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Stupid Wheel Bearing

martinmalley

CEG'er
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
139
Location
Central Ohio
So I knew it was a bit "soft" but I let it go a few months. Just long enough to wipe out both front tires. So I finally get a new bearing pressed in (which meant the 18-year-old daughter had to car pool/share with mom, which led to hours of "why now whinning").

The axle wasn't sliding through the hub on the return install, so I drew it though with the axle nut.

Trip to the tire store, bearing worse than before. Check the axle nut: loose. After tightening, now the bearing just as bad as before. Rats.

So, either I damaged the new bearing pulling the axle through or driving it 10 miles with the axle nut improperly torqued. (A quick call to the machine shop: dude says the hub and spindle looked fine and everything went together as it should have.)

So now I'll have to pull it apart again and repeat (more whinning sure to come). This time, my strategy is to clean the hub gear (teeth?) and the spline to make sure it axle can move in and out the way it should.

To all this, I say rats again!
 
bearing could have been pressed in incorrectly which would cause problem or it could just be worn out.

axle nut needs to be torque to 210 ft/lbs
 
I think the word you were looking for is SPLINES :)

And yes - it isn't easy to press those bearings in perfectly straight. The most foolproof solution is to buy a new hub assembly with the bearing pressed in from the factory.
 
I know they are splines on the shaft, but I wasn't sure if they were spines on the female side. I guess they are!

I have a lot of confidence in my machine shop guy.

I'm considering buying a larger torque wrench. My practice has always been to crank the son of a gun on has best I can with a breaker bar, as a standard torque wrench doesn't go that high. And I have had cars that ate wheel bearings until I started going above the recommended torque (80s tercel wagon 4x4). But the tire shop guy said you can over torque the bearings as well.
 
yeah, I tightened it as much as I could with my girl pressing the brakes but it just wasn't enough, close but didn't torque. So I took the center cap out of the wheel and put the car on the ground, pulled the e-brake and then finished torquing the axle nut. This was on the front right...

I've had a Craftsman Digitork torque wrench that goes up to 80 lbs/ft and it's been great for years so when Sears put there torque wrenches on sale for club members I bought the same model in the 1/2" size which goes up to 250 lbs/ft. They are nice because they read in both Nm and Lbs/Ft. But if you don't have one that goes that high, you can always rent one from AutoZone from their loan-a-tool, i believe it's about 100 which you get back on return.
 
.... This time, my strategy is to clean the hub gear (teeth?) and the spline to make sure it axle can move in and out the way it should.

It is normal when installing the axle into the hub that it a a tight fit. The manual shows a axle installer which pulls the driveshaft through. I have done the same way you used with the axle nut to pull it through.
 
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