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I’m still new at being a mechanic, and have never attempted a wheel bearing change.
Much thanks for any insight/input/lessons learned.
Puller. http://www.harborfreight.com/8-inch-three-jaw-puller-40970.html Both of mine came off so easy that I really didn’t need the puller.
Socket. 36mm. I had to grind mine a bit to reduce the wall thickness.
That price is about what I paid. Be sure to get new lock nuts and dustcaps. Often the bearing doesn’t come with those.
The lock nut has a flange that gets bent into a slot thereby locking the nut in place. You’ll need to use a chisel or something to cut a little material away so you can remove the old nut.
Figure out how you’re going to ensure you tighten the nut to roughly the appropriate ftlbs. Just because you think that your impact wrench is some beefy thing that kicks butt, doesn’t mean that it really is. After tightening it with an impact wrench, see if you can tighten it any further with big-ass 1/2" socket wrench.
I simple way to get the right torque on the axel nuts is with a breaker bar and (possibly) a pipe extension. Take your weight and figure out how far to place a foot on the breaker bar/pipe to get the required torque. Then put all of your weight on that spot. It won’t be exact, but it will be darned close.
You can get the parts from Bimmerparts.com. They have all the stuff you need and Chris is very helpful if you have any questions. FAG of SKF are both good bearings and most aftermarket parts places carry them.
I got my 36mm socket from Sears. Fit just fine and cost 8 or 10 bucks.
Make sure you get the inner dust cover and the outer bearing cover. Both can get boogerd up when removing the bearing or the inner race.
If you google inner bearing race removal you will get all kinds of interesting ways to get them off. Some good and some not so good but interesting all the same. Maybe you will get lucky and they will slide right off.
As for torque my torque wrench went up to 150 or 200 ft lbs and I think the spec is around 140 or so. Cant remember but the Bentley manual has the spec. You don’t need to be right on and close will get he job done. Better a bit high then low on this one.
Good luck.
much thanks for the helpful advisement… people on this board are awesome. Hopefully I can get all the stuff to do this job in the next week or so, but I promised party A that the honey-do list comes first.:dry:
One other thing to remember. When you put the new hub back on make sure it is 100% square to the shaft or it may bind and possibly get stuck. Then you are screwed. Nothing another hub wont fix if you break out the inner race of the new hub but aggravating all the same. Ask how know.
You may also need to take your new 36mm socked and flip it around, grab a piece of wood and use it with a hammer to gently persuade the new hub onto the spindle. I only had to do that on one side of the car. Other slide slid on with just a bit of effort.
So I got the old one off, and the new one on and I have had a few beers in celebration of my great accomplishments along the way (used 8in puller for the hub, and 4in puller for the inner race after tearing back the dust ring on back …have not yet torqued down the axle nut, and before I seal it up, I’m thinking about puttin a layer of lithium grease around, but I haven’t seen this mentioned on any stepbystep. Any extra grease advisable?
One thing that Bentley says is to use loctite 638 to seal the cap on…
are there any suggestions on a substitute for this loctite 683 sealant stuff?
Gilles wrote:
[quote]have not yet torqued down the axle nut, and before I seal it up, I’m thinking about puttin a layer of lithium grease around, but I haven’t seen this mentioned on any stepbystep. Any extra grease advisable?
One thing that Bentley says is to use loctite 638 to seal the cap on…
are there any suggestions on a substitute for this loctite 683 sealant stuff?[/quote]
Re. grease. I don’t know. I made sure the bearings were packed in grease, but once they were in I just put the nut on. I’ve only done front bearings twice so my experience is limited.
Re. loctite. Don’t go crazy on it or you’ll have a helova time getting the cap off in 2yrs. Maybe a dab of high temp gasket goobage if it doesn’t seem to fit too tight on it’s own.
you’ll probably have to hammer the dust cap on, it won’t come back off. i reused my old ones and they worked ok too. no need for loctite. wouldn’t add grease either, neither of the bearings i installed this year got any and they’re fine.
Torque it down, pound the dust cap on, admire work. That’s it. You should have no issues.
and make sure the dust cap isn’t overhanging the edge of the centerbore lip and causing your hub centric wheels from seating properly…
and don’t forget to bend the edge of the locknut into the grove on the spindle. If you’re following the Bentley I imagine you got that step, but it’s easy to forget.