Changed Wheel Bearings today...

[Boricua SS]

with all the talks of wheel bearings lately, I figured I'd post some pix and our experience today...

it was a nice day, and i have my garage, my best friend (clifford for those that have met him) asked me if he could use my garage so we could work on his mother-in-laws '04 Envoy and change the wheel bearings (he is also the one that offered up his pix and explination of the power steering lines in a previous thread that he let me reply to since hes not on here much)... soooo... we got to work... the hardest part was actually the axle nut.. for the driver side, we broke 2 1/2" drive rachets, and 2 1/2" breaker bars, before we finally had enough PB Blaster and heat for it to loosen...passanger side came off like it was butter ... i dont have an air compressor and he hadd a little 150 psi portable one, so we had to do things manually.. thank God he had Crafstman.. all we did was go to Sears Hardware, and viola.. new tools ... the passanger bearing was completely gone, broken parts, no grease, etc... you'll see the pix... but overall it took us 2 and a half hours from start to finish of actual work, with about an hour in running to fix tools.. so total of 3 and half hours... onto the pix...

letting the PB Blaster do its work first

the plan of attack

Voy up in the air...

wheel off and axle nut loosened

getting the wheel bearing off..

everything off

old wheel bearing

drivers side all put back together...

rides like a champ now... bearings cost $60 bucks each at a local parts store... they have come way down in price...

 

[MAY03LT]

the hardest part was actually the axle nut.. for the driver side, we broke 2 1/2" drive rachets, and 2 1/2" breaker bars, before we finally had enough PB Blaster and heat for it to loosen...passanger side came off like it was butter ...

Funny how that crap works lol

Looks like you guys had fun! Well, my definition of fun.

 

[Boricua SS]

Funny how that crap works lol

Looks like you guys had fun! Well, my definition of fun.

man let me tell you!!! .. actually the ABS plug was hard to undo as well.. had a lot of mud (She works at a bus garage, and there parking lots are all mud/dirt/gravel) so that would be my guess on why it was covered with crap...

and this was definetly fun!

 

[Wyle]

...passanger side came off like it was butter ...
... the passanger bearing was completely gone, broken parts, no grease, etc...

Sounds like you had some pre-repair help in loosening the nut.

 

[MedicatedMike]

Very nice BoricuaSS! This has been a very common DIY project lately it seems. Just did ours Thursday. If you can edit it and put the size of each bolt and torque specs, that will really help the 1st timers like I was.

Should be 10mm for 2 little bolts that hold the brake line bracket, and I think 15mm for the 2 Caliper bracket bolts (not the 13 mm ones that hold the actual caliper housing together). If you drop the knuckle (I believe it is) off the upper control arm (so you can get to the last hub bolt easier), that is a 15 mm bolt and nut (need wrench and socket), and the 3 hub bolts are 18mm with 1 being extra PITA to get to.

PBlaster is your best friend!! Dont even think of cheeping out the $7 there! If 4x4 you need the 35 mm deep well socket too, unless you have aftermarket CV shafts, then you need the 36 mm one. My local part stores rented out the 36mm but only sold the 35mm. I had stock shafts and needed the 35 but wanted to buy it anyways so I would always have it.

there is proper torque specs for everything of coarse but the most important ones I memorized for this job is 103 ft lbs's for the Axel nut and 77 ft lbs for the hub bolts.

I got hubs online for $40 each includding shipping and got next day bc I ordered them from near by in detroit.

 

[jrSS]

Sleepy also changed his wheel bearing on his voy....while we were at the HOUSE OF HOTNESS.

 

[Boricua SS]

Sounds like you had some pre-repair help in loosening the nut.

yea, im uncertain of any pre repairs to the Voy, as she just got this a few years ago now, but we never replaced her wheel bearings.. it sure wasnt as rusty, and with a little heat and PB Blaster.. it came off rather easily compaired to the driverside that broke 4 tools...

Very nice BoricuaSS! If you can edit it and put the size of each bolt and torque specs, that will really help the 1st timers like I was.

Should be 10mm for 2 little bolts that hold the brake line bracket, and I think 15mm for the 2 Caliper bracket bolts (not the 13 mm ones that hold the actual caliper housing together). If you drop the knuckle (I believe it is) off the upper control arm (so you can get to the last hub bolt easier), that is a 15 mm bolt and nut (need wrench and socket), and the 3 hub bolts are 18mm with 1 being extra PITA to get to.

there is proper torque specs for everything of coarse but the most important ones I memorized for this job is 103 ft lbs's for the Axel nut and 77 ft lbs for the hub bolts.

yea, see i would edit it, but i dont remember ... i know we used the 35mm for the axle nut, the caliper bolts were 10mm, the caliper bracket bolts were the 15mm, and the 3 wheel bearing bolts were 18mm...we didnt have to drop the knuckle, we had a little portable 5 gallon air compressor that had up to 150 psi, and we had an air rachet.. so we used that once we broke the bolts loose with manual force.. and everything was torqued back to normal...

Sleepy also changed his wheel bearing on his voy....while we were at the HOUSE OF HOTNESS.

see, i knew we werent the only ones doing this recently!