Hi there Hivers and Mechs!

In my previous post I covered how to remove the side-shafts of a Toyota pickup. This will be a continuation post on The Tearing Bearing Conundrum

What I will cover in this post is how to properly and safely strip down the side-shaft in order to replace the wheel-bearings and seals.

Take note that you do need some fancy equipment, don't attempt this in the backyard. You might end up causing more damage to the shaft than it had to begin with. Using a grinder on any part that you want to remove is definitely a big no.

Okay so getting into it is something else, each shaft make and model differs from the other so the technique used might vary from vehicle to vehicle this is specific to the Toyota 4.0 liters V6 2x4.

Removing the Pickup and First Collar.

Before we can press anything out we need to remove the first collar on the shaft as well as the pickup collar for the wheel speed sensor. This needs removal in order to un-clip the cir-clip holding the last collar in place and ultimately the bearing as well.

So for the removal of the first collars you might need some special stuff, well not special you might just need some intuitive thinking. What we use is an old repurposed standing drill, lets just say we don't drill with it anymore.
We use an old gearbox bellhousing to roughly get the distance and placing right with the shaft and then we can adjust the top par of the drill and lock it into place.
By turning the machine on and off, hmm how can I explain this. So it has a green button and red button (Green starts and red stops, Naturally) Gently tapping the green button turns the machine on for a second or two and then stops but repeatedly doing this we can get the side shaft spinning but also control how fast its spinning. The speed factor comes in later.

• Identify the collar and the pickup collar.

• Get a proper flame or heating tool. Preferably something that heats up very fast and in a concentrated place.(I will be using acetylene and oxygen.)

• Have a method or plan available as to how you will be heating the surface up evenly. Etc the standing drill that we repurposed, it shouldn't be hard I can think of a few ways just by typing this. (Spinning it is a preference for me because then you minimize the chance of actually burning the metal creating hot spots or just preventing the metal from binding.)

• As the drill is spinning I simply hold the flame against the sidewall of the collars. I roughly waited no longer than 60 to 80 seconds for each shaft, if the flame and heat settings are right it should go very fast.

(Acetylene and oxygen)

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Don't spin the side-shaft too fast because when you are busy heating it up the grease in the bearing also heats up more than it usually does and this makes the grease into a liquid which starts to drip out and then splatter everywhere.

Notice the grease stains on the walls just below the brake shoes.

Also avoid looking directly at the place you're heating up keep sort of an angle to avoid grease from getting into your eyes.

Our re-purposed standing drill

Once heated up the collars should fall down one at a time exposing the last collar and its cir-clip.

If in fact the collars don't come loose let the shafts cool down, the most common problem would be that the shaft heated up too quick before the collars could expand and then the two metals would be pressing into each other rather than releasing from one another. Let the shafts cool down properly and try again with a much higher temperature in a more focused area.

Removing the Cir-clip to Release the Second Collar.

This is fairly easy, probably the easiest part except for the pliers slipping the whole time there's nothing tricky about this. Again removing a cir-clip is all technique😉 I really cant give much of a explanation to it.

(It was a tricky little bugger but he is off.)

Fitting the Pressing Tool and Preparing the Press

We have a custom tool that we slapped together. By using some of the old casings we have. By cutting off the flange of one of the old differential housings and welding a strong thick pipe to it we can use this to press the last collar off the shaft.

Yes the welding isn't the best but at-least it hasn't broken yet.

• Fit it over the side-shaft and bolt it into place where the side-shaft would normally be bolted onto.

• VERY IMPORTANT Use the same nuts as the ones fitted on the vehicle itself. (For some weird reason any other nut wont work, the thread simply tears right out.) I think the original nuts are stronger or more tempered hence the reason they hold up. (Remember that you will be pressing close to 20 tons and sometimes even 30 tons.)

• Tighten the bolts extremely well.

• Place in a press similar to this.

• Key factor is safety above all else you will be working with a lot of force now if something goes sideways and breaks off it will most certainly be projected with speed. Wear proper clothing and most of all WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES

• Bring to pressure. (Where you can feel you need to put some back into the pumps.)

• Once pressure is gained slowly press until everything releases, at first you might think something is wrong because it feels like you are building pressure up and nothing is moving yet. Keep at it.

• When the shaft moves, and trust me you will know it moves. It has somewhat of a creaking sound almost as if something metal-ish broke, this means that the collar moved and when pressing the shaft you will notice that it keeps on moving now. It only needs a little budge, wellllp a little BIG budge.

I use a old discarded seat to give the falling parts a nice little cushioning , I think I'm the only one in the workshop that actually uses it.

Finishing up.

Once the shaft is removed from the backing plate and the bearing you can proceed by removing the bearing from the backing plate.

This is fairly easy and can be removed with the hands, if not give it a little tap with a hammer from the opposite side that it needs to be removed from.

I tend to keep my parts in the order that they came off, this makes assembly easier and also makes it easier to remember for a less skilled person attempting this. (Keep in mind that everything leaves a little mark, sort of like a watermark but more of an oil mark so you can re-puzzle it as such.)

Just me snapping a photo of the order in which everything was removed. It might come in handy.

Cleaning the Parts.

Clean all of the parts removed and all of the parts used thoroughly with paraffin or any other de-greaser.

• When washing anything that's made up of rubber or silicone etc. a seal or o-ring rinse off properly with water directly after washing and dry off with pressurized air.

• If the brake shoes are still on the backing plates. A word of advice is to not get any paraffin onto the brake shoes, not even a little bit.

After you cleaned everything up nicely, rearrange your table. Clean up and sort your tools as well as the parts used. This only makes the next phase of the job much easier than working on a greasy and dirty messed up confusing table where you have to search for everything.

Stay tuned for the next article/post covering how to reinstall bearings to the side-shafts.

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