Hello Hivers!
Today we will be tackling a Toyota Hilux 4.0 Liter V6.
Okay so a little back story to the story is that this vehicle originally came in with us for wheel-bearings, or what the lad told us was that he has problems with his rear wheel-bearings and that he feels he has premature failure on them. He mentions that he has done them 3 times each time lasting around 20000 kilometers. We then proceeded to strip the side-shafts and the entire differential down to locate the problem, we couldn't find one except that the bearings was worn because the seals wasn't fitted properly. The previous technician probably used a chipping hammer by the looks of it.
The client then insisted that we strip down the differential and rebuild it, so we gave him a quote that he wasn't satisfied with. Around two weeks went by and he sent us a supposed rebuilt differential which of course he got for a much better price. Happy for him. Yeah... It was a colossal screw up, it was later found that he bought a scrapyard diff and both the side-shafts were badly bent. We sent back the side-shafts to where ever they came from and received new one from the same origin. We assembled the diff and then found out that the ratio was incorrect, he bought the wrong one for the wrong vehicle.
As any one can assume his bill was hefty seeing that we put in so many hours of labour to constantly meet to his needs. Luckily that wasn't my problem to deal with.
Okay so why are we here? Welp it seems that the parts the technician used were he had his diff rebuilt didn't really put in new side-shafts bearings, he simply re-used the old ones.
So here we are re-doing the bearings again.
The task at hand is quite simple and easy to carry out. Removing the side-shafts on this vehicles. Sometimes it can turn into a tricky business to remove side-shafts, however this specific vehicle is very easy and straight forward to work on, suspension wise,
What we want to achieve on this vehicle is removing the side-shafts and replace the wheel-bearings on both shafts. This post will cover how to remove the side-shafts.
Everything Wheel and Brake Related.
This goes without saying, it is always better to loosen the wheel nuts while the vehicle is still standing on all four wheels.
I am only going to show a pictorial display of the left side-shaft removal, the right side-shaft is exactly the same method used so apply what is done on the left side exactly the same way for the right side.
Loosen the wheel nuts while vehicle is lowered.
Proceed to safely lift up the vehicle using a proper jack.
Place jack stands in a safe manor and position as to not obstruct you while working on the differential and surrounding areas.
Once the vehicle is raised you can proceed by removing the wheels on both sides and then release the hand-brake if it is still applied, don't worry it wont go no where the handbrake only works on the rear wheels. Removing the brake drums can either go very easy or need a little convincing done.
- Remove the wheels (Both sides.)
- Release the handbrake if not already released.
- Remove brake drum (It will either pull of with the hand, if not give it a good wack on the side wall with a copper hammer, and lever it off with a crowbar or tire lever.)
(The Copper Hammer and the Tire-lever)
(Brake drum removed and exposing the rear braking system.)
Releasing the Handbrake.
This method obviously only applies to a manual handbrake system.
Locate the handbrake cable. It will usually be a wired cable connected to a arm or lever that acts on the brake shoes when pulled.
Okay I use a big flat screw-driver to hook behind the stopping pin and sort of push it forward and then grab it with pliers and pull it upwards.
If you somehow have the correct tool for this job, use it and please do inform me on what that tools name is and where it can be located.
Remove the two 10mm bolts holding the hand brake cable in place and then simply pull it out of the housing and place it out of your way.
Removing the Rest of the Accessories.
Apologies for the whiteness in the next few photos. I didn't realize it until everything was done.
Remove the sensor.
Its not always needed to but I prefer doing it to clean it up nicely.
Replace the o-ring.
Place somewhere out of your way.
(And am I glad I removed that sensor, just look at how muddy it is.)
Remove the brake line going into the brake piston it's located right beneath the bleeding nipple used to bleed the brake lines.
Usually held in place with a 10mm nut
Get something you are able to spill in because the brake fluid will be dripping the whole time.
Stuff a piece of bubble wrap or something similar down the tube of the brake line to decrease spillage amount. (Somewhat shown in photo two.)
Removing the Side-shaft.
Okay so to those who made it this far, you are almost done! Just a few more nuts and the job is done. Removing those nuts will allow your side-shaft to be simply pulled out of position.
The four 14 nuts have to be unbolted.
Get a pan or bucket you can spill some oil in. (Even if you drained the oil, it always has excessive oil cramped up somewhere.)
After unbolting the nuts gently pull on the side-shafts, if it doesn't budge use a little more force or power it should come out unless something else is wrong.
Let it hang there for a while so that the excessive oil can drain out before removing the whole shaft.
Remove as straight as possible and try not to drag the shaft, you might damage the seal unnecessarily
I can see why he complained again, luckily the previous work wasn't mine to begin with. I am glad I did get a try though, seeing that so many have fitted wheel-bearings on this pickup. Lets see if the ones I fitted actually last longer now.
Last but not Least
Let the oil drain out as much as possible because a oil change is always recommended. (The more you get out the better.)
Clean up any oil spills or brake fluid spills either on the floor or other components of the vehicle. (Leaving your workstation clean after a job was done says a lot about a technician's integrity.)
Clean and store the tools used in their respective places.
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