What Puller For Front Bearings?

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by X5chemist

Guess I can sell the ones in my parts bin! Mine run smooth and straight.

Yeah you don't want to tempt Murphy's law. Having a spare keeps the damage away. But also you are better than most at avoiding potholes!

[andrewwynn]

Originally Posted by tempest411

I just ordered the Astro Pneumatic kit. I'll have to modify the largest press plate to work on a 90mm bearing, but it's the best candidate I've found short of a kit by Mueller-Kueps that goes for over $1k.

No modifying will be needed. The largest plate is barely a mm smaller than the OD of the bearing and much bigger than the ID of the outer race.

Lubricate the push rod and nut/washer.

If it's fighting you eg you need to bounce on the breaker bar, heat up the knuckle. (remove the abs sensor first).

The first one I did after applying about 250 ft·lb of torque and nothing moved I heated the knuckle up to about 250F and the bearing started to move with a loud bang! I added a little more heat and then as I turned the bolt/nut, got smaller bang every time the bearing moved a bit for the first 3/16" or so.

Other tip: put the bearing in three freezer for a few hours in a Ziploc bag. Especially if the knuckle is still warm from heating you can get 100F differential which nets you 0.003" difference in size makes it much much easier to install.

Pay attention to which side has the abs reluctor wheel! You can't flip it nondestructive after!

Last big helper too; clean the crap out of the hub and axle spline! Test fit the hub before you even put the bearing in. When clean enough it'll go on/off very easy. Then when putting back together leave the two giant bolts for the shock tower loose and turn the steering left/right if needed to encourage the axle to push though.

I spent over an hour once trying to encourage the axle though and out of desperation I loosened the strut bolts and the rubber boot acted like a spring and shot the axle right through!

Since then I have a tool I made for cleaning the hub. I cut the end off old CV axle that I can pound through over and over until it will basically fall though with gravity. The last few times though I'll wedge in a little tuft of steel wool.

[X5chemist]

159869 miles. Its first oil change since fixing the oil pan leak. I'll keep the bearings for future use.

[andrewwynn]

To remove the hub I used to take a metal plate behind the hub and a long M14 bolt to push the hub off but that that will destroy the dust cap on the back side of the hub. It's a cheap part so I just considered that part of doing biz but now I use a slide hammer to pull the hub and inner race.

I don't love hammering on the ball joint so I'll hang my 60# bag of tungsten on the inisde of the knuckle to reduce the impact on the ball joints.

[cn90]

Interestingly, these guys replaced the Front Bearing on a Honda Odyssey using regular tools lol...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edabaqTXBYw