Hilux 4x4 Forum

Stripped this steering box of a LN65 Hilux and found the bearings were damaged . Really struggling to come up with a solution to remove the bearing inside the housing as pictured below.Does anyone have any tips or experience as to how remove the bearing? Any suggestions will be appreciated

Is there a gap under the bearing where you could get a small bearing puller's jaws in? You could try heating the casing but I think the heat transfer into the bearing race would be as quick as the case heats up, but with a bit of luck the cast iron will expand more than the steel.

A very drastic measure would be to drill two holes in the case under the bearing on opposing sides and then use a needle punch to pop the bearing out. But then you would have to have the skill and equipment to weld the holes closed again afterwards .... or you could plug them with screws by tapping the holes if there is enough meat in the casing. Would have to be able to hold pressure.

Slowly grind a little hole into the race seat through to the outside with a dremel and small grind stone then pry/chisel it out. You may need a few grind stones, often available as separate pieces at certain stores, especially of the Dremel brand. Can put the stone shaft into a thin nosed high speed drill (3.5mm shaft) if you don't have a dremel.

Its a bit too deep and narrow to get a grinding tool in there, unless it's a cable extension for a Dremel. Drill machine won't get in. Also think that a lower speed setting would be more effective.

Thanks for the suggestions! Unfortunately the bearing sits very deep in the housing, cant use a drill. I was considering using a drill to make holes from the back to hammer the bearing out with a punch. There are gaps under the bearing where a specialist bearing puller tool would fit, unfortunately I didn't have access to one so i decided to make something similar as pictured below. took a couple of hours to make but worked a treat!! had to use it in conjunction with a bearing puller. The M6 bolts help adjust the tension and ensure the jaws do no jump out from under the bearing.

My next hurdle is to find suitable bearings. The ones that came out are a 3 piece ball bearing units. However I was unable to source the exact ones. I managed to find the roller bearing size equivalent as seen attached. Would the roller bearing do the job? Guessing the steering box does not turn that fast so it would manage to handle the stress?

Well done! Boer maak 'n plan!

The tapered roller bearing might work - setting the pre-load is going to be important.

Thank You!! Haha. Will give the roller bearing a try. I have managed to source the workshop manual for the steering box and am setting the pre-loads according to the stated specs. Hopefully should work fine

Please keep us posted how well the roller bearing work?

To my mind after thinking about it, it should be theoretically better than the ball bearing because there is a bigger contact area spreading the load with balls vs rollers. Also there are 13 rollers vs 10 balls.

So it makes me wonder what benefit the designing engineers saw in the ball bearings. There must be a good reason for their choice.

Hey! The steering box I replaced the bearings on was a replacement unit as the current one fitted had alot of play. Upon removal of the steering unit fitted on the vehicle it was noticed one of the drag link springs had broken into 3 pieces causing the loose steering. The box was fine overall, needed the seals to be replaced and oil drained. Cleaned it all and used the bearings that were already there as they were in good condition. Put it all back together as seen in the picture below. Once fitted with a new drag link, damper and fresh oil, the steering is very smooth now!! My attention then turned to the replacement box which needed the new bearings. I also put that one back together as a spare unit, sadly once assembled I realized it turns the opposite direction to the fitted one, I'm guessing the worm shaft is was for a left hand unit as it was marked with an "L" . Due to all this I wont be able to provide feedback on the bearings, however they felt very promising after the pre-load was set! Worth giving them a try!

The roller bearings seem like a better option, I mean the SFA hub swivel bearings are also roller so strength would not be an issue. True engineers do things for a reason haha. Perhaps the ball bearings were cheaper and could manage to handle the load? just a guess!!

Eish! What a pity, all that effort with little gain other than experience if you have to do the other one.

I know!! Although I don't mind as the problem of loose steering on the vehicle was sorted :) The spare steering box can be cannibalized for parts if needed like the sector shaft etc.

I wonder if the ball bearing version would produce slightly less friction and hence make turning the steering wheel easier than a roller bearing version? Just a wild guess, but this design has been plaguing me.

I think the ball bearing design is better encased in the outer race of the bearing, as it sits right inside, so less chance of the shaft moving under high load. The issue of friction might be negligible as the pre-loads would be set the same meaning the frictions would also be similar between the 2 bearing types.

Another way to free bearings in a deep, blind hole is to pack the bearing center with grease and then plug it with a rag and tamp it down. The grease and the rag eventually force their way under the bearing, lifting it out

True that! I got the flywheel center bearing out with wet TP and the exact bearing inner diam rod hammered in. A bearing race may be a bit harder though, not as much 'lip' as a sealed ball bearing though..

I'll keep that in mind!! Guess for ball bearings that have a lip to hold the grease it's more useful.