Unfortunately I found a rear axle seal leak on the 4Runner. So after calling the dealer and an independant shop, I couldn`t bear to fork over the $300 estimate to have it fixed. So I took a trip to the Toyota dealer and bought the $25 worth of seals and tore into it. Thanks to the help of a 4Runner forum (Who knew!) I found enough how-to`s to get it done. I still can`t get over how BIG these parts are (My first truck.) and how simple everything is. (Not quite as over-techy as the Porsches.)
The job took about 3 hours. Had to remove the parking brake assembly, remove brake line, pull the hub and remove the axle. Then I had to pull the seal and insert a new one. Then re-assemble everything, bleed the brakes and refill the oil level in the rear differential.
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Just a drum brake, but is sure is big and heavy. I smashed my finger during re-assembly when I pushed the heavy axle assembly into the axle tube. I now have a lovely black fingernail. I`ll spare you the pics of that!
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The guts.
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The leaky axle seal.
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New seals. I also had to buy a seal puller to get the old one out. It was quite an effort! The Autozone seal puller paid for itself. Worth every bit of $10. Toyota parts sure are cheap. If these had a Porsche logo on it they would have cost me $200.
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Had to carefully press (beat) the new bearing into place and found that 2" PVC was the absolute perfect size. Amazing what you can come up with in a desperate situation. My $2 Bearing Punch is Patent Pending.
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Done! Just in time to test drive in the rain. Beads courtesy of Zaino AIO.
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