How to Replace Front Wheel Spindle 1997-2001 Toyota Camry
Created on: 2016-09-22
How to remove and replace the spindle on 98 Toyota Camry
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step 1 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the 21mm lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack near the pinch weld
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands at the unibody frame rail, and place it just ahead of the lower control arm on the rear
- Repeat the process for the other side so the vehicle is level
- Remove the hub cap
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 2 :Removing the Axle Nut
- Bend the cotter pin straight out with needle nose pliers
- Pull the cotter pin up and out
- Remove the lock cover on the nut
- Hold the hub still with a pry bar
- Break the axle nut socket loose with a 30mm socket and breaker bar
- Place a punch in the center hole and hammer it
- Remove the axle nut
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step 3 :Removing the Caliper and Brake Rotor
- Remove the 12mm bolt retaining the ABS wire
- Remove the line out of the way
- Loosen the two 17mm caliper bracket bolts
- Remove the two 17mm caliper bracket bolts
- Hang the caliper out of the way with a bungee chord
- Remove the brake rotor
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step 4 :Removing the Spindle
- Remove the cotter pint from the castle nut on the tie rod end
- Remove the nut from the tie rod end
- Hit the spindle below the joint with a hammer
- Remove the three 17mm bolts securing the ball joint on the control arm
- Pry the control arm down
- Remove the 10mm wheel speed sensor bolt
- Remove the two 22mm bolts from the strut
- Remove the spindle
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step 5 :Installing the Spindle
- Insert the spindle into the strut
- Hand-tighten the 22mm bolts
- Insert the axle into place
- Hand tighten the hub nut
- Push the assembly into the control arm
- Insert the tie rod into the spindle
- Tighten the 22mm bolts on the bottom of the strut
- Torque the strut bolts to 156 foot-pounds
- Tighten the 19mm tie rod nut
- Torque the tie rod nut to 36 foot-pounds
- Insert the cotter pin
- Pull the ends down
- Tighten the 17mm nuts on the control arm
- Torque the 17mm nuts to 94 foot-pounds
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step 6 :Reinstalling the Caliper and Brake Rotor
- Insert the sensor into place
- Tighten the 10mm bolts to the speed sensor
- Insert the rotor into place
- Put another axle nut over a wheel stud closest to the brakes
- Tighten it by hand with a lug nut
- Insert the caliper into place
- Tighten the 17mm bolts to the caliper
- Torque the 17mm bolts to 79 foot-pounds
- Remove the lug nut and hub nut
- Tighten the 12mm bolt to the ABS sensor
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step 7 :Reinstalling the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to partial weight on the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 76 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
- Lower the jack
- Torque the axle to 217 foot-pounds
- Reinstall the lock cap and new cotter pint to the axle nut
- Reinstall your hubcap
Tools needed
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12mm Socket
Socket Extensions
Torque Wrench
Hammer
Rust Penetrant
Pry Bar
17mm Socket
Jack Stands
19mm Socket
3/8 Inch Breaker Bar
21mm Socket
Center Punch
10mm Socket
Ratchet
Floor Jack
Needle nose pliers
22mm Socket
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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks!
Here are the items you'll need for this repair: 10-30mm sockets, wrench, ratchet, and extension, torque wrench, breaker bar, pry bar, needle nose pliers, punches and hammer, penetrating oil, jack and jack stands
Break all of your lug nuts loose while the vehicle is still on the ground. You're going to need a 21mm socket and a breaker bar. Install your jack under the vehicle. Line it up with the pinch weld. Jack the vehicle up high enough that you can get a stand underneath, making sure you have enough clearance to remove your tire or do whatever you have to do under the vehicle.
Stall your jack stand onto this unibody frame rail under the vehicle. With the vehicle raised and supported, remove your lug nuts the rest of the way. If you need a little more room to work, you can pull the hub cap off, remove your wheel from the hub. We've put our vehicle on a lift to make it easier to film for you, but this job can be easily done with a jack and jack stands.
Remove the cotter pin from the end of the CV axle. You have to straighten it out. Grab the end and work it out of the axle. Remove the lock cap. Insert a pry bar between the wheel studs. I'm bracing mine against the lift, but you can brace yours against the ground on the jack and jack stands when you use the 30 millimeter axle socket and a cheater pipe on a breaker bar to break the axle not loose. Once the axle nut is cracked loose, you can remove it almost fully.
We'll leave our pry bar there for when it gets a little tight on the threads, to make sure that it doesn't spin. Place a punch in the center hole of the axle, and tap it to release it from the splines. Remove the 12mm bolt, securing the brake line and ABS sensor wire in, with a 12mm socket ratchet and extension. Remove the hose from the ABS sensor from the retainer. Remove the two 17mm caliper bracket bolts with a socket and ratchet.
