you're lucky (no, if you're very very veeerrrryyyy lucky) you can take them out by using the needle-nose pliers.
But my guess is, no, I'm quite sure, you won't.
These things have the unpleasant habit of being to tight, often it seems as if they're welded in.

So now get the bronze/brass punch and the hammer (mallet)out. (Look at the picture to the right) Put the punch straight on top of one of the studs and hit it with the mallet. Don't be a softy, hit it as hard as you dare. Just once and then the next one. Work your way around and go on untill all the washers have given in. That's at the moment you see a small gap (often hardly visible) between conical washer and hub-body.

TIP: In case you have no luck in loosing the ring(s), try the following:
Get a stone-chisel that is not sharp.
Look for the gap in the conical washer. (As a matter of fact these washers are not fully closed but have a C-shape with a small gap.)
Put the chisel on the outside edge of the washer, as close to the gap as you can. Now hit the chisel with short, ferm hits working around on the edge of the washer. It will get damaged and you'll have to get new ones but if you're lucky you'll get them off.

In my case, one was so stuck that at the end I tried to remove the stud. And the stud snapped. Then I had to drill and clean the treadhole and put a new one in.
If you're unlucky it might take you several hours to remove the selector-housing.

Once the conical washers have been removed the housing can be taken off.
   
Removing the wheel hub.

Here's where you need the 54mm socket.
There are two big adjusting nuts. In between is a lockwasher. The outer nut is locked by one of the tabs of the ring. Remove this locking tab by bending it away from the nut (old screwdriver). Undo the nut and remove the lockwasher. Remove the second nut (the adjusting nut). Next is a claw-washer. Now wiggle a bit with the wheel hub and the inner part of the bearing will pop out.
 
WATCH IT!
In the hole of the claw washer is a tab. This tab fits in the groove of the spindle when fitted. It has to be put in place the right way when assembling!

Pull the hub away from the spindle.

When clear, the oilseal must be removed. This will damage the seal but you should replace it anyway. It's not an expensive part and this way you avoid having to take things apart afterwards because you discovered the oilseal started to leak.
Easiest way is to use a special tool but you can do it as well with a pair of pliers or an (old) screwdriver. Be carfull not to damage the hub, doing this.
Pay attention to the way the seal was fitted. The new one should be fitted the same way.


Preparations before re-assembling.
Clean the spindle, the bearings and the inside of the wheelhub. Remove as much of the dirt and the old grease as you can by using rags or paper towels.
Then by using a brush and a cleaning solvent (white spirit?) remove the last bits. Everything should be sparkling clean. Beware for risk of fire using the cleaning fluid.
If available use compressed air to remove the last particles and to dry. Do not spin the bearings by using compressed air.
It looks like fun but you can damage a previously undamaged bearing, but even worse you can damage yourself.
How? Many people have the inner race like a ring on one of their fingers doing this. Now think of the rollers and outer race spinning at several hundreds (thousands?) of RPM and suddenly jamming, taking the inner race with them....As said....don't try this at home!!!

Check the bearings. Look at the rollers and the surfaces.
Any pitting or discoloration? Replace is my advise. Maybe, depending on the amount of pitting and discoloration, the bearings will be good for several thousands of km's (miles)more, but have had their best time.
My advise? If you have to replace one, also replace the other one.
You can order original Toyota bearings, but if you take your old bearing with you to a shop, specialised in bearings, you can buy the same quality or better for less money. As a crossreference I've put the Timken partnumbers in the shopping list above as well as the dimensions that I took (so there can be a small difference there)

Replacing the races is a bit tricky.
Best way is to use a special puller but if you have a long punch you can hammer out the rings from the opposite side. In two spots there is a little indentation in the hub body that leaves a part of the race uncovered. This is where you put the punch. Do it carefully and take your time as to avoid damaging the hub.

Inserting the new race is not that difficult as long as you watch some basic rules.
Put the new race on top of the opening, the 'fat' part of the ring touching the hub. With a brass or 'plastic' hammer start tapping evenly around on the race so that it sinks in and -very important- : EVENLY.
If you don't do it evenly it will jam and damage will be done. Take your time. Once it's in there so deep you can't reach it anymore use a soft (brass) punch to sit it properly. That has happened when there is no more gap between the 'fat'side of the race and the ridge in the hub.

