replacing front wheel bearings?

subaruby · Post by **subaruby** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:36 am

Does anyone have any experience replacing front wheel bearings on an MY series?
Is it easy or hard?
Do you need any special tools?

I've been quoted $300 - $400 to get one replaced and I need both done $$$ ouch, so thinking maybe I should try and do it myself!

Thanks

78sti · Post by **78sti** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 12:16 pm

As long as you have a 36mm socket to get the big nut off the rest is pretty straight forward. I use sealed bearings so you end up with a double seal. just make sure you grease them before you put them in and i usually throw away the seals that face inwards as they do not do anything but casue the bearings to overheat.

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 12:20 pm

they are pretty easy to do on an l series and i think it would be the same process.

This is what andrew sent me a while back.

First side;

- Remove the split pin from the large castellated nut
- Use a 36mm socket and large breaker bar to crack the thread on this bolt and loosen it slightly
- Put front of car on axel stands (or an umbrella stand) and chuck a few rims under for added safety
- Take front wheels off
- Remove the roll pin from the inner CV cup
- Take the two bolts out of the strut which hold it in the top of the hub
- Stomp on the top of the hub with your boot to separate it from the strut - at this point the inner CV cup may slip itself off the gearbox stub
- Finish taking the castellated nut off (take note of exactly which way the flat washer goes, it isn't actually flat)
- Unplug the inner CV cup off the gearbox stub if it didn't fall off already
- Push the outer CV through the hub and remove the driveshaft all together - you may need to hold a softish block of wood against the outside part and give it a few thumps, sometimes they can be stuck pretty good - key point here is to protect the thread because if you bugger it up it's time for a new outer CV joint
- Unbolt the steering rack tierod ends from the hub and separate them.
- Now the only thing holding the hub to the car is the balljoint. Either undo the nut that holds the balljoint in the hub, or undo the nut that holds the balljoint to the control arm and separate them - doesn't really matter which way you do this.
- Now the hub is completely separate to the car. There are two bearing races in it, an outer and an inner (they are both identical) and two round rubber seals (a big and a small).
- Unbolt the outer hub bit and take the brake disc rotor off
- Remove the rubber seals by levering them out with a flat screwdriver. Remember which one goes where (big, little), I can't at the moment.
- Now to remove the bearings. There are probably a few methods to doing this but this is how I've done it.
- Rest the hub up on two blocks of wood so it's raised and the middle bit dangles down towards the ground instead of sitting on it.
- Use a crappy old socket extension bar (or some other similarly sized rod of metal) and pass it through the hub and push it against the bearing race which is at the bottom.
- Tap the bearing race out, a few taps alternating opposite sides until it gradually works look.
- Flip the hub over and do the other side.
- There is a metal ring in the middle which will fall out, don't loose it and don't forget about it.
- At this stage you will be completely filthy with old dirty grease absolutely everywhere so take the opportunity to clean everything up. Basically you want to completely clean the hub and have it free from all sand etc. Then move to a new cleaner location to re-assemble it.
- Grease the inside of the hub abit then start installing the first bearing race. Tapping it in with the metal rod is abit dangerous because you can easily slip and bash the side of the bearing and ruin the side seal so I find it safer to use one of the old bearing races - hey it's exactly the right size! Just make sure it's clean first.
- Then put the middle ring thing back in the middle.
- Then install the second bearing race in the other side.
- Then install the two rubber seals - with enough grease you should be able to actually push these in with your fingers as they flex a little.
- Now pack the hell out of the middle of the hub and the bearings with axel grease, too much is okay as it squeezes out when you put it back on the car anyway.
- Put the hub back on the car and tighten the balljoint up.
- Re-insert the driveshaft through the hub (this can be a real bastard - sometimes it's actually easier to do this outside of the car and re-install the hub to the car with the driveshaft already in it).
- Plug the driveshaft back into the gearbox.
- Re-insert the strut back into the top of the hub. You will probably need to push the hub down with your boot to get this to work, it's abit of a squeeze.
- Re-tighten the bolts from the strut to the hub.
- Put the castellated nut and washers back on, not tight yet.
- Put wheel back on and drop the car back onto the wheel.
- Tighten the castellate nut up with the 36mm socket and breaker bar, excess grease will come out in a snake. This needs to be done up *very tight*.
- Go do the other side.

And here is the post:
showthread.php?t=14483

Post by **Alex** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:08 pm

have a search..this has been talked about sooooooo many times

Green_eyed_liberty · Post by **Green_eyed_liberty** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:38 am

excellent write up Andrew and Guyph

im about to do this to the Brumby this week.

now.. can i drill and tap/install a grease nipple into the hub? im sure you've all thought about it. could you share your idea on where the best location for the nipple?

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:53 am

a step by step photo essay on USMB http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/sho ... hp?t=77491

with humour as well

TOONGA

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:59 am

The first time i did a wheel bearing i spent about 2 hours trying to get the hub off the driveshaft. AndrewT had the elegent solution of placing a block of wood on the end of the driveshaft and hitting it with a hammer, with that method the second side took about 2 seconds.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 12:12 pm

Yes when all else fails use brute force heh, but I should update that - even if the block of wood is a nice soft-ish one, the thread can still be stuffed by doing this. Should really put the large nut on quite a few turns and hit that with the wood rather than the thread itself.

bluesteel · Post by **bluesteel** » Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:45 am

good trick that work is use a ball pein hammer and a mallet

put the ball end of the hammer into the dimple in the centre of the driveshaft and smack the hammer with a mallet!