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

[Pontisteve]

Glad you got it fixed!! The ball joints can be a PITA to get off. Even with a pneumatic chisel and ball joint separator attachment, they don't always pop right off like they should.

I found using a baby sledge to smack the side of the control arms helped shock the ball joints loose from the vibration. That, and spreading the pinch bolt far enough apart and soaking it with PB blaster.

 

[fototx]

Many thanks for this write-up.

Just changed the right passenger side bearing and hub. 1.5 hours for disassembly and off to the local Ford shot. They charge 40$ for press work.

Went pretty smoothly. Most difficult thing was pulling the PB out! My takeaways: PB Blaster the night before, rent a hub puller and 35mm socket and 200 ftlb torque wrench. Pull the toe link off along with the knuckle, then work on the UCA pinch bolt with a cold chisel, after separating the knuckle and half shaft. Once that is done, pull the knuckle completely off and then work on separating the toe link, slightly spreading the pinch bolt. I guess I was fortunate that my Exp. never seen a winter!

Thanks very much for the insight!

 

[Number Twelve]

Does the half-shaft telescope back away from the hub so I can get the end out of the hub before removing the upper and lower fasteners?

 

[rocco123]

Just replaced my right rear bearing with Timkin PN 516008 from Rock Auto. This is the 3rd time replacing the RR bearing. Press them myself. Had a noise that sounded like aggressive tire tread. No play in the bearing, but when I removed the old one found the inner bearing had water ingress and was rusty. There is no sealing these from water other than what small seal is around the edge of the bearing. The axle half shaft rides directly on the bearing with no sort of seal between the 2. Oh well, at least I did get 5 years out of this one.

 

[Number Twelve]

Nobody answered my question in post #503 in the last 12 days. The torque wrench arrived yesterday. I guess I'm going to find out by myself.

 

[drdoom]

Twelve which upper and lower fasteners are you referring to? I did catch your post but it seemed to apply more to a front hub than rear, but then again it has been over a year since I had mine apart...

 

[Number Twelve]

Twelve which upper and lower fasteners are you referring to? I did catch your post but it seemed to apply more to a front hub than rear, but then again it has been over a year since I had mine apart...

I'm asking about rear bearings.
The rear assembly which contains the bearing is connected at the top and bottom. I think the upper connection is a ball joint. I think the lower connection is not a ball joint. Regardless of what the upper and lower fasteners are, I don't know if the axle shaft can be pushed back through the bearing without taking the upper and lower connection apart.

 

[rocco123]

Yes, you have to remove upper and lower. The entire knuckle needs to be off the car in order to press the bearing out.

 

[Number Twelve]

Yes, you have to remove upper and lower. The entire knuckle needs to be off the car in order to press the bearing out.

I did not ask about removing the bearing from the knuckle. I asked about pushing the drive shaft out of the bearing so I can get the knuckle off the car. Will the drive shaft go back through through the bearing while the knuckle is bolted to the car or do I have to remove the knuckle first?

 

[rocco123]

I did not ask about removing the bearing from the knuckle. I asked about pushing the drive shaft out of the bearing so I can get the knuckle off the car. Will the drive shaft go back through through the bearing while the knuckle is bolted to the car or do I have to remove the knuckle first?

No, knuckle won't pivot down far enough for splines to go out. Remove bolts holding knuckle assy, then should slide straight off. Sometimes if rusted on the splines hang up and puller is used to press on shaft while holding spindle.

 

[rocco123]

No, knuckle won't pivot down far enough for splines to go out. Remove bolts holding knuckle assy, then should slide straight off. Sometimes if rusted on the splines hang up and puller is used to press on shaft while holding spindle.

At.least mine wouldn't drop enough to get off.

 

[drdoom]

Knuckle needs to come off first, but you can drop it down with the toe link still attached to have better access to that. At this point you should have the half shaft wired off to the coil spring.

 

[Number Twelve]

Thanks. That's what I needed.
Reading about splines and rubber boots led me to wonder if there is enough spline sliding to allow me to shove the axle out with the knuckle still bolted on. Now I know. That won't work.

 

[Number Twelve]

90 minutes my aching patootie! This is the most uncooperative piece of...machinery...I have ever worked on, and I have pulled the engine out of an Econoline in 3 hours from, "Hello" to having the engine on an engine stand. This one rear knuckle took me five hours with all the right tools, and I'm not counting rest breaks.

