[tmaoz]

I have trooper 98 s with 63k.
I just did my 60k service including changing all the fluid, driving belts, filter, etc.
But there is two things I couldn't done myself:
The valve adjustment and repack front wheel Bearing.
My question his?
Is it necessary to repack the front wheel bearing every 60k or just if you driving in bad conditions (deep water, off road)?
I have some knocking noise from the left back side of the engine is it cause of valve that need to be adjust? Also the engine doesn't run as smooth as it should be.

Thanks tomer

 

[tomster]

I wouldn't let the bearings on any vehicle go more than 50kmi without replenishing the grease. I do mine about every 30kmi or so. It seems like cheap insurance for a few bucks worth of seals and grease. Just my $.02.

I have yet to hear someone doing the adjustment on a 3.5. Thus, while yours could be out of whack I doubt it. The adjustment itself doesn't seem complicated. However, the trick is you don't know which shims you need when you start the job. Thus, you would need to buy a ton of them to have all sizes and not run out. Or you can buy one of each size and do a dealer new parts run every time you use one. One way is expensive and the other annoying. I guess there is a third alternative which is to flip each shim. Seemingly they would dish as they wear and if you flipped them that would set things back to where they started. At best this seems like a real bandaid approach. Again this is just my theory maybe someone who has really done this will chime in and set the record straight.

 

[tmaoz]

Thanks for the replay
I just talked to the dealer and he charge $ 240 to do the valve adjustment. Do you think it's a lot of money for the job?

 

[isuzu95]

From what I get out of Tomster's post, the 3.5 uses a shim/bucket arrangement. I have an old asian bike that uses this approach and my 2004 Tacoma 4 cyl. does as well.

You have 2 choices:

Go buy all of the special tools you need to do this task(there are likely at least 2). In the case of my Tacoma, these tools cost about $75. Then as Tomster said, you have to pull the shim on each cyl that requires adjusting in order to determine what shim # is installed. You write the number down and get the next largest one from the dealer if the clearance is too large..something like this..it all depends on whether you are too loose or too tight and by how much.

If you're going to do valve adjustments on a vehicle with a shim/bucket setup, it's best the first time you do it to pull all of the shims and record their size. This way, you'll know what's in each bucket the next time around.

Your second choice is to pay the dealer. The problem with tasks like this is more often than not, the work never gets done. They simply say they did and charge you for it. You cannot see this area of the vehicle. This sort of thing goes on all the time in repair shops.

If you don't have the skills and the tools to do the work, you're at the mercy of someone else.

 

[cruiserman]

It should be easy enough to check the clearances. The harder part comes in if you need to replace the shims. I've not done it on my Trooper, but I've done it on my Cruiser. I didn't use any special tools, but I did pull the camshaft to replace the shims.