Wheel Bearing Repack I (bw pig)

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Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
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Wheel Bearing Repack I (bw pig)

Post by Amskeptic » Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:50 pm

Set the parking brake and take off the hubcap:
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If you'd like to do an Itinerant Air-Cooled Restorative Repair, file the burrs and sand smooth your dust covers:
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Paint the dust caps and by the time you are done packing the bearings, the dust cap paint will be just dry enough to pop back on without damaging the paint:
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Loosen your lug nuts with the car still on the ground:
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Jack the wheel you're working on just an inch off the ground:
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Get your channellocks to pry the brake pads just a bit free of the rotor:
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Loosen your caliper bolts:
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Grab the flexible brake line retainer c-clip with a small visegrip right on the little tab, and bend down just a bit:
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Wiggle it free, it is very easy once you get the hang of it:
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If you are doing an Itinerant Air-Cooled Restorative Repair, touch up the tie rod because you saw a couple of rock chips (the horror):
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Remove the caliper, keeping an eye on the flexible brake line as you negotiate it free of the bracket, you may rest the caliper on the top of the tie rod end:
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Loosen the 6mm allen lock bolt and unscrew the wheel bearing nut. Pull the rotor (disk) out just a bit and punch back in, now you can remove the outer bearing and put all the parts on a clean paper towel. Clean the wheel spindle to within an inch of your life, ensure that the weep hole is clean (it's where the screwdriver is sticking up):
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I use a brake adjusting spoon, you can use anything that has a broad blade with smooth edges to gently prise the inner wheel bearing seal out. If yours has a nice pliable inner radius, you may re-use it if you like:
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Now you can see the inner wheel bearing, the one that does all the work on those hard corners. Mine has 60,000 miles on the grease, the greenishness is the grease that was swimming in the bearing, the grey is the fresh stuff from the hub:
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End of Part I
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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