Replacing Front Wheel Bearing

[jimistdt 1]

In an hour or so I'll be attempting to change the front N/S wheel bearing on a 1.6 hub.

 

I've loaded the car up with everything hopefully that I'll need;

 

 

Centreless wheel (For removing hub nut.)

Socket set (With 30mm hub socket)

General toolbox with spanners, screwdrivers etc, standard stuff

Wheel Brace

Torque Wrench

Jack

Stands

Gearbox oil (Just in case, hopefully not needed.)

Cable ties (So I don't need to use the gearbox oil)

Ball joint splitter

Plus-Gas

Wet and Dry

Wheel bearing with circlip and hub nut.

 

Access to a Manual and a Hydraulic Press, and more important of all somewhere with a roof on to do the work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q. I think thats it, two things I know I haven't got are the circlip pliers (Right name?) and the Knife edge pulling tool (again, right name?), is it going to be possible to do the swap with out these items?

 

 

 

I think thats it, I'm off to the workshop shortly, I'll report back tonight, all being well.

[welshpug 1,644]

never used a puller on a wheelbearing yet, just a chisel normally, and if they're stuck I grind a flat on the bearing race until I'm through to the hub itself then a few blows with the Lump hammer and chisel usually crack the race and you slid it off.

 

the circlip can be removed without the pliers but its a bit fiddly as they're quite strong buggers, a small chisel helps here too.

 

use the old inner race in the wheelbearing outer to press out against

[jimistdt 1]

Cheers WP, I'll pick a pair of circlip pliers from Halfrauds on the over there then.

 

See you all tonight.

[tagy 1]

One thing is the outer bearing race tends to get stuck to the hub. For this I grind a groove into the bearing remains and clamp a puller onto it then press out the hub.

 

Also make sure to support the back of the bearing when you press the hub back in.

[Tom Fenton 1,536]

Get the biggest circlip pliers you can find, most small ones just won't be up to it.

[jimistdt 1]

Well, we did it.

 

I went upto Grahams to pick up the Breaker Bar for the hub nuts, and we ended up convoying down to his mates farm to put his black 205 into storage while he's on the Euro-Trip, here it is, all tucked up nicely.

 

With that out of the way we made our way down to the workshop.

 

Here you can see the Centreless wheel being fitted, the purpose of this is to lower the car down to the ground and get the breaker bar on the Hubnut.

Check out how fast them hands move!

 

With the hub nut loosened, but still on the thread, you can move onto the Wishbone clamp bolt, undo and remove this and by using a lever it is possible to seperate the wishbone from the hub.

 

Then you need to turn the steering wheel full right lock (for the left hand hub, and vice versa.) and undo the hub carrier bolt which is here.

 

It is now possible to move the strut, so get some cable ties fastened together, remove the hub nut totally and slide the driveshaft out, this needs to be secured to prevent the shaft coming out of the gearbox end.

 

Remove the two bolts securing the caliper and fasten this with cable ties in the same manner, and put the brake disc to one side.

 

Then unfasten the nut on the Track Rod End and using a ball-joint splitter, seperate from the Hub.

 

 

Now, using a hub splitter, which in our case was an old Ford wheel bolt with the thread filed down, split the hub in order to slide the hub down and off the strut.

 

You will now have this.

 

That is the easy part.

 

I'll post the fun part shortly.

Edited April 29, 2009 by jimistdt

[jimistdt 1]

I will advise at this stage if you have the option to take the hub to a local garage that can press the bearing in and out for you, then do so. You will see why.

 

 

TBC...

[jimistdt 1]

Right then, we now have a hub. You really need access to a decent press and various tubular spacers and a drift or two for this bit. They really do take some force.

 

We managed on a rather antiquated manual press and a 160 ton hydraulic press, the Haynes says it is possible to press the bearing out on a vice, I would say it is not.

 

So, swiftly moving on...

 

You need to remove the hub flange, for this use a drift. Tis should come out relatively easily.

 

 

You now need to remove the circlip, heed Tom's advice earlier and use the biggest circlip pliers you can lay your hands on, this is a toughey.

As you can see, we were making do with bent nosed pliers, not ideal, but with a bit of persuasion we got the fekker out.

 

Now to the press, it took several attempts and three heads to eventually get the bearing out, the difficulty is the shape of the hub itself, and if its not sat exactly square the bearing will wedge itself and you'll need to press it back in to straighten it up again.

 

Ta-daa!

 

Part of the bearing (It came out in three parts) was still attached to the hub flange

We used the vice to hold it and a big chisel to try and seperate the two, that didn't work so we made a support and got the big press to work on that bit.

 

Righty-o, home run now, right? Wrong.

 

See if you can spot the difference between the 1.6 bearing I took out compared to the 1.6 bearing I'm putting in....

