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Front wheel bearing replacement; an illustrated guide


 
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Nuclear Chicken
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Joined: 26 Feb 2009
Posts: 561
Location: Nordy Land

PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2010 20:30    Post subject: Front wheel bearing replacement; an illustrated guide Reply with quote

Well, as the title says. It all started by a noticable grumbling sound coming from the front O/S wheel a few weeks back. I knew when I bought the LC that this wheel bearing had already been replaced so this made me somewhat suspicious.  
Anyway, after a bit of consultation with Bob and ordering some bits from IanR, I finally got to work yesterday afternoon when wifey and squirts were all away at the outlaws till Sunday. Happy days.  
Firts things first, I undulged in a bit of tool porn and acquired a Sealey hydraulic puller set, as below. It's a bit more than I needed for this job, all things considered and it certainly wouldn't be of use to press the new hub and bearing assembly, but hey what the heck, I got it anyway.



First, jack up the car and secure it properly using a stand.



Remove the brake caliper, 17mm socket. Here I used an extension bar to get a bit more leverage and turned the steering a bit to clear the arch. Bolts were  tight. Contrast is a bit *beep* there but you get the idea.



Prise the brake pads apart a bit to clear the disk. My disk isn't worn much and hadn't really a lip on it so this was easy enough with a little screwdriver. Worns disk will require a bit more effort here. Agian poor contrst in the image from my naff camera. Should have used some infill flash.



Before removing the caliper fully, remove the small clip that holds the prake pipe in place on the steering knuckle. In hindsight I should have simply removed the bolted on bracket that holds it and the ABS wire but I had decided initially, after speaking to a Toyo tech, that the knuckle didn't need to be removed. More of this later.



Hang the caliper out of the way, taking care not to damage or break the tiny piece of rigid brake pipe the connects directly to the caliper. As mentioned above, removing the whole bracket mount here will assist greatly here and is what I will do in future. 12mm socket. I used a bit of coat hanger as the caliper is heavy.



Remove the disk and centre dust cover.



Remove the cotter pin and nut cover. The more astute of you will notice a piece missing from the hub, at about eight o clock. This had me baffled for a bit but it'll become clear later.  



Remove the nut. For this I needed to buy a 35mm socket with 3/4" drive and an adaptor to 1/2" drive. A bit of serious pulling and it opened.



Start removing the 4 hub bolts. They are awkwardly sandwiched between the outer hub and the bearing housing assembly. 17mm open end spanner required here. Why not a ring spanner? Well, a ring spanner will work to loosen the bolt but as it loosens the space available to remove the spanner lessens and you have to resort to an open end to finish. I hadn't a long enough open end and got a Halfords Pro version. Would have liked it to be longer but with a rag protecting you hands it can be pulled hard enough.



Anyway, with a few taps from a hammer to break the 'seal' the hub pulled off and revealed this mess.  The inside of the knuckle has corrosion on it, as does the rear of the bearing assembly and the end of the cone on the half-shaft. Note the ABS sensor. I had forgotten about it and was lucky not to damage it. Should have been removed at the start.  






It was becoming increasingly clear what was going on.



Rear view



From the parts received from IanR, it was clear that there should have been at leat one oil seal in the knuckle. Problem one. The lack of this seal meant that all the *beep* of the day was able to penetrate the bearing/ half shaft area and eventually made its way into the bearing. Hence the grumble. When I rotated the bearing by hand, the grittyness could be felt. And the bearings were a bit loose, not nice and stiff like a new one. Also missing from the previous 'repair'   , was the dust guard for the disk and caliper. I had noticed this months back and had one ordered and sitting on a shelf. I was waiting on an opportune time to fit it and it had come. I prayed that the steering knuckle would be usable as I had no plans to replace it....I cleaned it up as best as possible with some fine emery paper and hoped for the best.






Now for the fun bit. I assembled a bit of the Sealey kit and started pressing.



And a bit more, as it started to give, a bit.



And some more.  



It eventually popped, and, as expected, the bearing assembly fell apart and left a piece of the outer shell on the hub stub.






A call to the engineering works 10 miles away. Yes, if you get it to me before 1800 I will try to have it done tomorrow before 1300  . Explaining that I needed certainty, he eventually agreed to do it. With the holiday w/e no way was I going to have a 3 wheel LC tilll Tuesday at the earliest. Bearing duly dispatched by 1700 and he phoned at 1745 to say it was done. If only I had waited but a kind neighbour had given me a lift so I couldn't really.  But he opens at 0830 next morning.
In the mean time I tried to figure out what to do with the knuckle. I decided to at least partly remove it so that I could clean it better and get the seal fitted.