I have a 20 gallon air compressor, an air chisel, a 1/2 inch air gun, 12 sets of sockets, 6 sets of open&box wrenches, two floor jacks, 4 jack stands, and a proper hub puller. The easy part was the axle nut, and the brake disk fell off by itself, probably because the wobble in the bearing let the parking brake shoes rub the rust line off the brake drum. I had to use a 5 pound steel sledge to knock the upper ball joint and the toe rod end out because my 2 pound brass hammer wasn't big enough. A hundred and fifty whacks on the toe rod end (with the knuckle in a bench vise) and way over that many whacks on the upper ball joint. The spline shaft was so married to the hub that the air wrench took 3 solid minutes of slowly tightening the center bolt of the hub puller.

I half-way hope the machine shop doesn't get the bearing pressed in before Monday because I can't work that hard two nights in a row.

 

[Number Twelve]

One of the hub splines was cold welded to the drive shaft splines. A small piece of metal sheered off a drive shaft spline close to the CV joint. That piece of metal was cold welded to the hub spline and had to be dragged along the complete length of the drive spline to get the hub off. This one was nothing like that video about the guy that got lucky and did all this with a slide hammer! I would still be out there trying to get this apart if I didn't have a hub puller.

Wire brushes intended to clean copper pipe were used (on a drill) to buff the rust out of the upper ball joint and toe rod sockets. No defects or difficulties in the parking brake assembly. I accomplished getting some slack in the parking brake cable by pulling it out with my hand and placing a small vise-grip on the cable where it goes in to an outer casing just behind the front seat.

I can't see any way to use finesse to get the parking brake cable off. It's just, stab a screwdriver in the spring loops and force the cable end around the end of the parking brake lever with the spring fighting you all the way. Then squeeze the tabs on the plastic end to get the cable out of the other parking brake lever.

An hour and 50 to put it back together, just me, no helper, not counting setting up the tools and putting away the tools. That includes fussing with the parking brake adjustment and breaking my 3/4 to 1/2 half inch adapter.

Miserable POS must have come in a Chyneze socket set. No name on it. So I twisted the 1/2 inch end right off.

 

[Phantom]

Maybe I missed it, but can you press the hub and bearing out without removing all of the parking brake hardware and backing plate? I don't see how but I sure would love not to have to take the shoes and springs out. Thanks.

 

[rocco123]

Once the knuckle assy is off, removing the parking brake is very easy. Working with it on the truck is doable, but difficult. You only need to push the 2 pb arms out thru the backing plate then remove the pb after knuckle is off. Backing plate can't be removed until spindle is pressed off. Saw video of cutting out inside of an old rotor and using the Outter ring to use as a press plate for pressing the bearing out. Next time I change out a big rotor I'll make one.

 

[Phantom]

I meant the shoes and springs in order to set it up in the press.

 

[Number Twelve]

Maybe I missed it, but can you press the hub and bearing out without removing all of the parking brake hardware and backing plate? I don't see how but I sure would love not to have to take the shoes and springs out. Thanks.

I don't think you can do that, but I wasn't at the machine shop. I worked at night and sent my nephew to the machine shop in the day time. There's just too much stuff in the way if you leave the parking brake shoes on, but don't worry. I'm with rocco. If you have ever done drum brakes, the parking brake on this is dead easy.
Two pins from the rear go into two retainer clips while holding the two brake shoes on. Two return springs, the big one at the top, and an adjuster at the bottom. Then the two arms that grab the cable. End of list. If you doubt yourself, take pictures.

 

[lincolnshibuya]

I was able to remove the rear wheel bearing without any press, just using the hub grappler tool. I think this is possible because the bearing and hub were serviced before. The circlip is just a PITA to replace, I ended up not using my circlip pliers (the circlip is just too big) and just use a large flat head screwdriver to force it in. There's no room for the hub grappler jaws to securely pull out the hub so I removed the parking brake shoes. The springs and pins are also a bit hard to pull out because of the tight space. I shocked the bearing and it ended up breaking into pieces, can't believe the roller bearings were secured by plastic and not metal. What's left is the outer race which the hub grappler (without the jaws, only the cup) was able to pull out.
I used a 20 tom press to put in new bearing (since it's easier), this time I'm using National (made in Korea) seems to be better quality (a bit expensive than timken) with no slop compared to the unknown chinese brand I have in stock.

I'll put in some photos later, it's just messy with all the PB plaster and grease on the parts (can't ruin my shiny white iphone).