rear bearings and oil seals

Here's some good repair guides for your Tercel :) Look here for help first!
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sacwac
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Posts: 152
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:35 pm

Post by sacwac »

I just replaced my rear bearings and oil seals today.... Here's the info.

What made me do this was the level of noise coming from the rear. There was a loud "whirring" noise, kind of like too much air rushing past the car while driving.

First, remove the axles. The axles I used (from my spare tercel) were so stuck, I had to use another car to pull them out. So be prepared to use some muscle.But, the axles I pulled out from the car I was fixing came right out with little effort. There is plate with 4 bolts that must be pulled a little bit out such that it doesn't catch on the brake components while the axle comes out. You will have to angle, and rotate the plate to do this.

Once the axles are out, take them to a mechanic to remove the old retainer, and old bearing. Have him also put the new retainer and bearing on. Make sure the plate is on the axle before you press the new bearings on! I was able to remove the old reatiner and bearing using a bench grinder, but I could not get the new parts on. A hydraulic press is required to press the bearing and retainer on.
Pay attention to where that backing plate came from: there is a difference between the right and left plates.

I used the tire iron tool to remove my rear oil seals. You would be much better off renting the proper puller. The oil seal is in there tight. To press the new seal in, I used a large ratchet socket. It only needs to be tapped in about 5.6mm. This was easy, just go real slow, and measure your progress often.

Slide the new axles in, and tighten the 4 bolts on the plate, and you are almost done. I had drained the rear differential, so I had to fill it back up. No brake hardware had to be removed.

Now, the noise in the rear is gone!! I will post new noise measurements in a bit.

The rear right oil seal was leaking, and that bearing was starting to rust. The right bearing would also wobble as you spun it. The left rear oil seal looked good, but I replaced it anyway. The left bearing was really crunchy, and barely spun at all!

All in all, this was a fairly easy job... Just save yourself the trouble, and let a mechanic with the proper tools remove and replace the bearings and retainers.

I seem to be having a problem with the server I use to post pictures, so no pics, yet.
3A-C Power
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Location: Ontario, Canada

Post by 3A-C Power »

Yeah, it's easy if you have a mechanic do the hard stuff for you! Or if you have access to the proper tools yourself. I got the bearing off with a grinding wheel on a drill, and got the new one on with a really big pipe. I wouldn't reccommend this method to anyone.
Lateer
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Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:25 pm
Location: Tasmania, Australia

Post by Lateer »

I had a look at the manual for doing that and noticed that it reccomends grinding the old retainer off with a bench grinder and then heating the retainer up to 150 degrees to get the new retainer on.

Or can you just thwack it with a big hammer?
1983 Tercel SR5 with 185/75R14 tyres, 32/36 DGAV Weber carburetor, lumpy cam and upgraded Pioneer sound system. Veteran of several fire seasons (with the scars to show it) and known as "The Racing Turtle"
sacwac
Top Notch Member
Posts: 152
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:35 pm

Post by sacwac »

I used a grinder to grind the retainers off. When I couldn't whack the bearings off, I ground them off. I used a pipe to get the new bearings on. If you use a pipe, make sure there is no way the pipe end can expand, and press into the bearing in the wrong spots. I hammered the end of the pipe until the bearings went on... this took about 15minutes of pounding.

When I got to the retainers, it took about 1hour to pound the retainer down about 1mm (I heated it too). So I just had a mechanic do it. He charged me nothing, as it took him about 2 minutes to press the retainers on.

Seriously, just take the axles and new parts to a mechanic and have them change the parts. And shop around for mechanics, one guy wanted the parts for a week, and $100. The guy above did it on the spot, for free.
bina
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Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:20 am

Post by bina »

I thought I was the only one who would try grinding off the retainers. You have to be careful not to nick the drive shaft however. I did! It doesn't seem to have hurt though. I heated the retainer to get it back on and made a sort of slide hammer out of some cast pipe threaded on both ends. I thread an adapter onto one end so it made good even contact with the retainer. It only took a couple minutes of hammering and worked quite nicely.
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