I'm pretty sure I'm losing my passenger front wheel bearing, so I went ahead and ordered the whole set for all four wheels on closeout from Rockauto. (Paying less for four of them at once than what one at non-closeout pricing would cost with shipping included.)
So anyway, I've read in another thread that the bearings are pressed in and will need to be pressed out. Is this something I should be able to do myself with some creativity and a vise? I know any auto shop could do it for me, but that cuts into my beer drinking time.
How many miles are on the car? How did you arrive at the diagnosis - funny noises/shaking/what ?
Always want to know about funny noises - sometimes I think I drive with the radio off more than it is on when a "new note" intrudes on the tunes... Gotta love old cars.
Incidentally, sdoan just did an XLNT tutorial with great photos on the front bearings - it's in Repair Guides. There are a number of threads on the rears - one I can think of is that of MootsMan's. I believe keith did one as well?
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
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It's definitely doable (just barely) with a large vice. I augmented mine with a large C-clamp. Check out all the pictures in the repair guides section. the car is way quieter with the new bearing. It's a complicated job (for me) so I didn't drink any beer until I was done.
It's doing a fairly constant low volume squeal at steady speed or while slowing, and gets more pronounced and grindy sounding with turning either direction. There is also very minor slop in the wheel when twisted side to side that cannot be removed by snugging down the axle nut. The noise goes away under acceleration - which suggests to me that the outer race is getting hogged out, and the force of acceleration puts the pressure on a part of it that doesn't get as much wear and tear. I suppose I could be wrong about that, but the CV joint and brakes appear to be fine.
Well after reading the guide, I think I'm going to just have somebody else deal with the bearing pressing.
I will also apparently not have to worry about breaking the torque on the axle nut. Whomever worked on it last apparently didn't torque it at all as it wasn't even finger tight when I checked it out. I was able to spin it one notch tighter by hand. This removed some of the slop, but no doubt based on the sounds I am hearing, it's too late for the bearings.
Snax wrote:Well after reading the guide, I think I'm going to just have somebody else deal with the bearing pressing.
I will also apparently not have to worry about breaking the torque on the axle nut. Whomever worked on it last apparently didn't torque it at all as it wasn't even finger tight when I checked it out. I was able to spin it one notch tighter by hand. This removed some of the slop, but no doubt based on the sounds I am hearing, it's too late for the bearings.
Last week i removed the seals and bearings from left and right hub's and cleaned up the hubs.
dissassemly requires a snap ring remover, a vise, a large hammer and a large bearing separator to remove one bearing race (or you can do it with chisel) and a puller.
i dropped them off at the local auto machine shop along with new seals and bearings from Rock Auto.
they charged me 55.00 to install seals and bearings in both hubs.
Love those Tercell 4x4 wagons but they sure suffer from road noise.
Well I guess it does make sense to remove them myself. It's not like I have to worry about destroying them in getting them out.
$55 or similar money seems worth the trouble in the hands of somebody who actually knows what they are doing. I apparently should have ordered seals too. :/
I was wondering why my bearings looked so good, but I failed to notice the torn up hub until now, after finally getting the new bearings pressed into the spindle for $10. With the old inside inner race placed back on the hub, there is clearly slop, which is likely what has been causing the noise.
I suspect that this hub was trashed once before with a catastrophic bearing failure and it just took untold thousands of miles for the bearings to loosen up enough to notice.
Anyway, I've got a j/y spindle and hub on the way. I obviously don't need the spindle, but that's the way they sell it. So I get to choose whether to install the J/Y replacement as is, or rip apart potentially decent bearings to replace them with my new ones. I'm thinking I might just seal the new bearing combo I have now and see what happens with the complete J/Y one.
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I finally got this completed yesterday. Turns out the bearings in the replacement spindle were already trashed, so I had to pop the hub out anyway. Not a big deal though. It's back on the road without any grinding or squealing. Hopefully my fuel economy improves as well since it was no doubt creating additional brake drag.