Be sure to break both bolts lose before removing either one fully, otherwise the bracket has a tendency to move and become more difficult to get out of the vehicle. Once both bolts are removed, we'll remove the brake caliper and carrier assembly from the rotor and using a bungee cord, mechanics wire, zip tie, or whatever you have that's strong enough to secure this. We’ll hang it up out of our way.
Remove the brake rotor from the hub. Remove the cotter pin and the castle nut for our tie rod end. Simply straighten it out here with a pair of needle-nose pliers. Get it as straight as you can. Grab the other side and work it out. Using a 19mm socket and ratchet, we'll remove the nut from the tie rod end. We're going to hit the spindle, just below the joint, with a hammer to release the tie rod from the spindle. Now we'll remove the three 17mm bolts securing our lower ball joint onto the control arm.
You could remove the cotter pin and nut and release the ball joint from the bottom of the spindle, but it's not really going to be in our way. It's a lot easier to remove these bolts than that nut. Now we'll use a small pry bar to pry up on the ball joint and down on the control arm and release. Using a 10mm socket and ratchet, remove the bolt for the wheel speed sensor. Make sure you feel this one out when you're removing it, because these do tend to get a little stuck and you don't want to break it off from the spindle, so use penetrating oil if necessary.
Remove this retainer for the wheel speed sensor. We'll hang that out of the way so we can remove our two 22mm bolts for the strut with a socket, breaker bar, and a wrench. When removing the last bolt, be sure to support the spindle, because this is the last thing we have holding it into the car. We can now remove our spindle with our wheel bearing and hub assembly from the car.
Reinstall the spindle into the strut. We'll put the top 22mm bolt and nut in first, followed by the lower one. Now, you can tighten all of this as you go along, but just for the sake of making sure everything moves and goes back together smoothly, we're going to get everything lined up and finger tight before we torque down any of our hardware.Now that the strut is in, we'll swing it out a little, line up our CV axle. We'll send the axle into the hub. Put our axle nut on.
This is a new axle nut, because we removed our old one, and every time you install one of these, you want to use a new one. Just to hold that in place for now. We put a pry bar into one of the slots in the lower control arm, so we can pull down, push it in, and line up our lower ball joint back into its slots in the control arm. You may want to install the nuts first, because they're tapered. It will help draw it into place. Once we get that taper on the two nuts set in, the threads for our bolt in the top hole should line up nicely.
Reinstall the tie rod into the spindle, and the castle nut onto the tire rod. Tighten up our 22mm bolts on the bottom of the strut with a socket ratchet and wrench. Torque to 156 foot-pounds. Tighten the tie rod nut with a 19mm socket and ratchet, torque to 36 foot pounds. Install your cotter pin. I like to trim one edge of mine down because you really only need one to lock it into place, and it makes it easier to remove them later. Bend up that bottom. That tie rod's in tight. Tighten the 17mm nuts and bolts on the bottom ball joint at the control arm, torque this hardware to 94 foot pounds. Reinstall the speed sensor into the spindle, as well as the 10mm bolt. We'll tighten that down with a socket and ratchet. We'll reinstall our rotor.
Now, one trick, especially where we just replaced our axle... So, we have our old axle nut ... It's a really cool trick. Makes it really easy to reinstall the caliper and bracket as an assembly when you haven't removed your brake pads. Go ahead and put that axle nut over the wheel stud closest to the brakes. Spin it in by hand, and that lug nut will sit in there nice and straight.
Now your rotor is on straight and tight so our pads will slide right over them. We won't have to worry about gravity kicking it out at the bottom. Remove your brake calipers from whatever you used to secure it. Make sure the flex hoes isn't twisted. We'll slide it back over the rotor. See how it goes on nice and easy there when that rotor's held on straight. We'll line up and reinstall our two 17mm bolts at the back. Tighten the caliper bolts down with a socket and ratchet. Torque these bolts to 79 foot-pounds. Go head and remove the lug nut and the axle nut, if you used them to secure that rotor.
Reinstall the ABS sensor retainers, both here at the strut, on the side, followed by the flex hose, with your 12mm bolt. We'll then tighten down with our socket, ratchet, and extension. Spin the axle nut on by hand, make sure it's fully seated. We'll reinstall our wheel and tire and put the weight of the vehicle back on.
Reinstall the wheel and tire, tighten down the nuts. Put the vehicle onto the ground, check that they're all seated. If you've removed a tire, only lower the vehicle until the wheel touches the ground. With partial weight of the vehicle on the ground, torque your lug nuts to 76 foot-pounds in a cross pattern, then you can remove your jack the rest of the way. Torque the axle nuts 217 foot-pounds. Reinstall the lock cap, make sure that it lines up in a way that we can put our cotter pin through. Always use a new cotter pin, bend the ears up and over the axle.
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