- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 5,723
- Points
- 2,001
- State - Country
- GA - USA
- Vehicle Year
- 1999
- Vehicle
- Ford Ranger
- Engine
- 5.0
- Transmission
- Automatic
- Total Drop
- few inches
- Tire Size
- ~30"
EDIT: Sorry long winded post. Was frustrated at my mistake and needed to vent.
My car has been parked for a bit waiting for me to get around to wheel bearing in front. May not have been needed, but I'd ruled out all other causes (possibly incorrectly) of a persistent noise at the driver side front wheel. It all needed to come out for a CV boot anyway and has 200k miles of spirited driving. Since the parts are about $60/side (delivered) with RockAuto wholesale prices, I didn't mind doing it anyway while in there.
On this car the hubs are pressed into the bearing, and removal destroys both, the inner race sticks to the hub when removing no way to keep the bearing together. It's physically impossible to remove the hub with the bearing intact, and not worth the effort to remove the inner race from the hub.
Weekend before last I got it torn apart and started putting in the new bearings. Well I messed up on the first, didn't press in the right place and damaged the new bearing. Learned from the mistake and the second went well. Annoying but mistakes happen, especially when one isn't familiar with the setup. Checked local to keep momentum going, same brand parts are $130/side (pre-tax), not happening. So a third bearing and hub set were ordered from RockAuto. The new parts arrived last Wednesday, but due to an operation and other obligations I couldn't get around to it until today.
Got out there this afternoon after work and got busy taking the knuckle back apart. Snap ring off, hub out (took the race with it as expected), dust shield off, bearing pressed out. Go in and grab the new bearing out of the freezer. Press new bearing in, press hub about half way in... shit...
Did you notice what I forgot? Yep, the dust shield is still sitting on top of the toolbox and has to go on before the hub. No way to remove the hub without destroying yet another new bearing. I could potentially save the hub since the inner race isn't seated. Knock it out with the inner race and use a 3 jaw puller to take the race off. I wouldn't know the outcome know until I tried, so a day or two to rent tools and give it give it a go, then it'll be more wait if it fails. If ordering from RA it makes more sense to buy both again.
Option 1) Press on with these parts and run without a brake shield. Reassemble car this week (hopefully).
Option 2) Destroy another bearing and hub, to install shield. Spend spend another $60 for parts, wait another week, and try again. Won't get parts before this weekend, so reassemble in two weeks (hopefully).
Option 3) Destroy another bearing, to install shield. Buy an $80 bearing and rent a puller locally, have the parts tomorrow, and hope the puller works. Spend another $50 for a hub the next day when the puller doesn't work. Then finish reassembly this weekend (again hopefully).
Option 3 would be definitely be best in regards to getting the job done, but I'm cheap and it's double the price for parts I've already bought twice. Option 2 is the better option since it gets the shield back in for the least money, but I'm ready for the car to be on the road and stop putting DD miles on the F-150.
Main thing the shield does in this climate and my driving conditions is to shield the bearing from brake dust, road grime, and rain water. It does little to protect the brakes. If I don't install it, the bearing might wear out faster. If I do reinstall it, I'll destroy a bearing in the process. Makes more sense to me to get what life I can out of the bearing then reinstall when shield when/if it fails. It'll annoy me knowing the shield isn't there, but I'm about the only person that will know. As such, I feel like option 1 is the route to take at this point, but need to sleep on it.
My car has been parked for a bit waiting for me to get around to wheel bearing in front. May not have been needed, but I'd ruled out all other causes (possibly incorrectly) of a persistent noise at the driver side front wheel. It all needed to come out for a CV boot anyway and has 200k miles of spirited driving. Since the parts are about $60/side (delivered) with RockAuto wholesale prices, I didn't mind doing it anyway while in there.
On this car the hubs are pressed into the bearing, and removal destroys both, the inner race sticks to the hub when removing no way to keep the bearing together. It's physically impossible to remove the hub with the bearing intact, and not worth the effort to remove the inner race from the hub.
Weekend before last I got it torn apart and started putting in the new bearings. Well I messed up on the first, didn't press in the right place and damaged the new bearing. Learned from the mistake and the second went well. Annoying but mistakes happen, especially when one isn't familiar with the setup. Checked local to keep momentum going, same brand parts are $130/side (pre-tax), not happening. So a third bearing and hub set were ordered from RockAuto. The new parts arrived last Wednesday, but due to an operation and other obligations I couldn't get around to it until today.
Got out there this afternoon after work and got busy taking the knuckle back apart. Snap ring off, hub out (took the race with it as expected), dust shield off, bearing pressed out. Go in and grab the new bearing out of the freezer. Press new bearing in, press hub about half way in... shit...
Did you notice what I forgot? Yep, the dust shield is still sitting on top of the toolbox and has to go on before the hub. No way to remove the hub without destroying yet another new bearing. I could potentially save the hub since the inner race isn't seated. Knock it out with the inner race and use a 3 jaw puller to take the race off. I wouldn't know the outcome know until I tried, so a day or two to rent tools and give it give it a go, then it'll be more wait if it fails. If ordering from RA it makes more sense to buy both again.
Option 1) Press on with these parts and run without a brake shield. Reassemble car this week (hopefully).
Option 2) Destroy another bearing and hub, to install shield. Spend spend another $60 for parts, wait another week, and try again. Won't get parts before this weekend, so reassemble in two weeks (hopefully).
Option 3) Destroy another bearing, to install shield. Buy an $80 bearing and rent a puller locally, have the parts tomorrow, and hope the puller works. Spend another $50 for a hub the next day when the puller doesn't work. Then finish reassembly this weekend (again hopefully).
Option 3 would be definitely be best in regards to getting the job done, but I'm cheap and it's double the price for parts I've already bought twice. Option 2 is the better option since it gets the shield back in for the least money, but I'm ready for the car to be on the road and stop putting DD miles on the F-150.
Main thing the shield does in this climate and my driving conditions is to shield the bearing from brake dust, road grime, and rain water. It does little to protect the brakes. If I don't install it, the bearing might wear out faster. If I do reinstall it, I'll destroy a bearing in the process. Makes more sense to me to get what life I can out of the bearing then reinstall when shield when/if it fails. It'll annoy me knowing the shield isn't there, but I'm about the only person that will know. As such, I feel like option 1 is the route to take at this point, but need to sleep on it.
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