Front Wheel Bearing Disaster.. please help ;(

jammin1911 · Post by **jammin1911** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:50 am

Heh, so I'm way over my head in an attempt to replace my front wheel bearing. It was getting really bad so this had to be done. I would have taken it to a shop but they were quoting me several hundreds of dollars to do the job ($320 + parts was my cheapest quote).. money I don't have.

Also, it seemed straight forward enough from what others had said and from reading the autozone step by step.

However, since I'm absolutely horrible at working on cars and should never have attempted this, I'm stuck.

I'm posting this as a last desperate attempt to hopefully get some input and get my car back on the road before monday when i need it to drive to work. I dont have the option of not going so I'll be taking a cab to and from work otherwise and that means I make somewhere around $0.00 per day

I don't work close.

Anyhow, I've taken some pics and captioned them - try to ignore the rust this thing is pretty bad. I've already got the old bearing completely out and the new one pressed in.

I'm mostly confused about the oil seal that I have left to install - I remember having to tap it out so I know it was "pressed" (fairly loosely) in to something but I don't know what. Hopefully one of your tercel gurus can look at these pics and tell me exactly what I've done wrong.

Also, the seal on the opposite side (the hub side) might be in backwards or something???

I also have this thin metal ring which I have no idea what it is - it came with the seals - I didn't remove anything of the sort when I was taking it apart. Any ideas??

Thanks guys!!!!

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:45 pm

ok, well the rubber seal goes on the wheel side of the knuckle, and has to be installed at the same time as the wheel bearings. the metal ring goes on the CV shaft side, it has to be tapped into the knuckle and sits inside of a "C" shape to prevent crap from getting in, it will look like this: -] when i did my wheel bearings, the metal ring bent, and i couldn't use it, so i did without it, no problems so far. if i was a hardcore offroad guy it would probably be a differant story.

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:46 pm

oh yeah, the rubber "lip" on the rubber seal should face inwards, you don't want that part exposed.

jammin1911 · Post by **jammin1911** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 1:48 pm

Mac wrote:ok, well the rubber seal goes on the wheel side of the knuckle, and has to be installed at the same time as the wheel bearings. the metal ring goes on the CV shaft side, it has to be tapped into the knuckle and sits inside of a "C" shape to prevent crap from getting in, it will look like this: -] when i did my wheel bearings, the metal ring bent, and i couldn't use it, so i did without it, no problems so far. if i was a hardcore offroad guy it would probably be a differant story.

thanks for the input

can you clarify what you mean by it needs to be installed at the same time as the bearing? did i screw myself here? :-/

i still dont really get where it would go...... were talking about the smaller seal right? the one that i have left over that I took a pic of on the paper towel?

keith · Post by **keith** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:20 pm

It looks like you have the Koyo type bearing. The NSK type is a one piece, they are interchangeable. The seals go in afterward so you didn't screw yourself here. If you can see the spring inside the seal, its upside down. The opening goes in. The metal piece that you have left over (dust deflector) goes outside of the inner seal and holds the seal in place. One thing that helps to get it in is to put it in the freezer overnight, or at least for an hour. The colder you get it, the smaller it becomes. It is difficult to get it in without bending it. BTW, the sharp end goes in first, toward the outside of the car.

The inner seal should only be put in about 1/8" below the surface (3.3mm or .13") not much further. That will leave room for the dust deflector.

Looking at your pictures, I'm not sure if the seal is in backwards or not. When you look inside the seal, yo can see a fine spring formed into a circle that hold teh inner surface of the seal to the axle. The opening where you can see this spring goes toward the bearing. I think that the seal also has a shaped surface that points away from the bearing also.

I'm putting in a new front axle tomorrow and I'll shoot a picture of mine if you still need it.

It looks like you repacked your wheel bearings with Mobil One grease. Personally I use NAPA hi temp Moly-Lith grease, but to each his own. I don't know if my choice is any better, I've just been very happy with it and have not seen anything that would motivate me to change.

jammin1911 · Post by **jammin1911** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:27 pm

Hi Keith, thanks for the post. I still wasnt sure about which way to face the seals but you made that very clear.

I actually did get the NSK bearing, not Koyo.

Also, I tried to get that hi temp moly lith from the local NAPA since I've seen you mention it a few times so I wanted to give that a shot - they didn't know what I was talking about however and recommended that I use this stuff. It's not Mobil One, I think it was penzoil "premium wheel bearing grease"

I wasn't even going to replace the OEM grease but I got a bunch of junk in there while I was screwing around with it and decided to clean them out and start fresh.

