Wayne:

Those kits look very much like what I used when I did the bearing R&R on my old X5. I remember having to get a bit creative with the slide hammer on the front bearings, but don't recall exactly what I did, and didn't take photos. It's not rocket surgery though; you basically just need a firm attachment of the spider that gets the central shaft of the slide as close as possible to the center of the hub, then hammer away. It takes a quite a bit of hammering to get it out though.

All the best as you tackle this job; post up pics if you can to help those who come after!
--
Dave

Thanks Dave. I'll be sure to take and post pics when I do this. Still haven't figured which bearing it the noisy one - it's only a faint noise but getting worse - so it may be a few weeks before I tackle it.

I guess my main worry with the bearing tools is are the sizes going to work? The bearing is 90 x 49 x 45 so a 91mm drift will be too large to fit the knuckle bore and the 86mm may be too small to seat on the bearing outer.

Just gonna have to try it and see. :dunno:

This is the tool set I bought to do my front bearings.

FWD Front Wheel Bearing Adapters

Bearing Splitter & Large Bearing Separator

you'll also need this to pull the race out.

I didn't use a slide hammer. The bearing kit yes but someone had recommended threaded steel rods from hardware store and ditch the ones in the kit. That was sound advice.

^That was me and because I bought the Harbor Freight wheel bearing kit -

The slide hammer kit posted looks exactly like what I used, the shallow monkey paw looking flange fits on the front hubs and also works well to push the axle out of the hub - I did both of mine wpoll, even though only one was bad.

The wheel bearing kit posted on the last page also looks excellent if you are doing the job in situ, like myself and Dave did.

Well, I finally tracked down the bad bearing; turned out to be the right rear.

I did buy the two tools I indicated in my earlier post, despite knowing that the bearing press set won't work for removing and installing the front bearing - the receiver cups are all too small. The set (Platinum or Heshi brand) works well on the rear and should also work for for driving in the hub on the front. Very well in fact; this was the easiest part of the whole task!

I used the slide hammer base to drive out the axle (slow and steady) and then whacked out the hub and inner of the bearing - took less than 20 whacks to totally remove the assembly.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psp028fozf.jpg

I had to drop the exhaust system in order to pull the rear axle (half-shaft) and doing this gave me enough room to replace the bearing without undoing any suspension parts, so no wheel alignment! :thumbup:

All in all, I'm glad to have it done and have a quiet rolling chassis again. :D

Hi guys,

Just curious what Adapter Kit you need to press the OUTER bearing race from the Knuckle (once the Hub +INNER race is removed).

Can someone link with pics to ebay or amazon or whatever website regrading the proper Bearing Adapter Kit?

I wonder if the "Standard FWD Bearing Adapter Kit" sold on ebay for $55 works...

Any kit with sizes like this will work...

23Pc FWD Front Wheel Drive Bearing Removal Adapter Puller Pulley Tool Kit /W Box | eBay

Some folk have replaced the threaded rod with something a bit stronger.

I tried to get one of these from AliExpress but got screwed around by the seller and gave up. Got a local set that isn't large enough for the front but worked well on the rear. Will get a local engineering firm to make me a 102mm receiver if I ever need to change a front bearing.... ;)

Front Wheel Bearing R&R
 

I own a similar bearing press tool. The problem with the kit is it uses a 3/4 inch bolt which is only good for about 11 tons of force. I stripped three of these bolts changing two bearings before I upgraded to a 1" bolt (31T force).

The 3/4 rod would probably work for the rear bearing as it felt like overkill when I used the 1" upgrade on the rear bearing.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I've seen this quoted a number of times. Just curious where you're getting this figure.

Grade 8 3/4 SAE is good for a minimum of 50,000lb tensile strength. That's more than enough to yank a wheel bearing, IMO. In this application, I wouldn't use anything BUT a hardened grade 8 threaded rod/bolt (black oxide coated, not plated) from a reputable supplier (McMaster, Grainger, etc). Is your figure above for Gr5 or maybe Gr2?

I also grease the threads of the puller; helps tremendously.