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How to: 2002 Explorer rear wheel bearing replacement (pictures)

These are not your Daddy's bearings. Funny though I was looking for the same kind of thing when I took my rears apart....literally stood there and said to myself...WTF is this. No theres no "packing" the bearings on these puppies.......ah.....miss the good ol days.
 



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They are sealed bearings. That's the problem. What happens if you use your Explorer to put the boat in the lake, and submerge your rear wheels half way? We'll see how sealed those bearings really are, huh?

Any bearing that's subjected to that much load, for that long, at that high of a speed, shouldn't be a sealed bearing in my opinion. And that's exactly why we're replacing prematurely I think.

Make sure you don't use a pickle fork to take off the rod ends. And make sure the snap ring is removed before trying to push the bearing out.
 






I had the classic symptoms of a rear bearing going out (noise/vibration gets louder with speed, louder turning left curves but softer in right curves, 138k). No big deal I say to myself, I can do another bearing in the dead of winter since I have a garage. Jacked the rear end up, and sure enough the right rear wheel was pretty loose. To my shagrin, so was the left wheel...

I said screw it and let Ford do both rears for me at the same time... $700 later I can cruise down the road again in peace and quiet. The major contributing factor to me chickening out was discovering the local NAPA doesn't do services like pressing bearings and hubs out of sockets, and it just felt too weird bringing half a job to an ordinary shop/mechanic. Oh well, it's done now and I know it's done right.
 






First post on the board! Thanks for posting this great info!

I just pulled my 2005 Explorer out of the dealer service department after getting an estimate of $1,639.00 to replace both rear wheel bearings. They also attempted to hose me for another $3K for front end work including bearings. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the front end! I recently inspected it while having the brakes done. There are no indications of front end problems. No looseness in the steering, no shimmy, no uneven tire wear, NUTTIN! As far as the front end goes the truck drives like the day I bought it. 96K Miles. My god folks, dealer service centers are legalized grand larceny! Pity the poor slob who knows not the difference between a ratchet and a torque wrench!

So.. I will do the rear bearings myself, thanks to this thread!

Ordering parts this week and hope to get at least one side done this coming weekend.

By the way, dealer parts about $750. The best Timkin bearing and hub set found on the web - $230 (total, both sides). Ridiculous!
 






I recently had to repair a rear bearing on my 2002 explorer. Luckily I had access to a press and was able to do the job myself. I bought the bearing only for about $60 from O'reilly's and all went well putting it in.
I've had the explorer for 2 years and ever since I bought it, it has had a noise in the rear end. I've read this is common and didn't worry too much about it. Now that I've replaced the bearing the noise is completely gone. I guess the bearing was the source of the noise. It's been great driving it now but I'll never drive it through deep water again after seeing how the bearings are constructed.
 






Scary, isn't it? And to realize the wheel is held on by that pressed on hub inside a bearing prone to failure is just unnerving. Good point about deep water. There is a seal that presses onto the CV axle that is supposed to seal the bulk of things from getting into the back side of the spindle and bearing, but it's a dust seal, not a waterproof seal. You won't see me backing an Explorer in the lake to put a boat in!

When I first got mine, I thought the tires were noisy. Until the 1st front bearing went bad. Once that was fixed, I realized the rear bearings needed to be replaced. Now with 3 bearings replaced, it's been nice and quiet... except that whiney rear end and clunky front end. These trucks kind of suck.
 






I've read before where people think if the bearing goes out the wheel can just come off. But if the bearing goes out that is not going to happen.
 






That's not true. It is possible for the wheel to exit the vehicle. The wheel is held onto the hub with lugnuts. The hub is pressed into the INNER bearing race. Then there are two back-to-back tapered bearings, and the OUTER race. The outer race gets pressed into the spindle.

If the bearings failed spectacularly, they could bind and bust out, leaving nothing to support the inner race/hub. And off comes the wheel.

This doesn't normally happen because people discover the bearing noise and fix it long before it gets to that point. But if you ignored a bearing noise, or if it happened suddenly, it certainly can happen. And picture the scenario. You're cruising down the interstate at 80 MPH for 7 hours straight. Windows are up, radio and A/C are on, and you're oblivious to the noise that keeps getting louder and louder. You mistake it for tire noise, or rear end noise. And finally the heat locks the bearing up solid. Once locked up, the momentum of the wheel with all that weight on it keeps rolling forward, despite the bearing not budging, until the bearing just tears itself apart and off comes the wheel.

