2nd Gen Tundra rear wheel bearing removal

[D60]

For reference, here are the hub assys, wheel seals and retainers I used. The wheel seals say Taiwan and I'm good with that.

The hubs are left and right specific really only because of the ABS sensor location (has to be mirrored). I think if you had to you could swap them and extend the WSS wires. I'd never do this on a customer's truck, but maybe if you found a great deal on the wrong side for your own truck....

 

[Oliveoil2]

My 2nd gen Tacoma had the same style bearing setup. I had a one man shop replace it and when I went to pick it up he told me "don't ever bring this back for the other one"

He broke his one press and the floor of the aftermath was epic. Dude still only charged me the 2 hours labor he initially quoted.

I hope you gave him a good tip! Decency deserves to be rewarded.

 

[D60]

Here are the two retainers I went at with the plasma. I actually think this did a lot because my press (gauge) never registered anything while pressing apart.

In contrast, when pressing together it'd maintain a consistent 5-6 ton reading once the new retainer engaged (wheel bearings are first then the retainer contacts after a bit) until fully seated.

This is the removal tool I have. Just search Amazon, there's a bunch that look identical and probably come from the same factory. I only chose this one specifically because I found it on Warehouse Deals for $85:
https://www.amazon.com/HPDMC-1975-1995-1984-2013-1995-2016-2000-2016/dp/B0BQBTTTRS/

None of this addresses the race that gets left behind and of course I prefer my custom weld-on puller for that. But you can probably cut it with care (most people do)

 

[Marcozi]

Why would a car maker design a hub that's so difficult to service?

 

[D60]

Why would a car maker design a hub that's so difficult to service?

Pretty common for SF rears. Toyota does a few things slightly differently here but the bulk of the job is nothing new.

And yeah, this is where full floaters shine

 

[D60]

Also Doormat ‐‐ er I mean Dorman -- makes a drop-in replacement axle. Personally, I'd run for the hills. No way I'd trust a Dorman-sourced bearing or the metallurgy of the entire axle shaft.

This is like quick struts or aftermarket CV axles: save labor at the expense of part quality

 

[D60]

I did have a weird issue on my test drive. The right rear was rubbing something and it was quite warm when I got back to the shop. Fortunately, it wasn't red smokin' hot (like my wife!) but clearly something was amiss

I eventually found the backing plate had taco'd just a bit and was hitting a lip of the DIH that is not meant to contact anything.

It was only hitting from, say, 8 to 10 o'clock as shown and opposite from 2 to 4. I tapped it back and the problem was resolved (and yeah, you might see where I punched through with a straight blade screwdriver before getting a blunt nose punch!)

I was very easy on this plate during the work and never dropped it or tried to press off it or anything.....but the design here is weird because the plate is kinda flimsy but is plug/tack welded to the actual caliper bracket. You can watch the plate move and wallow as you install the 4 studs that retain the bearing to the axle tube flange.

Furthermore you can see the space here, this allows for dirt or gravel to get in -- even if only during disassembly-- and since you can't separate the plate from the caliper bracket without a plug weld cutter (or grinder if ya wanna get medieval) , you can't take them apart to clean between them. Trying to blow it out mostly just serves to push gravel deeper.

For this reason, I WOULD recommend just getting new backing plates if possible. If quoting the job, just include this in there. Toyota sells a kit specifically for this job that includes the backing plates and now I see why.