Topic: Solid Axle Rebuild Questions

[Benge Scott]

I'm going completely through a 1985 Solid axle replacing all bearings and races including those for the knuckle pivots.  Looking at the factory manual for reassembling the knuckle they use a SST (special service tool) to select the shim spacing for the bearing caps.  From what I can figure, this effectively aligns the inner and outer axles to within tolerance and gives you a measure of how thick a shim to stick in.  My question is, other than using the SST from Toyota, how to you set the shim spacing?  The first and obvious answer is to reuse the old shims but I'm replacing the bearings and seats which negates this approach.  Appreciate your thoughts.

Benge

[Paul_Elbisser]

Are you using KOYO bearings? This is what Toyota uses from the factory.  The shims are there to make up for the differance in the housing castings. The tolerance in the Bearings are alot better than the axle casting, so if you use the same brand bearing it will be the same size as the old. Just use the old shims in the same place they came from.

[cruzila]

As Paul said :up: Also, you can check the preload without the tool. Add or subtract shims from the TOP to get it set right.  

[hawaii500_1999]

i put the originals back in the same way they came out when i changed those bearings.  i did use toyota bearings.  haven't had any problems.  it's been 4 years and about 80,000 miles.

[Benge Scott [OP]]

Thanks Fellas, Yeah, I'm putting in Koyo bearings back in the knuckle so after thinking about the problem more and with your inputs, by reusing the original shims that I pulled out I should be o.k.  Again, appreciate your inputs.

Benge