Subject, 1986 4Runner

I go and lock my hubs(ASIAN)yesterday and I get this howling noise coming from the drivers side after a half mile of driving with some resistance.

I was still in 2wd.
UNlock the hub and the noise goes away...
LOCK the hub and the noise comes back after a few seconds.

I go home and jack up the front and see if I could find an obvious problem.

The wheels and axles turn as they should.
Hub dial turns fine from lock to free.
I pull the hub and find a little rust, so I clean the hub, add new grease and reassemble.
Problem noise still there.

2wd or 4wd with the drivers side hub locked I get the noise.

The wheel bearings seem fine, no bind in the wheel.
The noise sounds like a locked up wheel bearing?

...any insight?

Thanks

Spindle bushing perhaps?

Definently spindle bushings.. won't really hurt anything if you don't change them, you will just get the noise if you go over like 10mph with the hub locked.

Pretty sure you can only get them from the dealer, and were pretty expensive for what they are.. (I recall either $40 or $80 each... maybe that was $80 for the pair).

To replace them you gotta pull the spindle off (undo ball joints and all) and have the brass bushing pressed out/new one pressed in.

I just sorta dealt with mine as I never really had to go fast with the hubs locked..

-Scerb

Thanks! That's the kind of answer I was looking for.
I agree, the bushing and wheel bearings are most likely all original parts with over 300k miles on them.

Thanks again <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

If you force some grease into those spindle bushings you can get rid of the noise for quite a while (there are grooved tracks on the inside of the bushings and quite a bit of grease will go in there). I went through the entire winter last year with no noise.

Mac, that would be a great short term fix.
Trying to get an idea of what I can do tonight. Big ice storm coming...


Looks like I need to remove the knuckle OR can I grease the bushing through the outer knuckle.
Do you remove the axle?

I agree it is most likely the stock brass spindle bushings that the outer axle-shaft rides on. I've seen this several times. I believe toyota replaces them with actual bearings now. The growling usually gets worse over time and can cause a vibration when bad enough, but I wouldn't consider it an emergency fix by any means. The noise can come and go depending on the amount of wear on the bushings, amount of grease remaining, and the outside temperature.

Looks like I can lube it.
Moving the axle shaft in and out of the spindle and pump some grease in there, inner and outer through the splines like Mac mentioned.
...anyway here are 2 pics of where I'm at.

Here is the inner part with the axle pushed in 1/2" ...

The guy who lubed mine ( I had no idea what it was, and brought it to a guy who refurbishes the older trucks and gets big $ for them) put some kind of cup adapter over the spindle and power pumped it in. As an option, I have seen cans of grease with propellant that use the small tube (like WD-40 or such)
to get into small places. It would be tedious to do it by hand I think it would stll work.

It wasn't to bad cycling grease in by hand...

...anyway I just got back from a mud run and everything is as it should be.
Problem solved, for now.

Thanks for everybody's input. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />