Well my friend's front wheel bearings started going on his 2001 Mazda Tribute and I foolishly offered to do the work the shop wanted $475 for at no cost save parts. I have not worked on a car in like 8 years and I'm trying to refresh myself on the front wheel bearing replacement. I guess the major question that comes to mind is how much of a pain in the arse are these bearing races going to be? I seem to recall having to cut one off an older vehicle using a dremel quite some time ago. Anyway I still haven't put the front end in the air to get a look at what I'm up against(or even to see if the bearings even need replacing) and would appreciate any response you can come up with.
Thanks in Advance,
Nathan Stevenson
Im assuming its front wheel drive or all wheel drive. usually whit these i just knock off the spindle and bring it down to a local maching shop they press these things in and out for you for about 80 bux usually.( these newer cars usually have one piece bearings that you kneed a press to uninstall ind install a new one) if you know how to get the axek nut off and separate 2 ball joints and a tie rod end. your in pretty good shape.
first thing i do usually is take off the hub cap(leave it on the ground and in park/ebrake on) find out what size the axle nut is b4 you start cause there usually kinda big and metric like 22 mm or so.... obviously verry dependant on the vehicle. any ways the nut usually has a sleve type thing above the nut which is hit whith a chizel into a grove on the axel so it wont slip. its like a newstaye castle nut just so it wont back out. you have to bend that out so the sleve is semi round again. then (again the car is still on the groung tire on) get a big breaker bar some of these are tourqued to 200 ft lbs or more you might even wanna get someone to step on the break if the tire slips on the ground. loosen the nut and take it off. then jack up the car take the wheel off take off the break caliper(2 bolts usually) take off the wheel speed sensor and any mounting brackets attached to the spindle. loosen and remove all the nuts on both uper and lower controll arm and the ones on the tir rod end. seperate the 2 ball joints and the tie rod end(some cars have stuts instead of an upper controll arm. these uaually have 2 bolts that attach them to the spindle in that case just unbolt them and remove the spindle.) bring the spindle and new bearing assembly to a machene shop have them install the new one. get a new axel nut put everything back together find out the torque speec for the nut (if you cant then just pay attention to about how hard it was to get off and do the same when puttin git on) good luck!!!
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