Quote:
Originally Posted by Effduration
Can you please keep us informed? I am about to tackle rear bearings using AWR-DIY and woudl be eager to hear what you encounter. MY rear subframe is very rusty.
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Sure thing. So far it's not going so well. The parking brake cables were quite a fight to get out of the wheel carriers. They were seriously welded in place. I had to get them red hot and it took all that I had with the punch and BFH.
This was mostly a Chicago car, so there is some weird corrosion. Mostly in the rear end. The front and middle are actually pretty clean. It looks like the rear sat in a puddle or something. It doesn't have the trailer hitch on it, but if it did, it looks like it was being used on the boat ramp.
I was able to separate the wheel bearings from the carriers easily. No issue with the bolts off the car, and just a few taps it came apart. The three jaw puller has not been able to separate the bearing from the hub so far. I wanted to try to slide hammer but it was too late for hammering.
So I moved on to the ball joints. I bought the $60 bavauto press kit from ecs. It fits nicely. I put the wheel carrier in the vise. The impact broke my one 24mm chrome socket. I've never had a 24 mm impact socket. I need one. Using my other 24 mm Chrome socket with the breaker bar and cheater pipe, pulling downward, broke the swivel base of my vise. Haha. There was a weird cracking noise I thought I was just breaking the socket again.. The ball joint still hasn't moved. I try to avoid using the torch I can't take the smell anymore, but I think I just need to start going to that straight away.
I am probably just going to take the new bearings to the shop, there's a old NAPA Auto parts nearby that has a machine shop in the back, I don't think they charge too much just to do a press. I don't want to hammer them in.