As seen in Toyota Trails!
Various articles written here have been published in TLCA's Toyota Trails magazine and on their website. After roaming around our site, click on the magazines to visit TLCA.
Brakes
Backing Plates, or Not
By Tony K
I have seen this topic bantered about in several places so I figured to throw my two cents on the fire.
Realistically backing plates on a 60 serve a dubious purpose. They may keep dirt out but they also have the possibility of trapping mud and rocks against the rotor. Maybe even causing some heavy damage to the rotor. And the bad part about this is that there is no easy way to get a rock out from between the backing plate and rotor without removing the hub and lots of other parts.
Wheel Bearing Preload
By Tony K
I will be the first one to tell you to trust the FSM but there are times when even I do things my own way. This is one of the minor deviations I take from the FSM. I don’t use a scale to check preload on the front (or rear) wheel bearings.
Right up until I tighten the bearings down I follow the FSM to the letter. Now comes the easy part.