 

Thats right, about 5mm, fekking monkeys. They'd sent me a 1.9 one.

 

At this point I was really pissed off, 40 miles from home at 7o'clock at night with a three wheeled car. Right laugh.

 

 

Fortunately for me, Graham had a new 1.6 bearing, after a short delay we were back on track.

 

Plain sailing hereon in.

 

New bearing in...

 

Refit the flange and the circlip and the rest as they say is reversal of removal.

 

Thank you. Hope this is at least of some use to somebody.

 

If anyone has any questions about all this then post them on here.

Edited April 29, 2009 by jimistdt

[welshpug 1,644]

round bit that spins = hub flange.

 

bit that the bearing is pressed into = hub carrier

 

Top write up Jimi, only a few things differently to my methods, I don't use a balljoint splitter, just leave the nut on and use a single blow from a hammer, far quicker

 

The method of extracting the inner race from the hub flange really depends on the tools to hand, and how tight the bugger is!

 

Often you can't get anything behind the race bar a chisel so the method mentioned of grinding it away and a blow with a chisel would be the only option.

 

Another method I have seen used by a work colleague to loosen stubborn bearings is to crank up the mig welder and lay down some weld on the races to get them nice and hot (aka get it cherry!) and quickly knock them out, works wonders due to the varying expansion/shrinkage rates!

[jimistdt 1]

Good stuff WP, thanks for the comments and the corrections.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

You can just tap the Track rod end off with a soft hammer, Saves mucking around with a tool, The 3 Gear out of a 1.9 BE box press's the bearing out spot on but not that too many people can put there hands on one of those

[BackStreetRacecars 3]

good dunt on the hub carrier part beside the track rod end always gets them out.... The bearing will come out with a good dunt also with a hammer in a vice...and then back in with the vice.the way I have always done them.... maybe i'm a bit rough? imho....the best and easiest way.fact.

 

 

Maybe I worked on trucks for too long.....

 

 

Edit: just realised you had already gone over that bit on the previous pages..... (sorry)

 

I will shut my face from now on.

Edited April 29, 2009 by BackStreetRacecars

[jimistdt 1]

Thanks for the input guys, it seems theres one less tool to buy/borrow so that makes life easier.

 

One point I'd like to add that I didn't post was once the bearing is removed give the inside face a good clean especially in the corner where the lip is, it gets crudded up, and once cleaned means the bearing sits better.

 

 

I'd like to say a big thanks to Pugtorque and to all the contributers on the forum, I wouldn't have had the balls to take this on without you lot, so thanks

 

Next week: The other side. (Couldn't hear it over the other one before )

[Baz 421]

Just had a read of this to re-kindle myself with bearings as i have a set to do soon! Very handy cheers Jimi.

 

Only one thing i do differently;

 

I don't use a balljoint splitter, just leave the nut on and use a single blow from a hammer, far quicker

 

Don't do either of those, the former risks damaging the BJ boot on the TRE, and the latter way you'll deform the nut, and worse if you leave the nut off; the threads.

 

Give the hub lateral blow on the part of the hub that sticks out to accept the TRE, and the TRE will drop straight out. Old trick i learnt from Dad as it works everytime, shocks the TRE hole just enough to let the ball joint out of it's tapered seat in the hub.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Baz

[lagonda 41]

But it's just so satisfying using a ball joint separator!

 

Been a while since I did this job. It would help tremendously if Peugeot had made the hub carrier symetrical, so that any press would fit...but of course that would mean any non-main dealer or worse, customer could do the job easily, wouldn't it? Me cynical?

[Bigtimmy 1]

Great write up, I have just done the two front bearings on Team Whitey, it all seemed rather easy and straight forward, but then I am used to getting bearings out of tractors and boat trailers that go in the sea....DOOM!!

 

Nice job!

[lagonda 41]

Had to replace the NSF wheel bearing back in 2005. I used my trusty rusty Record No23 vice to press out the bearing from the hub carrier. I stupidly later left the vice out in my driveway at Thames Ditton, and it got taken/stolen by gypsies. Grrr.

 

The OSF one has lasted much longer, another 100,000 miles. Current vice not big enough, and my hydaulic puller not much use due to Peugeot's deliberately unhelpful assymetric hub carrier. Ended up walking 5 miles along the verge of the main road into Ayron, not ideal. The garagiste there soon had the bearing out in his press, refused payment ... and insisted on his wife driving us back home. Well, I know where I'm going for more serious work on the car in future.

 

Anyway ... a useful tip for replacing  the hub flange in the bearing. I greased the outer of the flange, put it in the freezer for 3 hours, and left the hub carrier assembly out in the sun 26 degrees, for 3 hours. Once I'd got the flange properly aligned, it pressed home easily with moderate hand pressure, with a pleasant thunk. So a job I was expecting to spend hours on, took a few seconds. Good-oh!