I'm picking up a 90 4X4 later today with manual hubs. The brakes pulsate pretty bad so I'm guessing the front rotors need to be changed. I've changed calipers/rotors on my pontiac but never on a Truck. Is there any write-ups floating around or does anyone have any advice or links to a Repair Manual.
Thanks.

 

1993 Factory Service Manual
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/

Here's a writeup for the bearings - be sure to replace the seals and repack (and/or replace) the bearings while you're in there:
http://www.off-road.com/trucks4x4/ar....jsp?id=186138

 

go to www.autozone.com, and use thier online repair guide, its ok, not the best but it will tell you how to do it. I think you might have to register.

 

Brembo rotors are very good, and cheap at tirerack.com. They also sell the excellent Hawk LTS pads. Summitracing is another good source. EDIT: Brembo's quality has dropped, and they are now best avoided. Tirerack has other good quality rotors, or if $$ is tight, the PBRs from autohausaz.com are real cheap and not bad.

Re: repacking the wheel bearings (ignore if you already know all this) - you can get a gallon can of parts cleaner from a parts store that has a wire basket inside - makes it very easy to fully and properly clean the bearing parts. Make sure they're fully dry, then repack them with a good quality high temp disk brake wheel bearing grease. The technique shown in this vid is how I was taught by an old-timer and it has always worked well for me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQYiA53vcxA

Whatever you do, don't overtighten the bearings - you will get further on too-loose bearings than on too-tight ones, but of course you should tighten them just exactly the right amount. The proper procedure involves preloading the bearings by torquing the adjusting nut to a higher amount (43 ft/lbs on a 4wd truck or 4Runner), rotate the wheel hub 2-3 times both directions, then loosen the adjusting nut until you can turn it by hand, then torque it to the proper bearing torque (18 ft/lbs on a 4wd truck or 4Runner).

You'll need a 54mm or 2 1/8" socket. Here's a good deal on one at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/OTC-6612-Heavy...dp/B0002STRPO/

The 93 online manual is missing the pages on the front bearings; here's a section from an online 95 4Runner fsm - based on a quick look, it seems quite close to the procedures in my 89 truck fsm (torque specs are the same):
http://www.the-roo.com/4runner/Suspension/frontaxl.pdf

Here's the index for that fsm:
http://www.the-roo.com/4runner/

Other fsm links:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.a...lnk=raot&pli=1
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...44&postcount=2

EDIT: Forgot to mention, you'll need to replace the inner seals. I prefer the dealer part, but most parts stores also carry them.

 

I have $.02 since i just did this a couple months ago on my 4x4. Don't believe the hype on the big nuts inside your hubs. You do not need an expensive hard to find huge socket to get them off. They're not on there that tight. Just a decent pair of channel locks or large needle nose will do the job. Do not over tighten or under tighten these nuts when reinstalling the hubs. After getting everything back together with the front end still jacked up place your hand on top of your wheel with the other hand at the bottom and see if there is any play, there should be none, then spin the tire and make sure it spins freely (that's assuming you don't have a tension gauge you can use). Also, be liberal with the bearing grease!!

On another note you said pulsating? People that have bad rotors or warped rotors don't normally describe the brake pedal as 'pulsating'. Normally a shimy, a shake or the front end vibrates when rotors are bad. If the pedal is pulsating or squishy/spongey you might want to check your brake fluid color and level. My pedal pulsated and it was because my fluid was black and needed to be flushed. After i flushed it my brakes are perfect again.

Good luck either way!

 

The socket isn't needed to get the nut off - you can practically do that with your hands. It's needed to get the proper torque on reassembly.

 

Are you suggesting you need this socket for reassembly?

I reassembled just using my channel locks and needle nose and got the right amount of torque (which isn't much considering if you can dissassemble the wheel nuts with your fingers then you don't need to tighten it much with tools). However i'd suggest you do overtighten just a bit when you put on the first wheel nut to make sure the rotor is seated on the spindle corectly then loosen it to the correct amount. I thought it was tight until i got it all back together to find the rotor and bearings weren't pushed enough back and had to do it over again on one side. Basically with these hub nuts your only going off of feel to know if it's tightened right. Too tight and you will smoke your bearings, too loose and you will destroy your bearings and possibly your spindle.

You should do one side start to finish as a first time learning curve for do's and don'ts and the other side will be much faster.

 

The 54mm socket is $20 and is the proper way to do it. You can't properly torque the adusters without a torque wrench.

 

You don't use a torque wrench on the bearing nuts~

You use a fish scale (!) to adjust the pull required to move the wheel from the lug studs (35 lbs?)...

