Front Diff Bearing Diagnosis

Truck is back together now,and better than ever! I was able to get the CV axle out by putting my pry bar on the little "ears" on the CV, and a few whacks as hard as I could with a 3lb BFH, turning and hitting, and it popped out. I read somewhere that the little circlip releases easier with hard, fast hits rather than prying. I put a 3ft pry bar on it and pulled as hard as I could.

Bearing removal/installation was actually easy with the removal tool and a race driver set loaned from the parts store.

Word of caution, be careful with the threads of your CV. I had to get a whole new one.

Truck is silent now. Awesome.

 

Nice job!!

 

Awesome! I'll be tackling mine in a couple weeks.

 

Make sure you rent or borrow a bearing puller set to get the CV axle out of the hub bearing,a race/seal driver, and a slide hammer.

I didnt have the slide hammer and wish I did to get the CV out of the diff.

 

Interesting. I replaced my opposite side bearing/hub assembly not long ago and it came off easily. Or did you not remove it as a whole assembly?

 

I removed the hub/bearing assembly in one piece. For those of us that are in the rust belt, everything usually needs a little persuasion. I wish we had the luxury of things never rusting like those out west.

 

Well, I just got done with my test drive after removing the needle bearing and installing the ECGS bushing. No more vibration noise. I used the removal tool from ECGS to get the bearing out. Just a word of caution...you'll have to use a punch and a hammer to tap the insert part of the tool behind the bearing. After pulling the bearing out, I found that the tapping broke off a good chunk of the bearing outer race; which is another good reason to make sure you stuff something into the differential before beginning the process (I used a plastic grocery bag). I was able to fish out the broken piece with a magnet. I reinstalled the same cv axle. I didn't see any issues with it and the boots were still in good shape.