Front Wheel Bearing replacement - DIY using loaner kit

I replaced my right wheel bearing a couple/few months ago & was asked if I took pics. I did not. I just replaced the left & this time I felt confident enough to try my 1st "how to". This was done on an '01 with 240,000-ish. Bearings had never been replaced.

This was done with an auto parts loaner kit. At the time I did not find any how to’s on TW doing it this way, so maybe this will be helpful to some. Since this is more to show how to I did it with the kit, I would also utilize one Tim’s how to vids for info on greasing, seating depth, snap ring, why to use a certain size adapter, etc.

I considered taking the knuckle to someone & having it done. The snap ring on the 1st one was a PITB. I was quoted 50.00-100.00 depending on the PITB factor. The following is why I decided to do it myself. 1. I like the satisfaction of doing it myself. It's almost always worth the, yes, PITB factor. 2. I can clean up rust, etc. See what's going on. 3. At any point I could change my mind & take it to someone if needed.

I bought a hub because I was not going to deal with the race. That is your call. Might not be a bad idea to buy one local & return it if you find you don't need it.

These are the loaner sets you'll need. Auto Zone & O'reilly's has them. Do yourself a favor & inspect them to make sure everything is in the kit. The last time I did this I actually rented the same one from each store. Glad I did because each had something wrong with it.

Hub puller
Slide Hammer - You may not need this.



To remove the axle I remove the sway bar link & the four lbj bolts & then feed the axle through, towards the differential. That's just how I do it. Whatever your way is, when you've achieved the axle removal, for purposes of keeping the hub locked, the only thing left out of the pic is the sway bar link. For me, the four lbj bolts went back on, just snugged up.
You can lock the steering wheel, but it'll do it on it's own once you give that hub it's 1st tug.





The kit isn't perfectly tailored to our needs. One thing it was missing was something small enough to push the hub out. I MacGyveretted this out of an old axle nut. It fit like a glove.



The nut on the backside will eventually bottom out as the hub is extracted. That's when I found a couple of things to stack behind the axle nut. I wouldn't do this when you first start on the hub because you wanna keep it a nice & straight as you can.
These are what I used - another old axle nut & the bearing I removed when I did the ECGS.



You will run out of room on the front as the hub works it's way out. I took one of the spacers from the kit & wedged it like so (I forgot to take the pic when I was doing the hub, so pay no mind to the bearing). Other thing is if you are looking to save the hub, you'll need to add another wedge otherwise you'll lose a lug nut stud or two.



Next, the seal. You can use the slide hammer if you want. A chisel worked just fine for this rusty ol' thing. I also did the rear seal at this point & then you can reach in & remove the spacers. (No pic.) A chisel worked just fine.



I didn't do this last time & it may have been what made all the difference with the snap ring, so listen up. Oh, & I just had a ball joint press hanging around from another job, as well as an old bearing. The hub kit will work just fine for this. Press the snap ring in a little to free it up from the lip of the knuckle. There is a perfect sized ring in the kit for this. Then get a smaller adapter & press the bearing in a pinch so it is not pressed up against the snap ring (sorry, no pic).



So once you get the snap ring out .... bearing time



Here's the setup I used



Do whatever cleanup you wanna do paying attention to where the seal will go. I cleaned up the back after everything was pressed in & the spindle was rotated. I just stuffed a piece of paper towel in the hub.

& once again, yup, bearing time.



Oil seal -





So once again, there's not a good adapter that can brace the bearing while you press in the hub. Just so happened I mutilated the bearing from my last job, so I said hey, wonder if that'll work. Sure enough.... & if you can't find anything suitable, at this point you'll also have an old bearing you can mutilate....
I needed a little something more to be able to put the backing plate on, so I used the thin spacer....



So once the hub is in, off with the four lbj bolts & rotate the knuckle. Put the thin spacer on the back of the hub. Then lightly tap the thicker one on. & lastly, the oil seal. That's just the adapter I used to as a buffer to tap on the seal.



& boila!

 

wowza - there's a kit. I heard McGyver is ending after 5 seasons.