 

Yes, the FSM says to use the spring scale method. I use the torque method, and it's worked fine.

The only method that is unacceptable is the above mentioned "channel locks to tight, then back off a bit" method.

And the outer nut (jamb nut) needs to be pretty damn tight - get the socket. FYI - mine is the 2-1/8" version from Sears.

 

Funny how when 'facts' are presented opinions will still vary. I wonder how my front end is still perfect when i used an unacceptable method to tighten my hub nuts. Is this a politically correct forum where we need to worry about being sued for advice on techniques? My father has been the TOP Body Tech at Ford for 35 years, his specialty was "hard hits" and he doesn't have a pile of FSM's in his work bay. There's many way's to get the job done and he'll be the first to tell you that there's people with decades of experience wrenching on your vehicles while there's inexperienced/unqualified people writing service manuals. These veteran guys will laugh at quotes from people that say "but the manual says....'

I'm sure you guys will have fun with what i just said. I look forward to your replies, haha.

 

95 Yoda, the guy did say that the brakes did just need to be bled. Did you flush the system yourself? Can you recommend a specific procedure to do this at home?

 

The FSM covers it very well. The only hitch is that it is far easier to unbolt the rotor from the hub with impact. If you do not have impact, taking it to a shop is an option. Or, use a rim/tire to put the hub back into and have someone hold the tire while you remove the bolts.

The rotor may be stuck on the hub pretty well. I dead blow works well to loosen that up and get it moving.

As said above, replace the seal on the back of the hub, repack the bearings, give it a good service.

I could not find a 2 1/8" socket, but found a 2 1/4". It worked fine for the low torque called out in the FSM.

For me, the torque method got the spring scale (my fish scale) in the range specified.

That video is great for showing how to pack the bearings out by hand. Good posting there.

Good luck,

Mike

 

Yes i did it myself. My brake fluid was really black. Check your fluid in the resevoir and you'll see the color there. Brake fluid is nearly clear. If it's bad and needs to be flushed make sure you have plenty of new brake fluid to do a complete flush (mine took just over a full large bottle of fluid, i forget how many oz's are in the bottle) If it's dark take the cap off and use a spray bottle to empty the res. Take the top off the spray bottle and place the tube inside the res and squirt out as much of the old fluid into the spray bottle as possible. Next, top off the res with new fluid. then i got another person to work the brake pedal while i loosen the bleeder valves emptying the old fluid into the bottle. As you empty the old fluid constantly recheck the res and top off with the new fluid and don't let the res empty too much and start sucking air into the lines. I started with the back brakes first one at a time until the fluid coming out of the bleeder valves were clear then moving on to the other and repeating with each brake. You can probably pump the brake pedal about 6 or 7 times (maybe more sometimes) before the res gets low. That's how i did it. Then test drive your truck at a low speed and hit the brakes several times making sure they work and recheck fluid level.

I didn't have to jack up my truck as mine sits on 31" tires and i had plenty of room to work under it as is. If you don't have someone else to help out with the brakes then you can buy some bleeder check valves that enable you to bleed your brakes on your own. You'll have to search the forums for that info or google it.

Good luck and congrats on becoming a Yota owner!

 

I'm picking it up in a few hours, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

Well, I picked up the truck for $2250 man is it CLEAN! It got up to 80 on the highway on the drive home no problem. The frame has very little rust to speak of at all, especially for a 19 year New England truck. The check engine light is on and the parking brake doesn't work and the brakes are soft but other than that it's tight. I'm gonna try to get some pics up later tonight after my buddy emails me the ones he took from his phone.

 

Props to your dad. The reason your dad can pull that off is because he's knows how to do things by feel. Most of us can't. The OP pretty clearly indicated he's pretty new to this task and so wouldn't have the faintest idea how to do it by feel. Nor would I for that matter, and I'd be willing to bet now many of us could do it near as well as using the proper tools which themselves cost less than the cost of new wheel bearings to replace the ones that got screwed up by improper servicing...

The FSM method is foolproof, yours isn't.

 

brakes are soft? no ebrake? it pulsates? sounds like an issue with rear brakes man. May need to have the drums turned, check replace brake shoes and adjust the rear brakes properly. May get rid of the pusation and get your ebrake back.

 

Well, the front e brake cable is snapped, I'm picking up the part at the dealer tomorrow. But, you are probably right, the rear brakes most likely do need work. I'm gonna get into it this weekend and see what exactly needs to be done.

 

The links for the FSMs is a godsend. Thanks.