I know this, because I've read cases on the internet of this very thing happening. And it's easy to do. When I bought my truck, it made front and rear bearing noise. I mistook it for cheap tire noise, until after a 2 hour trip, the front hub bearing took a dump overnite. Went to drive it the next morning and the bearing went from noisy to undriveable within 1/2 mile.

Remember too, that bearing is really 2 tapered bearings 1/2 that size. So there's side load on the bearings all the time. And 1/4 the weight of the truck constantly on them. Plus they are sealed bearings, not lubed like traditional axle bearings. And to top it off, they don't have a real seal preventing water from getting into them if you submerge them. Just a dust seal on the CV axle. Surely something to think about if you own a boat, or drive in a flooded area.
 






That's not true. It is possible for the wheel to exit the vehicle. The wheel is held onto the hub with lugnuts. The hub is pressed into the INNER bearing race. Then there are two back-to-back tapered bearings, and the OUTER race. The outer race gets pressed into the spindle.

If the bearings failed spectacularly, they could bind and bust out, leaving nothing to support the inner race/hub. And off comes the wheel.

This doesn't normally happen because people discover the bearing noise and fix it long before it gets to that point. But if you ignored a bearing noise, or if it happened suddenly, it certainly can happen. And picture the scenario. You're cruising down the interstate at 80 MPH for 7 hours straight. Windows are up, radio and A/C are on, and you're oblivious to the noise that keeps getting louder and louder. You mistake it for tire noise, or rear end noise. And finally the heat locks the bearing up solid. Once locked up, the momentum of the wheel with all that weight on it keeps rolling forward, despite the bearing not budging, until the bearing just tears itself apart and off comes the wheel.

I know this, because I've read cases on the internet of this very thing happening. And it's easy to do. When I bought my truck, it made front and rear bearing noise. I mistook it for cheap tire noise, until after a 2 hour trip, the front hub bearing took a dump overnite. Went to drive it the next morning and the bearing went from noisy to undriveable within 1/2 mile.

Remember too, that bearing is really 2 tapered bearings 1/2 that size. So there's side load on the bearings all the time. And 1/4 the weight of the truck constantly on them. Plus they are sealed bearings, not lubed like traditional axle bearings. And to top it off, they don't have a real seal preventing water from getting into them if you submerge them. Just a dust seal on the CV axle. Surely something to think about if you own a boat, or drive in a flooded area.


No, I'm sorry but you are wrong. Think about it. The outer CV joint housing on the drive axle gets pressed up against the knuckle when you torque the hub nut down. The splined shaft goes through the hub and the hub is held on by the nut. The only way the the wheel is going to fall off is if the CV housing somehow shrinks an inch in diameter and slips through the knuckle or the splined shaft on the outer end of the drive axle breaks off. The hub being pressed into the bearing is NOT what hold the hub onto the vehicle. Shoot there was nothing left of my bearing by the time I limped it home but the wheel never fell off. Seriously, nobody is going to design a wheel to stay on any vehicle by just pressing the hub into a bearing.
 






The nut may hold the hub onto the axle, but what holds the axle in the vehicle? A circlip in the rear end. So if the wheel and the rear end start playing tug-of-war with with the CV axle acting as the rope, what makes you think the circlip isn't going to get pulled out? It's just a snap ring. It's not capable of holding up if the weight of the vehicle starts resting on the CV axle. In fact, it's just a little tension on the circlip, not even a positive lock.

To remove the CV axle from the rear end, you simply tap it out with a hammer and block of wood. You don't even have to remove the circlip. If you want to test the theory, try removing the spindle or swinging it out of the way, take an old hub and slide it over the axle end, put a nut on it, and then jerk the hub away from the rear end. That might be a bit hard to do by hand, but the weight of the vehicle pushing down on that CV axle on a funny angle would have no problem popping the axle out of the circlip. Or for that matter, the vehicle weight could probably even bust the CV joint. They're not really designed to be stretched apart.

Where the outer CV joint rests up against the back side of the knuckle, there is nothing holding it there. In fact, nothing can hold it there, because the knuckle isn't spinning and the CV joint is. It has the appearance of being snug, because of the dust seal on the CV axle sealing up pretty good against the knuckle, but there's no real connection there.

Come to think of it though, with the knuckle being fully bolted onto the car, the outer CV joint can't really escape because the knuckle is in the way. But if the bearing were to be obliterated, you could get one hell of a wobble in the wheel, and sheer off the lug nuts. You could kind of test this by removing the bearing, and then mocking everything else back up.

