I found a small bolt which seems to do nothing in its place...
Passenger side half shaft, the longer one, has a bearing. The bearing is secured in the bearing mount with a snap ring. On the bottom side of the bearing mount there is a bolt, maybe 15mm hex head and 1/2" maybe 3/8" long, which screws up into the bearing mount, but it is too short to touch it the bearing itself. When I removed the shaft and its bearing and feel the place where the bolt was expected to stick out I could feel a deep hole, so the bolt was far, far to short to make any contact with the bearing...
What is this bolt for? Is this some kind of grease point or what?
A mystery it is. I know that everytime it is removed it should be replaced. Although to get another one it has to be a kit. Much more money than a simple bolt .. My question is that if it is worn what does it prevent ? I'm quite sure there is knull marks on the bottom of it. I would like to find out everything there is to know about this bolt also.
I made a mistake and took it out & sprayed grease in the hole. I don't think I should have done that.
According to the free repair guide on Autozone, that should be the bearing lock bolt on the bottom side that holds the bearing in the holder. After you remove it, the snap ring holds the halfshaft at the holder.
See excerpt below:
Remove the right halfshaft from the transaxle as follows: 1. Remove the bearing lockbolt. The lockbolt is located in the center of the halfshaft, near the dampener. 2. Using snapring pliers, remove the snapring and pull the halfshaft from the transaxle.
So I am guessing the halfshaft was already removed in my car by the previous owner and somebody put the wrong bolt there... Mine is too short to make any difference in the bearing seat!
BTW - is this really such a good idea to put any pressure with a pointy object like this bolt on the bearing???? I am quite stunned. Anyway - my halfshaft bearing seems to be hold in place by the snap ring alone now... the bolt is there but it does not do a thing :-) I hope I am not asking for any disaster to happen...
I wonder if the proper bolt was used on the holder, while a bolt for the holder was used on the bearing???
And true, if the bearing is held in place by the snap ring, I don't know why there is a need for a bearing lock bolt. Or less vibration without the bearing knocking around in the close-tolerance holder? Many halfshafts are held in by a circlip too. I dunno, it's anyone's guess.
I had saved an online manual for the camry. Some how it was deleted, taken away , I can't find it any longer. Would have sent a link. That is where I found that it needed to be replaced. Everytime it was to be removed there is a torque for that bolt . It needs be replaced just like an o-ring. The reason I had looked into it was that, I was getting a vibratation that seemed to be coming from that area. Took out the bolt sparyed the gease, Tightened somewhat tight , it hadn't changed the vibration any. So I loosened it quite abit & the vibration went away , not totally but alot. So I had gone to the dealership they couldn't even find it on the parts screen. Went to the parkinglot showed him that it does exist , other than a kit of some kind that was to much money , to replace a bolt. I think that the bolt holds the bearing race from spinning within the carrier & that it needs that torque to do it. To tight = vibration To loose= spinning of the race.
There was thread remaining under the hex head, so yes . Thats my theory.
Well, funny I read your message this morning... I found the service manual and printed some diagrams showing the bolt.
I went to the local toyota dealership to get the bolt - the guy in the Parts could not find it on the diagrams on his computer either... To my surprise, we called a technician Jose who is there to do such driveshaft replacement according to the service front desk... Mr Jose looked at my printed diagrams showing the bolt then looked at me with a blind eyes leading a way to an empty brain and shrugged his arms... Almost like "Why the hell I would know, I am a gardener trimming bushes here for the God sake not a certified toyota mechanic!" :-))))
So either they were not interested in helping me with this repair - which is quite likely, it is them to benefit for me messing up my car :-) Or that particular toyota mechanic was not that bright and is might be a good idea to never bring my car to this place again :-)
I plan to visit another toyota place and keep searching for this bolt. In the meantime I will loosen it, just in case it deforms the bearing. Just before installing the bearing I put a slight coat of threadlocker on the outercase of this bearing, so the race should not be spinning even without this bolt in place.
It is still a mystery to me HOW this bolt is tightening the bearing... Mine is definitelly too short to touch the race.
Not a grease point, no. It is a friction bolt designed to stop the outer race of the bearing spinning along with the inner race on the half-shaft. It doesn't really retain the bearing as such but does support it in the housing, which is halfway along the shaft. At the end of the bolt in the housing there is a plastic plug which bears onto the bearing outer race and that should be in there, so check.
All very mechanically crafty, so make sure you replace it OK
I am surprised myself and I am not sure I would bring any toyota there anymore...
The original driveshaft was there 13 years and my friend mechanic I was doing the job April had to jump through hoops to remove it. He was heating the old bearing, pounding on it, eventually had to cut the driveshaft in half just to take it out of there. We were both not experienced in this kind of thing. It is possible that the plastic end of the bolt was lost and now there is a steel bolt with a empty hole in its tip, which is too short to touch the bearing.
Last weekend, when doing struts, I noticed that the shaft put there April is torn and grease is coming out. So I replaced it using lifetime warranty and put the new one there, but this bolt was still a mystery to us.
Now I know it has to have some plastic end... Currently it does not have it... must have fallen out or something. The problem is that I am unable to buy the new one - parts counter diagrams on the computer do not show this bolt for 1995. And the parts guy is confused what I am talking about.
Anybody here knows what is this bolt's toyota part number? Proper name? Do you guys have access to the toyota parts ordering system and could help me ordering replacement?
It is called the RH driveshaft centre bearing lockbolt, and is shown here
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although the plastic plug is not shown. You could make your own out of nylon or teflon, the dimensions would not be critical, just a few mm longer than the difference between bolt length and hole depth.
Yes, I saw the bolt on the original toyota shop manual diagrams, here
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page 21. The problem is that they do not list the part number, so it is hard to order it. The guy at the parts counter at the toyota dealership couln't match the diagram I have printed and shown him (page 21) to his computer screens - on his screen this bearing mount did not have the screw or bolt. I looked at the same screen with him because we could not believe the diagrams looked differently. I have double checked we are looking at 1995 camry LE 4 cylinder, everything matched other than the bolt was not there on his diagram, so I could not get the part number or order it.
Making the plug myself... hm... I could, but I would rather get the new bolt and be sure it is right.
Is there a place online I can look for toyota part numbers and order them myself? Or the dealer is the only choice I have?
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