keisur

if you don't have a breaker bar, then see if the pipe/handle from your floor jack will fit over the ratchet handle as a cheater bar, that's what I do if I need longer than 18" and my air tools aren't near. you do have a floor jack right? not the stock screw jack.

Badmice1

K - got me a breaker bar @ Sears, got the sucka caliper off, now I'm stuck on the grease cap. Any suggestions? That sucka is hard to come off

keisur

Flat tip scrrew driver and hammer. let me find a pic.

EDIT: here's a pic pf how I do it; jam the screwdriver in and pop it with the hammer a few good wops and it should start to come out, them you can take a bigger screw driver and pry (sp) it the rest of the way.I think the nut inside is a 36mm if I'm not mistaken. to pop the cap back in I use a 2 pound rubber mallet.

keisur

Here's how I backed-up the nut while untorquing and retorquing it so as to not fubar the stud threads:

SloPoke

Yup, You have the pressed in sealed bearing so no repacking for you.

Keisur is doin' ya a great job providing pics and such. Way to go Keisur!

Last winter I had my front passenger side wheel bearing go out. After about $80 in parts (bearing and new seals from the Stealer) they wanted another $300 for the labor. For that, I figured I'd just do it myself so I went to HF and got a 12 ton press for $99.

Our front wheel bearings are tricky to replace! They have to be supported when being pressed in (do not press it in by the inner race or you'll ruin the bearing) so if your goin' to tackle it yourself, you'll need some special pressing arbors. Took me a day of fabbin' but I made my own arbors. 1 needed for pressing the entire bearing in and one for holding the bearing while you press the hub back in the spindle. If you don't support the inner race when pressing the hub back in, again, you'll ruin the bearing.

If you have a press, I'd be willing to ship you my pressing arbors so you'll have the tools to do the job right the first time.

I just covered tis with the 4WPW in Orlando as they replaced a buddies front wheel bearing 3 times in 5 weeks. They wernt supporting the bearing (as described above) and were ruining it by the method they used. I also offered that guy my arbors but he told me 4WPW end'd up gettin' it done right on their 4th try.

If you want em, just hollar. Pay shipping to and from and they'll be on the way to ya.


Best of luck!!!

keisur

haha, like I did. here's my balljoint write-up - http://webpages.charter.net/keisur1/upperbjrnr.htm

SloPoke

Yup. I got the same cheezy press. haha

Before I got the press, I made a press frame for doin' the BJ's using a small piston jack. It's amall enough that you don't have to remove the spindle from the truck. It can be done in the wheel well once you get the upper BJ apart.

Nice write up.

Looks like we think alot alike.

keisur

can you post a pic of these, or maybe email me a pic of them? I may try to have the shop here make some for me so I'll have them when I need them.

keisur

yea, "cheap as possible." I modified my press at the bottom because the rear axle would hit the crossbar at the bottom when I press things onto it so I moved the crossbar, no big deal but good to know before hand. you can see in the pic it's not directly between the uprights anymore.

Badmice1

Hey Keisur - Thx for the ongoing help. I did make an attempt on the screwdriver/hammer combo last night, but wasn't sure if I was doing it right (I couldn't squeeze the flathead between the cap & the hub + it was 29F last night in the garage). I will make another attempt tonight.

As far as the on/off for the hub nut, I only have my trusty breaker bar to work with, hopefully that will do the job?

SloPoke - Thx for the advice. I had planned to take the bearing + hub to a shop to get it pressed, as suggested by comments from other posts. Would you know if shops will do such thing? Techs out here in CA are picky on what they do and do not do.

I do not have a press myself, so thanks in advance for the arbor offer, but I will decline at this time.

Now back to the hub re-install? Is that something I can tackle in my garage, since I will be taking the hub off in my garage?

Thanks again for all suggestions. This is pretty fun, but more time consuming that I had thought.

keisur

noprob. make sure the first screw driver used is skinny enough to bite in the crack between the hub and the cap. you have to hit it with some balls at first, especially if it's sort of rusty.

that should work, try to find some pipe to use as a cheater for the breaker bar and another piece for cheating the backup.

Once you pull the assembly, take the whole thing to the "reputable" shop and have them disassemble everything for you and then reassemble everything so all you have to do is take it home and install it. without a press your not going to be able to get the hub in or out safely.

SloPoke

I don't own a digi cam but borrow one from time to time. I can borrow one this weekend and take the pics. Just send me an email to trailrigequipment@cox.net to remind me and I'll try to get em asap.

SloPoke

I modified mine to. Basically just removed the center crossbar and welded ones on the ends so the entire botton center of the press is clear. When doin' rear bearings, I set it on cinder blocks and that gives me the room I need and allows the axle to be straight in the press. I do reinstall the original cross bar when not doin' rear axles but just use 1 bolt on each side and have it slightly off center. (use the front hole in the cross bar and bolt it to the rear hole in the press stand)

Yah, cheap as possible!

Badmice1

Keisur --> Here's the part where you have to school me a lil' more. When you refer to the "assembly" are you taking about the steering knuckle + hub assembly? I've been working off a chilton manual, so whatever exploded diagram they have is what I'm referenced against.

...so based on the diagram, it looks reasonable to say "the assembly" is the steering knuckle + hub?

SloPoke

Not sure, all shops have their own rules of what they'll do and what they won't. If an auto shop denies ya, I'm sure a reputable machine shop in your area would do it. Thing is....fer how much?

Cool on that.

Without a press, your not goina get the hub out of the spindle so I'd say NO, it's not something you can tackle. Wish that wasn't the case fer ya though.

Anytime! Fun, I dono 'bout dat but time consuming....your telling me! Never in all my auto work have I seen such a hard to replace wheel bearing. I mean, it took me one whole day just to make the damn arbors.


Just seperate the upper and lower bj's and take the entire assembly (hub & spindle assembled) to a shop. W/O a press, that would honestly be your best bet. Plus, it makes possibly ruinin' the bearing their responsibility.

SloPoke

By "assemble" I mean the spindle and hub. Once you remove the caliper & rotor, seperate the upper and lower BJ's, that whole thing is the "assembly".


edit: Everything inside the orange line except the rotor is what I'm refering to as the "assembly".

Badmice1

Hey Slo - Thanks man. I got a pretty good idea through the Chilton diagrams. Good stuff with the pix reinforcement.

Just called around the area, and they say roughly $40 bucks to swap out the bearings.

Now...to the bearings...do I replace both inner & outer bearings? from the chilton diagram, there are 2 bearings (inner & outer?).

SloPoke

I think they're saying $40 per side cause they're thinkin' it's like the servicable bearing (easy). If it was me, I'd fax em something telling them the year and make of your truck and ask for a price quote to be faxed back. That way, when they tear in to it and realize they goofed up and it's more entailed than they expected, they're held to the quoted price and can't up it on ya.

2 bearing????? Only 1 on our trucks but it's wide enough to be 2 hehe. The servicable ones have an inner and outer but we don't. Our bearings have a single outer race and a split inner race but it's still only 1 bearing.

keisur

everything between the balljoints as assembled on the vehicle. don't try to press the bearing or anything out, just pull the whole thing between the balljoints and take it to the shop.

Badmice1

Sounds good. Do you guys have a ball park number how much it should cost to stick the new bearing in? From what Slo said...it's probably less? than $40?