rear wheel bearings: what's wrong with this picture?

[c_j]

What's wrong with this picture? (10 points)

[marlinh]

The plate that bolts it to the diff housing is missing.

[c_j]

The plate that bolts it to the diff housing is missing.

+10 points for marlinh!

And boy was I pissed after putting new bearings on both axles. In partial defense, the axle has been apart for months, and the old bearings have been off for about a week. Still a stupid move.

But no sense going backward though, so let's carry on:

split_axle_retainer1.JPG

split_axle_retainer2.JPG

[c_j]

installation complete:

split_axle_retainer3.JPG

split_axle_retainer4.JPG

those plates are made from chopped up square tubing.

[marlinh]

Ingenious solution! It is easy to forget things sometimes especially when it is apart for a while.

[Petros]

good solution. you can actually press the bearing off and reuse it, but the collar is only good for one shot, once stretched on you have to leave it. you would have to replace it if you drove it off (they typically get beat up when getting the collar off anyway).

looks like you actually improve on the toyota design, now it will be much easier to pull the axle out by getting that darn retainer completely out of the way.

[c_j]

Thanks marlinh and Petros. These bearings came at a good price, and I didn't want to waste them because they are getting harder to find. I think this method will be plenty strong enough, plus, as Petros says, life will be so much easier whenever these axles need to be pulled again. It is a nightmare to work around those retainer plates, and after splitting them it really will be that much easier to deal with in the future. So nice to have a bonus come out of a screw-up.

[c_j]

For anyone who might make this mod in the future, I just wanted to say that there is a clearance issue with the emergency brake lever. I have removed some material from the edge of the rearmost plate, and I will test that out, but the lever comes so close to the lower rear axle flange nut that a different type of modification might be better (like cutting left-to-right instead of top-to-bottom).