Changing wheel bearings

Undo the driveshaft nut (get someone to stand on the brakes while you do this, jack up the side concerned with axle stands, remove the anti-roll bar top swivel). Wire brush the threads as the nut disappears at the end, remove the steering arm and the brake caliper, tie them up, remove the hand brake cable bracket and the brake disc, remove the lower swivel, the driveshaft nut, the bolt holding the hub to the strut--be careful not to pull the driveshaft out of the gearbox or else you will lose the gearbox oil. Now you have the hub in your hand.

Drive the inner hub out with a hammer and 3/4" socket or similar. Remove the 3" diameter circlip carefully with a screwdriver or an internal circlip pliers. You may need to break the rust out first by chasing it around with a punch and hammer.

Try and drive the bearing out—it is into a blind 'L' lipped hole so you cannot get behind the outer race and the bearing will break up when you hit the inner race but do it anyway (note that it is the dried grease that failed not the bearing). Now you are left with an outer race hard up against a blind lip. Get a 2 mm or thicker lump of metal that is small enough to fit the outer race in several places, MIG weld this lump/plate to the bearings at several places, hit it hard, it will break away from the hardened outer bearing race, reweld, hit again. After about 7 cycles enough of the outer race will have come away that it cracks, now it will hammer out of place no problems. Basically you are using the heat from the MIG to loosen it and the weld to get something to hit.

Clean up the housing, grease it, and tap the new bearing in hitting the outer race only, using a piece of wood as a buffer. When the bearing gets flush with the mounting, use a socket and tap the edge of the bearing going through 360 degrees. Finally, refit the circlip.

Malcolm GRAY-STEPHENS

You can remove the wheel bearing assembly with a vice, hammer and chisel. All you have to do is to remove the inner race by removing the circuit. The inner race is in two halves that can be easily tapped out (it will even fall out if it is already badly worn).

Then comes the difficult part. The inner race is pressed and will only come out in one direction, backwards to the gearbox and driveshaft. In the centre of the outer race there is a small raised section. Place the chisel or screwdriver there and hit it, then move the tool by 30 degrees and hit it again. You need to keep going round the full circle, the outer race will move quite slowly. Once the edge and face become visible, it is easier to hit the edge rather than the centre of the race. Be careful not to damage the face of the bearing mounting.

Neil PARRY