hub bearings

[wrexhamphil]

Hi to all, looking for some advise on how to remove the front and rear inner and outer wheel bearings.
Having removed the hubs from my doner car and removed the drive shafts i want to replace all the bearings.
i tend to be a little heavy handed ,so thought i might get some tips before i do real damage.

Cheers. Phil Hughes

[Andy302]

Hi Phil,

Cant help on the rears as like many others Ive worked out its more cost effective and easier to send the hubs off to Wards and get them fully reconditioned.

The front bearings are quite easy to get out, you need to remove the actual bearing races and you will be left with the bearing shells on the inside and outside of the front hub. Give it a good clean to remove all the old grease and you will be able to see that each bearing has two small cut outs in the hub behind them when viewed from the opposite side to the bearing you are trying to remove. (looking through the stub axle hole). Carefully, using a drift placed in the cut out and on the back of the bearing shell, drive the shells out hitting in each of the cut outs in turn to drive evenly - simple! Oh, keep the old shells as they might come in handy when pressing the new shells in.

Thats how I did mine, dont know if anyone else has any other ideas?

Cheers & good luck!

[wrexhamphil]

hi john, many thanks for the advise, getting wards to do it might be the best plan, Do you have there number?

cheers Phil

[wrexhamphil]

hi Andy, many thanks for the advise, getting wards to do it might be the best plan, Do you have there number?

cheers Phil

[Purple AK]

I'll second Andy's advise For £75 a side (it was then) they come back fully reconditioned and correctly shimmed up inc new pivot bushes. You can spend that on parts doing it yourself

[NeilT]

Phil,

Ward Engineering's phone number is 01375 846986. However, once you have removed the bearing outer races, they will have a number engraved on them. Take this to your local bearing factors and they will be able to supply equivalent bearings which are usually cheaper.

Neil.

[grahamf]

Hi. I'm at that stage too. I have a set of rear hubs which I need to remove the bearings from. As they're ally castings I'd rather not wreck them, so are there any tried and tested methods for removing the bearings? I'd like to do them myself, unless of course it requires a 20T press!
many thanks
Graham

[TonyD]

The easiest way to replace rear bearings is :-

1. Place the whole hub unit in a vice so that it cannot move.

2. using a suitable drift( ie an old socket) on the end of the inner hub unit and give it some welly with a large hammer.This will remove the inner shaft on which the bearings run, the drive shafts turn and the wheels bolt onto. You can then see the two bearings in the hub unit.

3. Then using another suitable drift ( an old socket extension or large blunt screwdriver is fine) drift out the old bearing carrier using blows of equal force on different parts of the bearing carrier, you will see two cut outs in the alloy casting than enable you to do this.

4. Turn the casting around in the vice and use the same procedure to get the other ( inner) bearing out.

Re-assembly is the same procedure in reverse Remember cleanliness is vital and use plenty of good quality grease to pack the new bearings.

Cheers,

Tony

[grahamf]

Thank you Tony. Thats a great help.

The inner shaft also has a bearing race on it, next to the flange which carries the wheel. What's the best way to remove that? My thoughts are to mig a couple of bars to it, place across the vice and repeatedly hit the end of the shaft with a large hammer!:thumb:

I'm sure there's a better way!

Graham

[Andy302]

Graham, there is "send them to Wards!!!" :thumb: :thumb: