Disassemble rear axle

[PetzK]

Rust un the bearing can be a BIG pita, dont tell me. we were 5 (!!) to remove one axle, 3 holding the axle and 2 hammering with the biggest hammers we could find, to no result. I had to heaten up the axle housing and more rude hammering finally got the axle out.

The bearing and the gaskets were fucked up after that, Toyota asked some really weird prices: 10€ for a paper gasket (made it myself from ordinary gasket paper) and close to 200€ for a bearing set!!!! they even asked at Toyota Brussels which checked back in Japan (!!) (btw, I've never had such a great help from the guy at Toyota, but he couldn't believe that price himself) so after some searching I found an aftermarket bearing set for about 70€

Changing the bearing is not that easy, you do need to have the right tools, especially to put on the ring that holds the bearing in place is a real challenge; it needs to be real hot or it will be blocked in a wrong place, dont ask me how I know...

Rebuilding the LSD with the T3kit was a piece of cake, but adjusting backlash and preload was a pita again. Did it like the factory manual tells, but that wouldn't lead to their end result, so I did it in a way I had a correct end result. I filled up the oil yesterday, used Castrol SAF-XJ special for LSD's, I havent driven it yet, but the day comes closer...

[JonT]

i'm supprised you found aftermarket, i tried looking in the uk. i even had a friend who worked for nsk bearings to look [they supply most japenese manfacturers] and he couldn't find any.

[Ivan141]

Tell me some more about how you adjusted the backlash..I'm quite curious about how to do that for myself. How do you know it's correct without driving it?

[PetzK]

A FSM is a must to do it, and you need a dial gauge with magnetic foot stand, then follow the FSM... I had freeplay within specs after my adjustment, so I'd say that's ok. But I'll only see after driving if it's noisy or not.

@Jon: I still have the box of the kit, I try to remember and look the reference up for you, it was a japanese manufacturer, something like Japparts but I'm not sure... that will be for the weekend.