SFA Rear Wheel Bearing and Seal Replacement

[dax021]

Ok, so after driving for more than 10K Km's with a noisy rear bearing, it eventually decided enough is enough and started leaking diff oil all over the place. I couldn't put the job off any longer, so read the manuals, did some internet research, and decided not so difficult a job that I couldn't tackle myself.

Followed the manual and started unbolting. Pulled the halfshaft out, so far easy peasy. I would be surprised if I had any brakes on that wheel at all, judging by the amount of gunk that had accumulated. Unfortunately, I did not take photo's as my arms up to the elbows were covered in slimy black grease. Chucked the whole assembly into a tub of degreaser, pulled the brake components apart (without really noting the layout, I was kind of gatvol of grease by this time) and cleaned it as best as possible.

Now I could see what was going on, I thought, ok, I'm sure I can smack this shaft out without too much trouble. Three days later that damn shaft hadn't budged 1/1000mm. Lesson learnt, don't believe everything you read on the net, especially about lifting the assembly above your head and dropping it on the floor. Putting blocks under the backing plate and pounding on the shaft with a 4lb copper hammer only succeeded in destroying my expensive hammer, and as I found out later, distorting my backing plate.

Next step. Ok, I should have believed the manual to start with, so off I go to the local engineering shop with the whole caboodle strapped across the back of my motorbike, to see if I can have it pressed off. This huge guy, at least 6'6", says no problem, he'll get it off. Cool, thinks I as I watch him take the assembly into his workshop. Only, he doesn't head towards his press, but stops next to this vice almost as large as himself. I'm still thinking ok, I'm sure he knows what he's doing, but when he tries to clamp the halfshaft in the vice, I timidly suggest that maybe he should consider some aluminium jaw inserts. That was when I thought I was going to get klapped, and he spits out at me that he's done so many of these that he could do it in his sleep. No well fine, I watch him clamp the shaft, far too close to the retaining ring for my liking, and then proceed to pick up a 4lb hammer and a great big piece of steel bar. Now I'm worried, so I again, very politely, ask him what's his plan. Again he snaps at me, "I'm going to knock the bearing off, after all it is damaged and will be replaced". But, I say to him, "you can't knock the bearing off that way, you'll be driving it into the housing". Now, finally, he's feeling a bit sheepish, and tones down a bit and explains that he can't press it out because the backing plate will warp and he doesn't do enough of these to warrant making a special tool. Here was my gap, and I took it fast. Ok, I say, I can see what you're about to do and I can do that myself. I grab my stuff and split.

Next step. I decide the only way is to make a special puller (pusher), also kicking myself because I should have taken this step first, but I was kind of lazy to cut steel and weld. I don't have Eskom, have to start the Lister to use power tools. Luckily, I had pieces of steel and pipe lying around, so I cut a plate 115x115mm, drilled a 50mm hole in the centre and 4 holes to match the bearing carrier studs. I welded a 600mm pipe, 48mm OD with about a 5mm wall thickness into the centre hole, welded a 16mm nut onto the disc that came out the centre hole, and welded that to the other end of the pipe. Took about 4hrs all in all to make. (I took a photo of this tool, will try to load it.) Bolted this to the bearing carrier with the shaft running up the centre of the pipe, and started turning the bolt. Immediately, the shaft started moving, with surprisingly not much effort. Two minutes later the shaft was out. Oh, I cut the retaining ring/spacer off with a grinder first before this step. Like I said, should not have been lazy and done this as the first step, and I would have saved a day or two. Also, now that everything was apart, it became obvious that I'd bent the backing plate with my pounding.

Spent most of today cleaning everything and wondering how on earth I'm going to find a place for all those springs and bits and pieces that make up the brake assembly. I'll worry about that tomorrow, because right now my biggest worry is how to straighten the backing plate. Is it possible to straighten, or do I have to replace? Alternatively, is it necessary to straighten, would it not all pull straight when I bolt everything together?

I bought a bearing kit from my local spares shop for R 148.20. Before you all shoot me down, I priced the parts at Toyota and they wanted R 123.93 and R 100.32 for the two seals. They want R 252.01 for the retaining ring. They didn't have a bearing in stock, so couldn't give me a price. Bearing Man wants
R 380.00 for a otherwise. I looked at this aftermarket kit (Autoquip BI 191), and it doesn't look bad at all. To my semi experienced eye, the bearing looks pretty much as good as the otherwise, and the seals look identical to the Toyota ones. My thought were, what the hell, I'll give this kit a try and if it packs up, I'll go Toyota. Now that I've learnt my lessons, I'll be able to redo the job in a matter of hours, if necessary

Sorry about the long winded post, just thought I'd share my frustrations and get them off my chest. Hoping for some advice as to what to do about the backing plate, before I start assembling

[Family_Dog]

Brave man! ;)

You might find some helpful info from the DIY threads here:

http://www.hilux4x4.co.za/articles.php


-F_D

[The Legend]

Peter

Try these cell nrs, i know they have a lot of SFA spares maybe they can help you with a backing plate


Arrie Heyl 082 357 6023 (Steelpoort)

Jaco Groeveld 060 451 5714 (Magaliesburg)

[dax021]

Thanks for the responses and articles. These will help. Tried posting a pic of my SST but have given up trying to resize it

[niclemaitre]

Send it to me, I'll post it for you.

nicholaslemaitre(at)gmail(dot)com

[LouisZ]

Yep.

Its a bugger to get it off. My 1st one I got gatvol and grinded the bearing retainer of the sideshaft.

I made my own SST just for that. Works well for taking it apart and pressing all together again.

[dax021]

Thanks Nic, have sent you a mail.

Louis, ja, I nearly did the same, but then remembered reading somewhere that the housing cost something like $300 and hung in(But it was close). Made an SST instead and it came off much easier than expected. Nic will post a picture for me. I'm too dumb to get it right.

Took my warped backing plate to Bruno, the local Hilux fundi today and he recons that the plate is not so bad and that I should just put it together as is and it should be fine. Will find out tomorrow.

[niclemaitre]

There you go.

[dax021]

Thanks Nic. I've finally got everything back together again, with new brake shoes, and am busy painting the drums before reinstallation. Had nightmares putting the brakes back together, the PDF manual I downloaded is wrong (I'll get into that later). I also ended up with one spring left over which completely threw me until I realised it goes outside the drum on the handbrake bellcrank (duh).

All that's left then is to clean the rims, they look awful.