Offroad-Express

What I thought was a brake fluid leak from a slave cylinder has turned out to be a diff oil leak.

Pulled the drum off this morning to find a fair amount of diff oil all over the brakes.

Cleaned everything up and then tried to find the source of the leak.

The oil is coming out of a hole/recess in the face of the axle, on the flange where the wheel studs stick through.

It looks like oil is making it's way past the wheel bearings and out through the recess onto the face of the flange.

Before I pull the axle what is the likely cause?

Cheers
Matt.

You'll probably find its the wheel bearing thats gone, this is usually the cause of leaks. Have you got much axle movement ?

Thanks Mike.

Is there a seal behind the bearing to prevent leakage or does the bearing perform this function.

Wheel play seemed nil, I will recheck though.

Cheers
Matt.

thee is a seal in the housing to prevent oil loss. If the oil leaks out it washs the grease out of the W/Brg so often you replace the lot anyway
There is another seal behind the brg on the axle to keep grease in and dirt out
J Top

Thanks JTop.

Do replacement bearings come with new seals?

Cheers
Matt.

Hey Matt - I have wheel bearing kits for thsoe axles in stock... they are $60/pair + $10 shipping... if you pull the axle stubs out and take them to your local Toyota agency or friendly service centre they should be able to press off the old bearings fit the new seal and press the new bearings on for you for around $35ish (what I get charged down here)

Also, the brake shoes will not work properly if they have been soaked in oil... they may need replacing or sometimes you can carefully blowtorch them to burn the oil off (it soaks in, so even when cleaned it will come out and the brakes will fail)

Or do a disk conversion

Steve

Thanks Steve.

I was worried about the brake shoes, they were badly soaked.

I am also in the process of accumulating bits to do the disc conversion however I had hoped to wait a while as I will need to get the brakes certed and would like to do some side bars at the same time to maximise my certing costs.

This has come at a bad time!!! I would prefer to do bearings on the axles once they have been machined down for a disc conversion and would rather buy new disc pads than brake shoes and use my money for the conversion.

Buggar.

Cheers
Matt.

So just keep the oil topped up and keep an eye on it. It won't matter till you need a WOF
J Top

Mattman wrote:I am also in the process of accumulating bits to do the disc conversion however I had hoped to wait a while as I will need to get the brakes certed and would like to do some side bars at the same time to maximise my certing costs.

Maximise

Haha - minimise the cert costs and maximise the cert value!

The oil leak is quite bad, it's dumping oil all over my driveway and the missus is not happy!

Cheers
Matt.

The oil leak is quite bad, it's dumping oil all over my driveway and the missus is not happy!

Thats what "onstreet" parking in for

Cheers Reece

Picked up second hand set of axles yesterday (thanks Turoa) however they have a different handbrake mount which means I can't just swap them over even though the bearings look great. So they will remain my set to send to Reece for machining up for the disc brake conversion.

Pulled the leaking axle today and the bearing is quite bad. Is it worth also pulling the passenger side axle and replacing the bearings on that as well or at least having a look at it?

The diff oil looks milky so it looks like water may have been leaking into the axle for a while.

I think I will head down to G Guys and get them to press on new bearings for me.

Cheers
Matt.

Na, you'll be dropping the other axle in soon anyway don't waste money that could be spent on mods

Cheers Reece

Ps if you want I've got a set of second hand bearings that are still good just got a wee grinder mark from where I cut the bearing retainer ring if you want I'll send one down for ya if you want to cover postage .... it'll keep ya going till you get your new axle

Thanks Reece - I think I will just chuck a new bearing on it, they seem to be pretty cheap anyway so I will just get a new one fitted.

Do you want me to cut the old back plates off the other axles I have so they come up with nothing on them?

Cheers
Matt.

Thanks to all, new bearing kit was $75 and pressing on to the axle was $46.

Drained diff and filled with new fluid, the old fluid was quite milky and the drain plug had a LOT of filings on the magnet.

All back together and it seems okay.

Cheers
Matt.