"You always have the option of having no opinion.
There is never any need to get worked up or trouble your soul about things you can't control
These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone." - Marcus Aurelius
Once again I find myself replacing a couple of rear wheel bearings. This is bizarre, because in all my life, I've never replaced one wheel bearing. Yet in the past 2-3 years, I've had the displeasure of replacing five of them. I've replaced two on the Subaru, one on the wife's Dodge Journey, and now two more on a relative's Ford Explorer. All of these bearings were on the rear, so I'm assuming the road salt sprays up from the front tires, and soaks into the bearings on the rear... just a guess.
A bit of background on this car:
It belongs to our daughter's grandmother, and needs to be sold, since she is no longer able to drive.
The Explorer has been sitting outside the shop all winter with a battery trickle charger on it, waiting for spring repair and sale. That time came and went. The trickle charger failed, causing the battery to go completely dead. Then a mama squirrel made a home under the hood and raised a family there (tearing out the hood liner to make a nest, of course).
The squirrel only chewed up one windshield wiper wash hose while teething - it could have been much worse. Once she was removed, we found that the Air Conditioner didn't work. No point trying to sell it with a leaky and non-functional air conditioner. It turned out there was a fitting at the firewall that had sprung a leak.
Whilst we were taking it to the mechanic to have the A/C repaired and recharged, we noticed a howling coming from the back of the car. When we returned home after the trip to the mechanic, one of the hub caps was missing and the wheel bearing was scorching hot. I can only assume that the lug nuts, which the hub cap grips onto, got so hot that they melted the plastic grippers on the hubcap and it fell off.
So with a heavy heart, I set about replacing another set of rear bearings. The job is profoundly dirty and unfun.
Below: The replacement hubcap with fingers to hold the lugnuts - ones that I suspect melted on the previous hubcap.
The pretty side
Brake caliper removed. Not a lot of left of the brake pads, but there's something there.
Brake rotor not in terrible shape.
I bought complete hub and bearing kits. They were super inexpensive.
Take a look at the price difference between Autozone store pricing and Amazon.
Verifying the parts were identical. For once, they were a match. I had to buy a 35 mm socket to get the drive shaft nut loose. At least I can use that in the future.
On the first wheel bearing, I removed the hub while the knuckle was still on the car. In the end I had to take the knuckle off to finish the work, so on the second wheel, I just took the knuckle off in the first place. Yep the hubs were a match.
Below: All the stuff that needed to be removed to get the knuckle off. Greasy and filthy business. Everything had to be wire-wheeled and greased before it would fit back together.
Below: Knuckle off the car after a big battle.
Grandma's emergency brake shoes. LOL. There was a three-day delay while I waited for new shoes. The local parts store wanted $55 per side. I got both sides from Amazon for under $15. Stop worrying about your shareholders so much, and worry more about your customers - because you guys are losing sales!
A look at the bearing housing after I pressed it out. Not too bad. I hit it with a wire wheel and greased it.
Below: The outer race of the bearing that came from the hole above. Pretty rough.
Below: Lots of sparkles on the bearing cage, and sparkles that I rinsed off of it. Not good.
Later on: New bearing pressed in. And the new parking brake shoes arrived. Much nicer!
Below: New bearing and brake shoes in place. Just need to press the hub into the center of the bearing.
...and then I messed up. As seen above, I successfully pressed the new bearing into the knuckle and installed the snap ring. That part went fine.
Then I pressed the hub into the bearing - but without backing up the inner bearing race. So when the hub pressed in, it pushed the bearing seals into the snap ring :(
Below: Damaged bearing seal. A path for salt spray from the road to ruin the new bearing.
So I had to go down to the local dirt-bag part store and pay $50 for a new bearing. Could have done the online thing for $12 if I wasn't wanting this to be over with so badly. Anyway it arrived on the same day, so I could move on with life. Was that worth an extra $38? I don't know...
Below: Couldn't locate the platinum on this expensive wheel bearing.
Below: How I should have done it the first time. Pressing against the inner bearing while shoving the hub shaft into it from underneath.
Just going to put in a good word about music while you are doing unpleasant things. It helps. A lot.
There is a live version of this, and the guitar work is absolutely amazing.
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