wheel bearing saga

Hello,

Today I attempted to replace the right front wheel bearing -- without
much success...

I took of the caliper, and undid the three bolts that hold the hub/
bearing assembly to the steering knuckle -- everything went smoothly
up to this point.

Unfortunately, the bearing assembly would not want to come out of the
steering knuckle -- I attempted to use hub puller and the slide hammer
-- to no avail... I even tried taking it off with a three jaw gear
puller -- same result...It is SO stuck that all these tools simply
prove useless...

Any suggestions/comments would be highly appreciated...

Thanks,

Alex

 

Oh, I forgot to mention -- yes, I removed the axle nut as well...

 

You forgot to mention what kind of car this is also.

 

Sorry --- was too tired after the whole day of banging -- '01 Chrysler
Concorde

 

Get some good penetrating oil and spry the spline of the axle and the
bearing itself and it should just come right off.

Glenn

 

thread the bolts bac into the bearing a few threads and take a air hammer
and use the head of the bolts to drive out the bearing
this will drive out the most stubburn bearing

 

Tried to remove it again today -- no luck. I used a chisel set as well
as penetrating oil, followed up with an attempt of getting it off
using PB blaster.... it just does not want to move...

I basically succeeded in chiseling through metal, but the assembly
shows no signs of moving...

I think I am going to give up on trying to remove it and will replace
the following:

1) steering knuckle
2) control arm (ball joint boot is starting to crack -- so might as
well do it now)
3) CV shaft (I doubt very much that I will have any more luck getting
the shaft out of the bearing)
4) the hub assembly -- what I wanted to replace in the first place

So, the plan now is to remove the knuckle from the control arm -- with
the bearing still in place. Remove the control arm. After this I want
to remove the steering knuckle from the strut.

I am not sure it it will work this way, b/c the service manual says to
remove the bearing prior to removing the knuckle...


Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated...

 

P.S. There is a LOT of rust on the undercarriage of the car -- but I
did not come across posts about the hub assembly being completely
frozen solid inside the knuckle -- has anyone seen that before?

 

Not I, but I guess if you're in the rust belt, it could be a problem.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Yes - you can remove the knuckle with the hub/bearing assy. still in it.
But if you can't push the axle out of the bearing, then you'll of
course have to remove all three as a unit. (Dont't forget to remove
wheel speed sensor from knuckle before removing knuckle from strut.)

Also get a new knuckle-to-ball joint clamping bolt and nut (they may
come with the knuckle or control arm - not sure). Torque that bolt by
the book - you definitely don't want that one too loose or too tight.

The ball joint stud comes out of the knuckle without any puller once the
clamping bolt is removed - stud is not tapered - makes disassembly easy.

You may already know this, but final-tighten the control arm-to-frame
bolt only after the vehicle weight is fully on the wheel (car back on
ground) so the control arm bushing does not rip apart from being
over-rotated.

You'll need your alignment checked/adjusted afterwards.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

p.s. -

You can save some money by buying the knuckle from the junk yard - $35
is a typical price - a non-wear item. Just be sure to get one from any
LH car (Concorde, Intrepid, 300M, LHS) that has 16" or larger wheels
from the factory (either the number '15' or '16' will be cast into the
knuckle - you want one with '16' cast into it). A junk yard one will
have the bearing in it, but it would be a definite gamble to re-use the
bearing on the junk yard part.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Bill Putney wrote:

Should have said "...any 2nd gen LH car..."

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Thank you Bill,

I will get the parts and go at it again, though I am not sure when my
next "window of opportunity" for car work will be -- may be in two
weeks.

For now I am driving it as is -- there is absolutely no freeplay in
the wheel when you grasp at 12 and 6 o'clock and try to rock it.
Though now I know that the bearing is bad for sure because as you spin
the wheel you can here clicking noise about each quarter of a turn
coming out of the bearing and you "feel" that it turns roughly.
Fortunately, it is not so bad that you would need to apply any extra
force to get over the "rough" spots when you turn the hub with the
wheel off though.

Once again -- many thanks,

Alex

 

Hello,

Another question -- I just picked up the steering knuckle (thank you
for mentioning the "16" mark that is cast on the back side). The
bearing inside of it looks pretty good -- came off an '02 with about
60K miles. I was wondering if there is any way to tell how good or bad
the bearing is -- spins freely without any signs of binding.

I am still inclined to replace it prior to install with a brand new
SKF one -- does it make sense or it is a waste of nearly $100.

Thank you,

Alex

 

If you get a front end part off a junk vehicle make sure that the reason it
is in the junk yard is not due to front end damage or you may have tire wear
problems

Just a thought
Glenn

 

The bearings are only good for around 80 to 110k miles. So you can
figure chances are good you'll have to replace that one not too far down
the road (literally).

As far as the lack of freeplay you mentioned in your previous post -
I've replaced 8 or 9 bearings in my personal cars over the years. Not
one of them had any free play when I replaced them due to noise. The
noise they make is due to pitting, and they have what's called pre-load
- hence noise without play.

The clicking noise you heard may be the CV-joint. But if you replace
the bearing and axle, it will be taken care of either way.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Good point.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

remove the steering knuckle and takle it somewhere that has a 20 ton press it will
come out that way
i have one at my house if you are near howell michigan

 

If his prediction that the axle is also frozen in the bearing is
correct, that won't help. But I do think the axle will come out with a
good 3-jaw puller.

One post puzzled me. He said that he used a 3-jaw puller when
attempting to separate the bearing from the knuckle. Seems to me that
that would tend to push the axle from the bearing ID - and be
ineffective in separating the bearing from the knuckle.

Or perhaps the OP's pseudonym is a clue as to what's going on here?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Hello Bill,

No, the pseudonim is the consequence of the reason why I first created
this account -- to post in reply to the Google's April 1st joke this
year (TiSP).

Yes, I tried three jaw gear puller to see whether I could get the axle
to loosen up. At the time the idea was to see whether it was time to
give up on the knuckle, or whether I should proceed with removing the
existing knuckle and going the press route. Since the axle has a
considerable amount of slack in it, thus I was basically figuring that
it would have enough slack in it to budge enough to break loose the
rust seal between the hub and the axle. Unfortunately, I started to
damage the threads on the gear puller, rather than achieving any
result -- hence I had to give up.


Once again, THANK YOU all for your help (especially Bill & Glenn). I
will post an update when I actually get to replace the knuckle...

Thanks,

Alex