Re-assembly.
Now we can put the wheelhub back on the spindle.


Make sure to use a good quality bearing grease.
Fill the inside of the hub with grease. Fill it that way that the greasesurface is slightly 'above'the edges of the races. See the drawing at the right hand side.
Press grease in the rollercages of the bearings.
The way I do this is by putting some grease on my handplams and 'massage' it in the bearing until its saturated. It's a bit of a dirty job but necessary.
Put the rollercage and inner race of the inner bearing in place and put the oilseal in (flat side outward. Use the same technique you used to tap in the outer races of the bearings.
Finally put some grease on the lip of the oilseal.

Now put the hub back on the spindle.
Be carefull here. The seal has to slip over and sit on a kind of notch on the spindle. Make sure the hub is centered, then press it on.
Insert the rollcage and innerrace of the outer bearing and then the claw-washer. Mind the notch!
Hold the hub in place and fit the first (adjusting-)nut and tighten it hand tight.

Adjusting the bearing.
Next step is to adjust the bearing.
Torque the adjusting nut with a torquewrench. To do this, set the wrench to a torque of 59 N/m (6,0 kg/m or 43.5 lb/ft). Now turn the hub a few times (2-3 times)left and right. Loosen the nut so you can turn it by hand. Retorque with the same value. Again loosen it until you can turn it by hand.
Now, for the thirdth time torque it, but now set the wrench to a far lower value: 5.4 N/m (0,55 kg/m or 3.9 lb/ft)
So about 1/10th of the previous value!! It will feel as if you are hardly using any force.
Once this is done, hook the springscale to one of the wheelnutstuds and pull untill the hub starts turning. The force needed should be in between 2,8 and 5,7 kg (6.2 and 12.8 lbs). So quite some margin here.

TIP:
You can't get your hands on a usable springscale?
Take a lightweight bucket (approx 5 liters). Tighten a thin rope to one of the studs and the handle of the bucket. Wind the rope around the circumference of the studs by turning the hub so the bucket is suspended in air.
Now pour about 2,5 liters of water in the bucket. The hub should not move yet or only just. Now pour some more water in the bucket, max about 3 liters. The hub should start to turn before you get to a total of 5,8 liters. If so you're within limits. If not restart the adjusting procedure.

Once this is accomplished you can put on the locking washer and second locking nut.
This nut should be torqued at 64 N/m (6,5 kg/m or 47.2 lb/ft). Then check the force needed to turn the hub once more(2,8-5,7 kg).

If all checks well, the locking washer can be bend to lock and secure the locking nut.

Put the lockinghub-housing back on the wheelhub (don't forget the gasket!). Put the conical and flat washers on. Use grease liberally, maybe this will improve the ability to loosen the washers the next time. Torque the nuts 31 N/m (3,1 kg/m or 22.9 lb/ft).
Put the circlip or bolt back in to secure the shaft. Last thing to do is refitting the selectordial and don't forget the gasket here as well. Torque the bolts at 10 N/m (1,0 kg/m or 0.74 lb/ft)

Before putting the wheels back on we have to re-install the brakecalipers.
Slide the caliper over the disk and make sure the pads are nicely in place and screw in the two attaching bolts with 17 mm heads. Torque at 123 N/m (12,3 kg/m or 91 lb/ft).
If you want to, use some Locktite here but it's not necessary.

Once the wheels are back in place you're done.


Last but not least...a word of warning:

Check the brakes before you start driving. The caliper has been removed and there can be too much spacing between pads and disk now they're back on. Work the brakepedal several times to make sure the brakes are okay.
Make sure everything is functioning as it should be.




Disclaimer:
This is a discription of repairworks I did in relation to my own HZJ73. The torque-values mentioned are the values taken from the Toyota repair manual. I do not accept any responsebility in any way for repairs carried out by any person using this article as a lead.

Februari 2009. Ron Reijnders.