Opening the bottom arm nuts. Careful here. Support the lower arm with a small jack as it has the full spring load on it.  



When bolts are out, gently lower the jack and the bottom arm will move away. The split the steering control arm, trying not to samage the rubber boot. Easier said than done. These nuts and bolts were tight but they all opened OK using the extension bar.





Remove ARB drop link. 12mm socket and 4mm allen key if the balljoint turns. Which it probably will.




Out came Jack Sealey again as the joint was murder tight. Keep the nut on the top of the joint as when it pops it will go with a bang and you don't want it to do any harm to you or any components. And boy, did it go with a bang or what.  






Next morning, bearing collected at 0845 and taken home. In accordance with the Tech-doc Toyo repair manual, it seems as if a seal is required between the hub and the bearing assembly. The engineering firm argued not and I argued yes. Anyway, it was pressed together without and I know now that it should have been fitted. It was missing from the last repair job too that's why I was unsure and the components diagram on the Tech-doc is a little bit different to the actual bits on the LC. So, I figured, what the heck. It'll have to do as I'm not having it pressed out again just to fit this seal.  Not ideal but you have to make the most of what you've got.



Now to explain why the piece is missing from the hub, as I discovered when I left off the bits to the eng workshop.   When the last repair had been done, by the previous muppet mechanics, lazy shits that they were, not only did they omit the 2 oils seals and a rubber 'O' ring, but they also pressed the bearing together without the hub bolts in place first, as it is impossible to get them in afterwards. What did they do? The cut a chunk out of the hub with a grinder, to leave an 'entry' slot.   WTF?



I was going to have the eng workshop weld it up but they hadn't time, I couldn't wait and anyway, it had been like this for a few years and didn't seem any worse for the wear. So I left it for now. I will do it again when I have time as I don't want a crack opening at the bottom of this crude slot and ruining the hub. Plus it will be a tiny bit out of balance till I do. However on a small diameter componet like this the out of balance issue is minor.

So I located the proper steering knuckle seal and tapped it into place. This is a view of the back of the knuckle. Simple to turn as it hangs from the top ball joint. The pitting and so on will obviously wear against this, but it will have to do for now. Hopefully it will do for as long as I have this LC. If you know what I mean.  



Nearly done. Wheels studs tapped back into place on the hub. I tapped them out before the bearing was pressed so they wouldn't get damaged or be in the way.



Jack up the lower arm again and fit the 2 bolts and close them up spanner tight.



Reassemble the steering control arm joint and close up the nut. The joint might spin here, like mine did, so it needs to be pressed into place a bit, jamming the tapered surfaces together, to get it nice and tight. I used the small jack again with a block of wood on top and jacked it up from below to apply this pressure. I just closed it lightly spanner tight. Easier to do without the dust guard in place if possible.





Offer up the dust guard and hub assembly and with your third hand   get the hub bolts threaded in place a bit to hold it all together.



Most things in place here with the big hub nut replaced too and lightly tightened.

Tighten up the hub bolts murder tight with your spanner. Toyo quote a torque of 80Nm here but how the heck you get a socket and torque wrench in here is beyond me.   Murder tight with a spanner and a bit more for luck will have to do.  Replace the big hub nut and torque it up to 235Nm. Duly done with another nice tool I bought, a Halfords Pro 60-300Nm torque wrench.

Replace the roll bar drop link into the steering knuckle.



Refit the hub nut cover and cotter pin.



The tap the new dust cover in place. I replaced this cover as the old one had been bashed about a bit.



Refit the disk, caliper and ABS sensor and wire. Bolt the bracket on the steering knuckle again and you're done. Check and torque up any remaining nuts, like the lower arm, hub nut and steering control arm.



Refit the wheel and torque up the nuts to 113Nm. Bear in mind that, even when torqued up properly, the suspension parts bolted onto the steering knuckle have cotter pins through the castellated nuts. The nuts will have to be tightened a bit more to align the hole in the shaft with the slot in the nut so cotter pins can be fitted. Take a test drive and hope that all is OK. Thankfully mine was and the absolutely, unbelievably irritating noise is gone.


Whether or not this all lasts for a few years in another thing. The fact that the last repair was only half done has had a very detrimental effect on the steering knuckle and drive shaft cone surfaces. By rights, if I was Bob M  , I'd probably have replaced them both. Or at the least, I'd have had the knuckle inner surfaces milled and polished a bit to imprive them. The cone surface is pitted beyond machining I think. Fiscal challenges rule all this out for now  so if I get a couple of years out of it then I'll be a happy enough camper. At least I know how to do it again.

