Yeah, I thought about that but I didn't want to beat the half shafts up. Service manual says to pop the bottom suspension loose as well as the steering tie rod, then press the shaft out of the hub to access the hub bolts.

I guess now I know why the puller looked brand new when I got it.

I'll need to make something similar to the factory puller and use the lug nuts to press it off. Bummer is the last guy lopped the tips of the wheel studs off to fit the wonky OZ wheels on the spacers.

 

Note to self... Change wheel bearings before adding spacers...

 

Not making much progress today since tonight is a work night and I need to clean up around the house. I rummaged around and found my port-a-power. Whittled a plate out on the mill to make a fixture to hold the ram to the hub so I can push the half shaft out. I'm glad I waited until the alley was open to do the rears.



BTW, the OEM style wheels have recesses that hopefully will allow the full length stud a place to go with the spacers installed.

 

Nope, not quite. It's common practice, or so I've read, to cut the non-threaded tip off the stud to use a 15mm spacer on the rear wheels.
Tried it with my Senta wheels and a 15mm spacer on the rear, stud hits the wheel.
With a 20mm spacer for the front, the stud doesn't hit.

 

A buddy of mine many years back had wheels like that when he installed spacers, and the studs lined up perfectly inside the wheel's recesses and everything worked great. No cutting of the studs even though they protruded from the spacer by maybe 1/4 inch.

 

Looks like you're gonna need the hot wrench to get this off.

 

Finished this up a couple minutes ago. It's too hot to play with so we'll see what happens tomorrow. It was 45` riding home this morning on the bike and in my mesh jacket it felt about -10. Must get the car done.

 

Nice job , iron man

 

Thanks. Made a minor boo boo and there's not enough room to get the ram in the hole with the fitting attached, nor is there enough room to install the fitting once installed. I guess I'll be making an oval hole in the bottom tomorrow. At least the fixture should be rigid enough, lol.

 

I remember (just barely) when I had to do rear wheel bearings on my 63 Corvette. We had to make a fixture and then weld it to the frame . Cranked that puller up and used the hot wrench at the same time. Worked on it for a while then all of the sudden , PING and we popped it out. When it let go I thought we broke the axle. Good luck.

 

Due to the fixture and hydraulic cylinder I needed to heat the hub from the back side. That meant burning through the bearing housing to get heat on the hubs splines. Lot of pressure, about fifteen minutes of blue heat and flames getting uncomfortably close the wheel well liner and it eventually popped. Lots of pressure, lots of heat and the splines have been soaking in Aerokroil for the past week...


Of course my piston was too large to go through the hubs splines and the damn things are straight cut so they fought the whole way out. Big fingers and small spaces meant surgical instruments were put in play to hold a flat head Allen bolt the 'right' size to push the splines the rest of the way.


And good enough. Note the hub changed colors to rusty brown from the heat.


Close up of melting through the bearing housing. I did this at three spots while trying to not burn the caliper up. The bearing housing came out pretty easy once I realized I'd only removed three of the four mounting bolts (13mm head). Much easier than the fronts.


So, moving forward I'll clean the splines up as well as the housing bore. Liberal dosing of anti-seize will be involved during the reassembly. I expect these bearings will only last a couple years before making noise again.

I'm also going to pop the rubber boots off and measure the mating surfaces to see if I can find something more durable. The rubber boots are made from absolute garbage. The 'rubber' has powdered and I remember reading about another member who found them online. The spherical joints are in excellent shape, just the seals have fallen apart.

 

This is a perfect example of a job an amateur, such as myself, should stay away from. I can see myself in a cast watching my house/car burn up.

 

Yes, it was far more difficult than it needed to be. All the factory would have needed to do was put some anti-seize on the splines. Upon cleaning I found mine had some rust that was locking them together far better than any lock tight product would. It's difficult if not impossible to remove rust like that without using chemicals so after a mechanical scraping with a sharp screw driver tip they were tight going into the new hub but did seat. Used my 3/4" impact to draw them together. I did get some dimensions for the rubber boots and otherwise the drivers side is done. I did notice that my back rotors look original. Still measure a solid 20mm but I had a shake upon hard braking that I'm sure they are the source if. So I'll add rotors to the list of nice to fix stuff like the TPMS's and rear o2's.

Hoping to tackle the passenger side today without burning down the shop of course.

 

I have to say it's great reading about all these repairs and fixes, and your solutions. For those of us without your extensive collection of tools, can you suggest another way of breaking the hub from the splines? In the past when dealing with a stuck component I've considered loosening of the fasteners and then driving a short distance to let the operating loads start to get things moving. In the case of your hubs, would it have been possible to loosen the retaining nut(s) and try this? I guess it depends if there is a secondary locking mechanism that could be employed to stop everything coming apart totally.

 

I don't know if just loosening the locking nut would do it due to the rust forming a very complex geometric locking device. It was everything my port-a-power had along with heat to break that lock. Other options are to remove the half shaft and arm, then get someone to press it out but that ha it's own set of hurdles, the largest being how the half shaft hub covers the mounting bolts for the wheel bearing. I wouldn't want to push against the aluminum suspension member at the risk of it fracturing. The splines are 3" long and that's a tone of interference fit to press against. You could probably toss the nut and drive for a couple hundred mile before things would start to loosen and then you'd probably need to replace the half shafts as the splines would have wallowed out.

 

Ranchero50, its always a pleasure to read and see what you're tackling next and your McGyver type solutions to problem that arise. I dont mind getting into things and getting my hands dirty, and I (as Im sure many others) have certainly picked up a few good pointers from you. Keep the thread alive!!

 

Thanks, we have years of fun ahead...

Passenger side with red death. Curse is it dang near fell apart. I assume the nut was a little loose for a long time or this bearing was failing internally. It spun without any vibration so who knows. Benefit is other than mounting the wheels and dropping it to the floor, the job is DONE.


Drivers side, 4+ hours. Passenger side, 15 minutes...

 

Just a quick pic showing the recess in the Toba's and how far out the studs stick with the 20mm H+R spacers. No drama.

 

So, for all that the results were good. I still have some gear whine in the rear but no rumbling. Car is becoming more and more fun to run. I'm not sure what's next on the list. Probably search out the rubbers and order some new rotors for rear end round #2.

I recently picked up a free 11' Sunflower sail boat off Craigslist that needs some love. The hull was sitting in weeds and sucked up @ 75 lbs of water. It's been hanging in my big pine tree beside the house the past two weeks with screwdriver handles holding the ABS shell away from the Styrofoam core. The hull is supposed to only weigh 50 lbs and we are at @ 80 now. Some time I need to sew up a new sail and then do some woodwork for the rudder and dagger board. I also have a little truck mounted crane to sort out sometime. So it might be a while before I get back into the car. Until then I'll be sure to enjoy it.

 

Thats what its all about, enjoy.