Messed up pressing a wheel bearing.

I was working on my sister in laws Tacoma (1997). Got everything apart and started pressing everything back together. I put the bearing in first , everything went smoothly. Put the snap ring in and then the oil seal. When I started putting the hub back in I guess the inner bearing was cocked a little bit and bent the cage on the bearing. What's the trick to keeping the bearing straight while pressing in the hub. I blew the bearing up so its trash now, but I would like to know what I did wrong. Thanks for any tips.

Unfortunately, I'm not brave enough for a second attempt. She is taking it to a machine shop.

 

This is how it's suppose to go together. Auto hub. Bottom of pic.

 

I was talking to a guy in my diesel tech class and he said that he has done several of these bearings. I screwed up by not supporting the bottom of the bearing as I was pressing in the hub. He said he was willing to help me with it so I will post up the results if when we do it. I can't find a good write up on how to do this whole process.

 

Try downloading the factory repair manual. It should give the procedure and any precautions in there.

 

I have it. Doesn't say much other than order of operation when installing. Doesn't really go into detail.

 

push the bearing on to the hub flange, so you're pushing on the inner races.

if you push the hub flange into bearing you push the back side inner race out ( as you have found)

 

I do t think you can press the bearing onto the hub because the hub has to to be the knuckle with a snap ring and oil seal on top. Then the hub goes in. Makes sense about how to support the inner/outer races. Thanks for the replies gentleman.

 

Never mind I see what your saying now.

 

So the issue was the hub was damaged around the base. Instead of being a uniform shaft the bearing had ate the hub up near the base. I didn't realize this because it looked perfectly machined. Haha. So for anyone doing this project yourself make sure your hub is good. After I replaced the hub everything went together smoothly. I'll try to post a pic of it this eve so people can have a reference.