Replacing front wheel bearings

[Henn28]

There is a parts shop near me that specializes in suspension stuff. They’ve got a shop with a zillion ton press and an old guy who has pressed every type of bearing in and out, ever made.

Those front bearings are glued in as well so it’s going going to take some force to get them out! To get mine in I froze the overnight, and heated the knuckle with a torch for a while. Not so hot that it could damage the bearing seals tho….more like warm. Then I pulled them in with a bearing puller kit until that got too difficult (about 70% in), and finished with a big hammer and appropriately sized cup that only engaged the outer race.

The hubs drew in pretty easily with the puller….definitely don’t use the hammer on these as you’ll screw up the bearing.

Then I realized I put my dust shield on backwards, so I took it all back to the shop and had to have it all pressed out again, and start over. The old-timer had a good laugh, and rightly so. Good times.

[Masospaghetti]

I just tried again with a big air compressor and a Nitrocat 1200 impact wrench. I could not get the bearing to move at all even with heat and full torque. I was bending my breaker bar by the end and literally crushing the grade 10 washers. I'm off to a machine shop on Tuesday to see what they say.

[andrewwynn]

Bigger bolt has much more force multiplication.

3/4x16 (fine pitch) is ≈ atan(0.062/ .75*π) =1.52°

1x14 … 1.3°

1.52/1.3=1.169 17% more mechanical advantage but it's really a lot more. The 3/4 starts to deform and then your bending and stretching metal etc. It's not even close.

My kid installed one of these bearings with an 18" ratchet to give you an idea of how not close it is.

If i had to guess how much easier the 1" is vs. the 3/4" that i self destructed every time: 2-3x harder with the 3/4. They should be uninvented.

Just a reality check: you did remove the c-clip!?

The first one i removed, i pretensioned until i almost broke my breaker bar; nothing.

Then i added heat until the knuckle was about 300f and it released with a literal bang like a small gun went off.


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