[PH3N0M]

So since there is no how to on this i figure'd id document how and what I'm doing. It's pretty straight forward just need some tooling. My dad has a bunch of crap in the garage that we're using, Including a bunch of pipe diameters like just smaller that the bearing, same size as the bearing, just larger than the bearing. Also a couple pieces of steel along with a couple 1/2 in bolts that will be used to pull the old/press in the new bearing. So far i have the wheel removed (19 mm), caliper bolts removed (7/8), caliper hanging, 6 bolts off both ends of the half shaft (8 mm allen), half shaft off, removed the nut holding the rear end of the stub on(32mm, shaved OD of the socket), pulled the rear half od the stub off.

I'm done for the night bc USC OSU is on, but I'll try n finish up before noon tomorrow. I spent actually ~1 hr of work, most of the time spent going to the store to get the socket, and other hardware, and shaving the OD of the socket. once I hit the stub out from under the car, i'll pull/press bearings and reinstall. Shouldn't be too bad once I get everything out, we'll see how motivated I am. I plan on doing an actual write up once I'm done, any questions suggestions feel free to ask. I self-diagnosed this issue so I am pretty sure this will fix the noise I heard which sounded like a low pitch hum only when weight was on the passenger side. I cannot wait for this to be normal it'll be back to tip top shape! gnight

 

[PH3N0M]

OK so today a bunch of time was spent searching for tools again lol. The snap ring out with 11" long nose pliers. I then was able to remove the bearing, after stripping 1 bolt, snapping another bolt in half, and it finally pushed out. Again pix will be put up once I'm all done, it took 1/2 " bolts n nuts, a big piece of steel behind the bearing, 3 pieces of steel in front to pull it, and washers, etc. With the bearing out, the new one in the fridge overnight, i used light sandpaper on the inside of the bearing seat, and then used brake cleaner and wiped it out. I heated the outside with a torch for 10 minutes, and was able to SLIP THE BEARING IN with very little effort, just got it lined up and it went in! So tomorrow my dad will remove the old bearing inner race from the hub, freeze it and we'll get it in and finish, again football took over so mayb e 2 hrs of work tonight.

 

[radkon]

wow good luck, I thought the unit was a bearing and hub assembly. :dunno:

 

[PH3N0M]

that's the front, the rear is different... from the posts I've read and what I saw for sale(no front bearings for sale, only whole hubs, and no whole rear hubs for sale)

 

[GTORod]

heating the Hub I would not recommend, I know it can be done that way but it tempers the metal and weakens it, sometimes it can cause stress cracks and the amount of heat generated to do this can damage the seal on the bearing, only a properly lubed bearing and a press tool or press itself should be used. And yes, the heat needed to expand the arm is no where near the heat generated by brakes and friction naturally.

 

[PH3N0M]

i heated the control arm where the bearing fits. I also heated the old bearing inner race that was stuck to the hub. I kept a cold damp rag on the hub in attempts to keep it cool as it was heated and I had a puller on it. It's not so easy bc there is very little land to seat the puller so it kept popping off. The puller I borrowed from my job was a man item tho, i have pix of it as well. Dad and I were able to heat the bearing and hit it while pulling, and involved task but it's worth it. I had to go to a fam dinner last night so we spent about30 minutes getting the old bearing off and left the hub in the freezer for installation tonight. Once the hub is in it's smoothe sailing. Again with a real write-up and proper tooling this can be done in a couple hrs, but i've spent so much time buying tools, modding tools, etc. All in all tho i spent ~$83 (bearing n tools) as opposed to $450 (parts n labor) from a local shop (difference of $367!), I didn't even call a dealer for pricing.

 

[GTORod]

next time buy the bearing and pay a machine shop 35 to 55 dollars for the labor to press in and out the hub, axle stub and bearing. Just a suggestion.

 

[PH3N0M]

seriously, the pulling of the old inner race from the hub was the worst, the removal of the hub from the rest of the bearing was easy, two steel bars and it pryed off. The installation of the hub onto the new bearing was the same as the bearing into the control arm, heat and frozen hub, slipped right in! Anyone kn ow the torque of the 32mm bolt that holds the hub ends together?

 

[PH3N0M]

NOTHING FEELS BETTER THAN GETTING SOMETHING CORRECT, AND A LITTLE LUCK!


All my problems have gone away and I can actually hear the exhaust note!

So here's what i did tonight, i heated the bearing to ~200 degrees, which is less than heat generated during driving. I know it was 200 by using a temperature gun (dad pulls random tools, etc. out of his ass). The hub was in the freezer, removed and slipped in as mentioned. Once that was in, we torqued the nut to who knows what to be honest. the torque wrench went to 150 ft lbs, the spec (as found via search for "rear bearing torque" in the drivetrain section) is 221. We then turned the nut maybe 1/8 turn, maybe 1/4 turn past 150ft lbs and figured we'd be fine, and we are! I bolted the shaft back up, then brakes upo, the wheel, and everything is fixed. I'm hearing things I never heard as I mentioned, which is great it's probably been making that more and more gradually siince I bought it back in march. I'm happy, i'll put up pix tomorrow or so, ttyl!

 

[radkon]

Congrats on getting it fixed :thumbs:

 

[PH3N0M]

thanks! I gave you a call last night in hopes to figure out what the torque value was for that nut, if you knew, but i was able to do a search and found it listed.

