Sierra: Rear Wheel bearing replacement (HELP!!!)

[dank]

Hey guys:

Anyone feel like giving a run down or a "how to" for doing this? I've had a look at the manuals and searched here but I thought it would be good for the members to have a step by step rundown to do this...

I'll post some pics as i do it....

If anyone has some hard and fast tips/guidelines/shortcuts for doing it that owuld be great...

[bazooked]

oxy is ur friend to cut the old buggers off.

[dank]

so is an angle grinder apparently...gotta be careful not to grind the shaft though......we'll see how i go in the morning....

[muppet_man67]

make sure you put the brake backing plate back on before installing the new bearings

[Roady]

AND make sure the brake backing plate is the right way round

[Zookified]

Did mine the other day. Here's a basic rundown.

1.Rip the wheel off and then the 4 nuts the hold the drum on.

2. Undo the 2 brakes lines entering the rear part of the drum that is still on the axle and close them up to stop fluid running out or put a old rag underneath if one isnt already there.

3. There will be 4 little bolts holding the rear part of the brake assembly (the bit with the pads, not the drum) to your diff/axle housing. Take these out.

4. There is a litle arm attached to the back part of the brakes with a spring on it and a little pin with a wire holding it. (handbrake, not sure if it is the same for all suzuki's as I eleive some have a tansfer brake?) Remove te pin so nothing is attached.

5. Now the axle isn't connected the the diff housing anymore so it can be pulled. If you have a slide hammer use this because the axle doesn't just slide out, it needs some force. I didn't have a slide hammer so Smalltalk came up with the idea of bolting the drum back on BACKWARDS and giving it a few cracks with hte hammer. Worked sweet and the axle came out easily enough.

6. Grind, coldchisel, oxy (whichever you prefer) the bearing and backing plate (big washer on the spline side of the axle) off. Taking extra CARE not to hit the axle

7. Get the new bearing and backing washer and put them in the over for a while to heat up. Get yourself a peice f tube the same size as the INNER circle of the bearing. Do not hit anywhere else on the bearing, if you do it will be farked. Drop the bearing on the axle making sure its the right way and then put the pipe on and tap it on with a BFH. Again force will be required. Do the same with hte backing washer. THat's the cheap DIY way, you could take it to a mechanic and they might use a press to put it on.

8. Pull out the old seal that will be in the axle housing still and put the new one in. Then slide the axle back in and repeat above steps in reverse.

9. Bleading brakes..I haven't got the best idea on how to do this as my stepdad (ex-mechanic) helped me blead the brakes because it is a 2people job to do so I forgot some. Someone else will need to fill that part.



Hope the gives you some idea of how it is done.

[nicbeer]

U forgot in No.1 to add use force when getting the brake drum off if it has a lip on it.

Nic

[dank]

ok well, i've got most of it done but ran into a few problems.

When i pulled the axle out of the housing there was a seal between the bearing and the brake backing plate. WTF??? i thought.... as in the field service manual there is no seal in that location.

It goes from spline end, axle seal protector, seal, ring/spacer, bearing then backing plate....

Anyway i grinded the ring off which was easy enough as i had no access to an oxy it was the only way. Then i got to the bearing....ended up cutting it off with the grinder as well.

got the new bearing on easy enough with a piece of tube that slid perfectly over the axle and onto the centre of the bearing.

anyway in the end then new ring was being a pain in the butt to get on so i took it to a mates place and put it on the 30 tonne press he had in his garage... it got up to about 4.5 tonne to get it on...

Got the axles back to the car and then this is where i ended up....


PROBLEM!!!

How do you get the old axle seal out? I can't get it out!

I can't get the axle to return back far enough into the housing so i can do the bolts up on the brake backing plate onto the axle housing. Its only about 5mm...Do i just need to bash the crap out of it to get it back in?

anyone got any hints?

cheers in advance
Dan[/b]

[Captain Carnage]

There is a link on this site with pics....DIY articles

http://www.worcester-networks.com/zookh ... e026234349

[small talk]

This is zookified typin. My seal was fuck off hard to get out aswell. Ended up wedging a flat head screw driver into it and then pretty much demolishing it to get it out. The new one i oput in and then used the handle end of a screwdriver to drive it with a hammer. Went in ok.

[built4thrashing]

i replaced them in my zook a little while back and there are 3 different wheel bearings and you have to get the right one for your car. 1ltr and nt are similar but the 1.3 WT are slightly different. I found out the hard way.

do a search as i posted the part number up in a post.


here it is

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modul ... l+bearings

[dank]

my car is an 88 WT sierra with the plastic WT flares. Got told by the guy at suziworld that mine was the first WT that came out.

The bearing Kit i got from bearing wholesalers in bayswater was the Powerdrive 2857 bearing kit.

THis is the wrong one for my car!



I fitted them onto the axle but when i tried to put the axle in even with some heavy persuasion from a BFH the bearing would only got about 3/4 of the way into the axle housing meaning that I couldn't fit the brake backing plate on properly.

sending it into the mechanic in the morning to get it done...i'm over screwing around with it...

[85zook]

make sure you put the brake backing plate back on before installing the new bearings

Lol I know the feeling. I forgot to put the backing plate on my VL when I did the rear disc conversion and ended up bending the outer retainer. What a pain in the ass!