Anyone want to hire a Sealey 10 tonne hydraulic puller kit?
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LiquidLAN
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PostPosted: Wed May 05, 2010 10:28    Post subject: Reply with quote

nice one!  very easy to follow and some good shots!
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sheepish
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Location: Bridgend, Wales

PostPosted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 16:10    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a very useful post!

Any thoughts about what might be going on here. I really need to fix this this week. So I'll be out on my bike tomorrow looking for a 35mm socket to get the hub nut off. But in the mean time any idea what is going on here? Looks like something in the bearing assembly isn't seated in the knuckle? Is this likely to just be a destroyed bearing or something more? When I spun the wheel it didn't sound "gratey" like a shot bearing. Need to order some parts soon!

The hub is lose. Although looks nice and clean. http://www.flickr.com/photos/76392397@N00/7575019968/in/photostream/
Looking from behind the knuckle you can see the movement. http://www.flickr.com/photos/76392397@N00/7575018158/in/photostream/

Not clear from the above post (which has been very useful thus far) what it is that presses into the knuckle or what is holding the knuckle onto the drive shaft bits (other than the hub nut).

Any thoughts very welcome.

Ta
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sheepish
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 16:10    Post subject: Reply with quote

So after 45 mins on the bus, and a 45 min walk to the only place I could find near(ish) to me that sell a 35mm socket, and 45 mins walk and 45 mins back, in the p'sing rain, I had the hub nut off in 10 seconds. Hub out and that wobbling is the result of a floppy bearing - stop me if I'm dazzling you with engineering terminology. So new bearing and seals ordered from Milners. Plus one of those fancy hydraulic pullers - check the Draper model on Amazon - looks a good deal just now. Half the price of the same thing in the 35mm socket shop this morning! And I've gone the whole hog and bought a 10ton press too to try and fit the new bearing. Even if it can't do that I have my eye on the split rubbers on both top arm ball joints and the 15 quid replacements that can be pressed in. I shall report on progress!
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wooly0000
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 19:15    Post subject: Reply with quote

good luck sheepish its a job that i wont be tackling!!!!!    Embarassed
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sheepish
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 20:36    Post subject: Reply with quote

wooly0000 wrote:
good luck sheepish its a job that i wont be tackling!!!!!    Embarassed


Thanks Smile When I sold my LC90 I dug out all the paperwork - garage bills. And looked at what I'd spent on labour. And resolved that I'd be fixing myself from now on. Gearboxy type things excluded. Next time I look for new tools in lieu of labour bills I'll be very tempted by a spare car though. School had to change my 4yr old's tights at school this morning after I'd walked her there in the driving rain.
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sheepish
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Location: Bridgend, Wales

PostPosted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 22:08    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bit of an update, and I think a couple of pics worthwhile for slight differences with Nuclear Chicken, although I couldn't have got this far without those.

Firstly, hub with bearing pulled with hydraulic puller. But you can see the oil seal at the base of this that was missing on NC's.

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/76392397@N00/7592874476/[/img]

Only when I got this far did I realise why NC had taken this to the engineering shop. The puller can't be configured to fit under the bottom part of the bearing. There's really not much of a lip to get hold of. So I had the idea of grinding away enough bearing to get the puller arms to hold. It was quite a faff, and the arms slipped a lot of times before I ground away enough metal for them to grip the top lip. All looking good.

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/76392397@N00/7592874892/[/img]

But that just broke the bearing. Not good.

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/76392397@N00/7592875170/[img]

So as a last resort (I don't have anyone close by eager to run me to a machine shop and I really want to crack on with this tomorrow evening after work) I thought I'd try and grind away enough bearing to split it with a cold chisel.

This took a long time. I was very conscious of grinding the hub. But after about an hour of careful grinding, hitting the broken edge with a chisel, and grind some more. Success! The bearing moved and I could lever it up, at which point it's easy to remove with a puller.

[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/76392397@N00/7592875404/[/img]

Tomorrow I'll press the new bearing on (and the front oil seal) and tackle the rear oil seal in the knuckle.
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sheepish
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 22:14    Post subject: Reply with quote

Poxy html Smile I'll work out the correct code if I do anything worth a photo next.
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 18:59    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well just done the drivers side wheel bearing thanks to your lovely tutorial, much appreciated. Managed not to need to remove the drop link, had to take the hub to my local garage to get it pulled and new one pressed on, most difficult thing seemed to be fitting the seal between the hub and bearing. thanks again.
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