You could also still face the possibility of the axle nut failing under the increased stress. In my case, that could really have been the case. All the threads on the axle were rusted away, except the ones that were protected by the nut covering them. So if my bearing had catastrophic failure, about 3 threads of the axle nut would have been the only thing holding the wheel on.

My point is, imagine a bearing that's completely missing, and then bolting everything else back together. Without the bearing supporting it, the hub wouldn't stay where it should be, and at high speed, that could be a recipe for disaster. Maybe not every time, but sometimes.
 












But that still doesn't mean it isn't a cause. If the wheel bearing gets loose, and the hub and axle are allowed to bounce around, that still means the wheel wobbles around at high speed. This can cause the wheel studs to sheer off, and that's exactly what happens to most Explorers. While probably unlikely to happen often, I maintain the position that it could happen on occasion.
 






But that still doesn't mean it isn't a cause. If the wheel bearing gets loose, and the hub and axle are allowed to bounce around, that still means the wheel wobbles around at high speed. This can cause the wheel studs to sheer off, and that's exactly what happens to most Explorers. While probably unlikely to happen often, I maintain the position that it could happen on occasion.

lol .. whatever. Bottom line, the wheel won't fall off if the bearing goes out because the hub being pressed into the bearing is not what holds the hub onto the vehicle.
 






Really? Then what does hold the hub onto the vehicle? The axle and axle nut. And what supports THEM?
 






Really? Then what does hold the hub onto the vehicle? The axle and axle nut. And what supports THEM?

Look at the picture. Like I said before, the outer CV joint housing on the drive axle gets pressed up against the knuckle when you torque the hub nut down. (red parts are pressed together) The splined shaft then goes through the hub and the hub is held on by the nut. The bearing is there for the hub to turn in, but it doesn't hold the hub on.

 






The red area highlighted on the CV axle is actually where the dust seal is pressed onto the CV joint. The red area highlighted on the spindle is the cavity in the spindle that the bearing presses into, where the snap ring holds the bearing in. They don't touch. If they did, the seal would get shreaded to pieces.

The CV axle obviously spins as the vehicle moves. The spindle housing does not. Therefore, they cannot be allowed to contact each other. When the axle is pulled into the spindle/bearing assembly by the nut, it LOOKS like the CV joint is tight up against the spindle, but that is not the case. If the dust seal were to be removed from the CV axle, and a light shined on it, you would see that the circumference of the CV joint does not contact the spindle. If it did, carnage would ensue.

The front of the CV joint has a smaller flat on it, after it tapers down. This flat presses up against the back side of the inner bearing race. The axle nut holds the CV joint up against the back side of the bearing.

Here, take a look at this thread. It's of a 97 Explorer front wheel bearing failure, but the concept is exactly the same as what would happen in the rear if the bearing were really bad.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306935

The bearing goes to hell, the cv axle ends up supporting the weight of the vehicle, the CV joint contacts the spindle and starts grinding it away, the wheel cambers bigtime, and if this happens at a great enough speed on the highway, the cv joint could weld itself to the spindle from heat, and sheer completely off. This guys truck was not too far from that!
 






Here's a picture, again on a 97 front axle, of what a CV axle/joint would look like bolted up. Since this is a front with a bolt in bearing, instead of a rear with a pressed in bearing, you don't need to seal the CV axle to the back side of the bearing tight. So this sort of shows how the CV axle presses up against the back side of the bearing, if you didn't have the seal and tighter fitting housing in the way.

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/3624/medium/frontendwork_004_Medium_.jpg
 






You are right, it's not 'pressed' against each other. But my point is still the same and still correct. The hub and wheel can't fall off even if bearing goes out! The CV axle would have to got trough the knuckle for that to happen and it can't. The end. You are like talking to a brick wall.
 






Take a good look at the picture of that Explorer with the wheel all cambered out, and tell me that if you're doing 80 mph down the interstate, the CV axle welds itself to the spindle, that it can't shear off. More likely is that the lugnuts cannot withstand the weight of the angled wheel and shear off.

I'm not saying it's common, or even likely, because most people would stop when they detect something wrong. But it certainly can happen, especially at high speeds when things go wrong more quickly.

As for talking to a brick wall, I'll remind you that earlier you thought the spinning CV axle somehow pressed against the fixed spindle.

There are lots of cases where Explorers have sheared off all the lugnuts on a wheel, and the wheel came off at speeds. I think most of these cases has to do with the aluminum wheels backing off if they are not retorqued, but I bet some of them have to do with the sudden radical camber change associated with a seized wheel bearing at high speeds.
 



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