I'm going to give this all another look tomorrow and hopefully get it sorted - I really need to drive the car to work on monday haha

keith · Post by **keith** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:18 am

I use the Koyo because thats what they sold me. In the FSM, it shows the NSK as a one piece bearing, you can't remove the balls and cage like you can in the Koyo.

Is the grease you are using a synthetic grease? Most of the red greases I've seen have been red.

Anyway, I'm getting ready to start on replacing the drivers side axle. I'll take pics.

keith · Post by **keith** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:21 am

Here are pics

The seal has an upper lip to seal against the CV joint, but the opening still faces the bearing.

I should have noticed that you are in Canada. I should have advised that you bring the hub inside overnight and leave the ring outside or in the freezer, which ever is colder.

Didn't see this one coming.

The upper strut mount broke and the strut fell out. #1 son won't be driving it to work Monday unless I can get a part today, not likely.

Typrus · Post by **Typrus** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 10:32 am

I had that break doing 15mph through a mud bog and hit a sink-hole in the middle of the mini-lake of mud. BLAM! and suddenly it pulls hard left.
I also lost my first mudflap that day... Now I'm down to 2... I might just take them off...

Mac · Post by **Mac** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:53 pm

keith wrote: The seals go in afterward so you didn't screw yourself here.

what are you talking about? how are you going to install the rubber seal after you've pressed in the bearing into the knucle and the hub into the bearing?

keith · Post by **keith** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 2:28 am

You don't need a press for the hub. It can be removed and reinserted with hand tools. In fact, I usually just let the hub get pulled into place when I install the axle and torque down the nut.

So jammin1911, did ya drive or take a taxi? Enquiring minds want to know.

Edited 1 time

jammin1911 · Post by **jammin1911** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:43 pm

I drove to work!!

The seal that was on there in the picture is the wrong one! I had them backwards which is why everything was so confusing.

I had Toyota fax me an exploded diagram, it was a horrible fax but good enough to see that the smaller seal went on the hub side, not the larger one like I had it. It fit so perfect I thought for sure it was right.

Thanks again for the help all!

Next project one day is to get rid of the extreme shake/clunk i have whenever i hit bumps. I get ridiculous wheel hop also if the wheels spin for any reason, even on snow sometimes.

I'm pretty sure its the shocks but would it be something else like ball joints?

keith · Post by **keith** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 8:53 pm

well, it looks like your strut didn't fall out like mine did so I guess the upper mounting block isn't the source. Look closely at your swaybar end bushings, thats where I'd start. They not only control body roll, they locate the outer end of the lower control arm in relation to the rest of the vehicle. If the bushings are worn out, the lower control arm could move back and forth, causing the wheel to move fore and aft in the wheel well.

While you had the hub off, you should have noticed if there was any slop in the lower ball joint as well as the outer tie rod.

jammin1911 · Post by **jammin1911** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:01 pm

i did mess around with the ball joint and tie rod a bit and I couldn't detect any play - I wasn't sure if I would be able to notice it or not just by pulling on them, etc.

I did however notice that both boots have a slight rip, one of them doesn't seem to have leaked anything but one of them is definitely oozing a bit - I'll need to replace all of that in the near future.

I want to replace all of that stuff once I get my 240sx back on the road so I can take this thing off -- I want to do all struts and springs and as many bushings as I can. The frame rails need some new metal also.

I *really* wish I had a better way to source parts from the US, you guys literally pay close to half of the cost of all of this little stuff.

It's just that after border fees and shipping it's becomes not worth the trouble with barely any savings.

I should maybe drive to buffalo there is probably something relatively close to the border I could pick up some parts from, its only a little over an hour away.

My fear in doing this I guess though is that if I need to exchange parts, etc being the wrong ones (and it seems easy to do with this car, since it's sort of a weird one) it makes it a huuuge pain in the butt.

takza · Post by **takza** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 5:43 am

jammin1911 wrote:I drove to work!!

The seal that was on there in the picture is the wrong one! I had them backwards which is why everything was so confusing.

I had Toyota fax me an exploded diagram, it was a horrible fax but good enough to see that the smaller seal went on the hub side, not the larger one like I had it. It fit so perfect I thought for sure it was right.

How 'bout a wheel bearing writeup? Explain all those details in one...easy to find place?