 

[radkon]

Ah that's the number I didn't recognize this morn! Sorry I didn't see/hear ya.

 

[PH3N0M]

it's fine! I Got pix but can't get to photobucket at work, so i'll have to upload them onto the forum later, since the attachment sizes are too small.

 

[MikeZ28]

What kinda noises was the bad hub/bearing making before you fixed it? And at what speeds or conditions?

 

[PH3N0M]

honestly it kept getting more and more noticable, eventually at 15/20 mph i could hear it. Originally i heard it at 55+, and it sounded like a low pitch drill or something, and the pitch went up with speed. After i got new wheels, the audible sounds changed, it was VERY pronounced from 45-57 mph(exactly) and then quieted until 65 and gradually got louder as i went faster. The sound tho always went away when weight was transferred to the drivers side, getting into a right lane on highway, sweeping right turns on highway, so I knew it was the passenger side and in the car could tell it was rear not front. Search for wheel bearing and other posts by myself i've posted a few times about this, one post was "this is bad" in the tech area.

 

[Pontiac Addict]

I was searching for something else and just wanted to make sure to post in here that there is a specific Kent Moore J-tool used to manually press the outer stub and bearing out and then press everything back together.

I purchased one of these tools from a dealership that closed. It fits GTOs and CTSs for sure, not sure what else.

 

[PH3N0M]

First off I take no responsibility if you injure yourself, others, or kill someone while doing this. As well if you car is still broken after I take no responsibility.

Ok so I haven't been able to access photobucket and didn't want small pics until now so here goes.....

First jack up the car and I suggest using jackstands,

then remove the wheel(19 mm),

Next remove the caliper bolts removed (7/8)

Hang the caliper preferably use wire to keep pressure off the brake line otherwise it'll hang by that, which could cause further problems... and remove the rotor

Remove the 6 bolts off both ends of the half shaft (8 mm allen), BE SURE to mark the half shaft at each end so you know how it lined up, see pic below

Half Shaft

Stub End (blurry)

With the half shaft off, remove the nut holding the rear end of the stub on(32mm, shaved OD of the socket, see pic) this is on pretty tight, use a bar in the lugs to keep the stub from spinning. breaker bar on socket, pipe on that and don't drop a nut(well DO drop the nut off the stub, oh, well, nevermind)
NUT

SOCKET

and pull the rear half of the stub off. Should just pull right off with a little force.

For the front half I used two steel bars and a few shims as I went to remove the stub and inner race of the bearing. prop the bar between the stub and i believe the parking break (be aware that this is your PARKING BREAK) and make a rowing motion, it'll push out little by little. The shims are for keeping your angle correct, otherwise you'll make too much verticle force and start to bend the bars(this may not make sense, but once you're this far you'll get it).

 

[PH3N0M]

Remove the snap ring holding the old bearing with 11" long nose pliers.

Then remove the bearing. This is really on there, see post 2 above. (1/2 " bolts n nuts, a big piece of steel behind the bearing, 3 pieces of steel in front to pull it, and washers, etc) BE LIBERAL WITH YOUR PENETRANT OF CHOICE
This is a before pic of the setup

With the bearing out, sandpaper the seat to make sure it's clean. give it a wipe with you're favorite toxic organic solvent then proceed

FUN PART, with the bearing in the freezer and torch in your right (or left if you're weird) hand. Heat the bearing seat, this should take about 5 10 minutes. Then throw the bearing in. Should be easy as cake.

Not so fun part...
Now to remove the inner race of the bearing from the stub. Place the stub in a vice. Heat the inner race as much as possible but be cautious (You will find out why shortly). we used an acetylene torch With a tap, hit the inner race around and around in the direction to remove it as much as possible. You are trying to get enough room to get the arms of

in there. Yeah once it's up a little you can use this puller to remove the inner race. THIS IS ON SUPER TIGHT. At least as tight as the bearing was on the seat.

***DISCLAIMER***WHEN TAPPING THE INNER RACE NOTE THAT YOU JUST PUT AN EXTREMELY HOT FLAME ON IT AND AS YOU TAP IT, CHIPS WILL FLY OFF, THEY WILL BE HOT. I cannot stress this as they would literally land on my skin and make me bleed immediately. it burned through the skin.

Once the inner race is removed, discard it and put the stub in the freezer.

To install stub, lightly grease the bearing and heat the bearing gently BE SURE NOT to heat the rubber gaskets and melt them, otherwise you can start over, this is not hard to do, but if you're an idiot I guess you'll melt the gaskets, in which case you'll have no idea until you drive the car and it's worse than before. We had a temperature gun that read temperature so we heated the bearing to ~200 which is definitely less than the heat generated from driving friction, so no worries. Then toss the stub back in.

Put the car back together in reverse and you should be good. She'll be quiet and you'll hear you exhaust again, this was such a good feeling and could easily be done in two days (16 hrs total most just waiting for things to chill, and grinding the socket)

Happy bearing changing out!!!

 

[GOATMAN 51]

Good write up, but why is everything so rusty?

 

[PH3N0M]

Good write up, but why is everything so rusty?

Cleveland??? (salt)

I dunno, everything works just fine (now that the bearing is new)

AND NOW I SHALL POST IN THE KILL SECTION........... MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA