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

[Pontisteve]

I can't recall the exact size right now, but I found that the axle nut socket was 1mm smaller than what everybody else was saying. 35mm maybe? Its just that the socket is so big, being a size off still works. Still, better to use the right one. Double check me!

 

[Snowcone]

Halfway through doing both the rears now.
Disassembly was no problem but getting a press big enough to get the hubs and bearings out has got me beat for today.
I have a 6 tonne press that wouldn't look at them. I went to mates place with a 10 tonne press and we could only get one hub off but not the bearing or the other hub.
Will have to go somewhere else with a 20-50 tonne press on monday.
I couldn't see any way to press the hub off without squashing the backing plate in a few places.
Ford should have made this a 2 piece unit to avoid this (or used better quality bearings to start with)

 

[Pontisteve]

You could try heat and PB Blaster. I personally believe that Ford may have used Loctite for bearing races when they originally installed these things! I could not get the Harbor Freight 10 ton shop press to push mine out. I had to bust out the bearings out of the outer race, then cut thru the bulk of the race with a whizzer wheel. That wasn't the safest thing to do, and on the 2nd side I cut into the spindle a little doing that.

In restrospect, a bigger press might have been just the ticket. But scoring the race did weaken it to the point where it would break and then come out. SAVE THE OLD RACES. You can use them to press in the new ones.

After seeing how this bearing is set up, can you imagine wanting to use your Explorer to put your boat in the lake? Or drive thru a foot of water?

 

[Snowcone]

No, I just discovered a bigger press is the not answer!!!!!

Got the hub out of the bearing but cracked the housing doing it.
It was around one of the lower mounting lugs that didn't like 20 tonnes hanging of it.
I'm starting to hate this car.
A wheel bearing change is a walk in the park in cars without Ford badges on them.
As parts for these are scarce in Australia, I am having the hub welded.
Probably not the best practice but in a lot of cases, the weld can be stronger than the parent metal so I will go with this line of thinking

 

[Pontisteve]

That's exactly what I was afraid of. Let me share my experience about pressing the bearing out...

I had the hub in a 20 ton shop press, and I was just about hanging on the jack handle trying to get the bearing out. It wouldn't budge. I was afraid I would break the press if I tried any harder!

So I aborted that idea, went home and took a small cutoff wheel, put it in a drill arbor, and cut into the race at a 45 degree angle (the only angle you can, actually). I cut over half way thru the race, and then returned to the press. That worked, and the press busted the race, pressing it out. When it let loose, it sounded very scary!

So that worked. On side 2, I went straight to cutting the race, based on my experience with side 1. Unfortunately, I was overconfident at that point, and ended up cutting into the spindle! So I had my buddy tig weld up the cut, and I tried my best to sand down the excess weld with a flapwheel. That led to concerns that I had ground too far. I figured not far enough would cause the bearing to have a preloaded spot on it, wiping the bearing early. So I gave it my best shot. Knowing that I may have removed more material than I should have from the hub assembly, I opted to use Loctite for bearing races on the new bearing, to make sure it stayed put. So far, it's worked just fine.

Moral of story: use a cutoff wheel to weaken the race, but don't cut thru it. Remember, the wheel is deepest cutting at it's center.

The bearing is actually 2 tapered bearings facing eachother, housed in one common large race. So the middle of the race is twice as thick as the outer portion of the race. Score it all with a cutoff wheel, but know that the middle has the most room for cutting without fear. There's probably around 1/4" of material total in the middle, and maybe 1/8 or less on the outer portions of the race. Cut accordingly. I would only cut maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the way thru at the most. Weakening it should be enough to do the trick.

 

[zacd84]

Tyler, you're the bomb dot com for that one.

 

[esclamada]

this is a little bit off topic, but if I want to just remove and replace the coil spring/strut assembly, I only need to remove the upper arm and tie rod end right? I don't really need to remove the hub.

 

[tmaher]

ok. I got the knuckle off and have the hub and bearing in hand. Then i find out that autozone has no press.

My wife took my truck and i am stuck home. hope i can find a NAPA store open on Sunday. Maybe PEP boys can do it.

 

[Pontisteve]

You would be better off paying a machine shop to press them out for you, trust me. If you do press them yourself, you might want to try heating the bearing race up with a torch really hot, then allowing it to cool. I believe the race has bearing race loctite on it, and heating it up hot enough will burn the loctite out, making it easier to press the bearing out. Don't forget to remove the snap ring first!

 

[tmaher]

UPDATE: Finally found a shop on Sunday (PEP Boys) that would press the bearing out and install the new hub and bearing. They said 39.95 for the job. Perfect!! So i dropped the parts off and went to home depot to get some stuff i don't need and returned in about 45 minutes. there sits 2 techs trying to get the bearing out with a 20 ton press. I ask "how's it going?", "not good", the reply. They eventually had to torch the bearing AND hub before it would come out. I slipped the tech $10 bucks because i knew it was a *****. I get to the service desk and the guy tells me this job is normally $100 but since he told me 39.95 that is what i would pay. So, hub back on explorer and whine is significantly less, but not totally gone. I'm afraid the right side is bad as well. But i am FN tired and will watch football for the rest of the afternoon. All in all, not a bad experience. Good luck to anyone else trying this!!! :
BTW, i noticed there were no friction material on the E-brake so i bought the shoes with hardware and installed them as well. Took 30 minutes to figure out how to get the top spring seated. What a pain!

TOTAL COST
117 hub and bearing
12 Caliper slide bolts (from FORD..must be gold plated!!) one of the old bolt heads was rounded off, got it off with vise-grips and a lot of WD-40
16 35MM socket for the hub nut
85 E-brake shoes and hardware (another cost surprise!!)
40 Press job
15 Gas (traveling all over to get parts)
6 hours of my time (including travel)
-------
275 all in. Not sure what the dealer would've charged but the bearing cost alone at Ford was 110 and i got the hub and bearing for 117 at Autozone. And who knows how much for the e-brake shoes and hardware. Wild guess? 700 to get it done at the dealer... Significant savings IMHO.

I'll work up enuf energy someday to do the other side. Should go smoother now that i know what to do

 

[Pontisteve]

I told you getting that bearing out is no joke! And the guys installing the bearing have to be VERY careful to properly support the back side at just the right spot, or you can press the new bearings right out of the race. No bueno.

The E-brake shoes and hardware being bad seems typical, and I found the best thing there is to just buy them up front off the internet ahead of time. Ebay and Amazon turn that large cost into a small one. I think I paid $15 for the shoes the last time, for Raybestos.

The trick to getting the top spring off is to use a headlight adjustment tool, which is a small T-handle with a little hook on the end of it. Without that little jewel, good luck!

I've heard up to $900 at some dealers. Imagine doing four corners at Ford. :-(

The way to tell if the bearings are bad is to drive down an empty country road, and swerve the truck left and right. If a wheel bearing is bad, it will get noisier as you shift the weight to it, and quieter as you shift the weight away from it. For front to back, you just have to listen and determine which end its coming from.

Now, keep your truck away from water and boat ramps. As you can see, the sealed bearing design won't like those much.

 

[esclamada]

I'm planning on changing my rear hub at the same time changing my suspension due to a broken coil this weekend. One shop quoted my $50 to press in and out the hubs (one quoted $95, probably they knew how bad it is)

One thing that is not clear to me is how do I remove the parking brake spring at the back of the brake cover? Do I need to disassemble the parking brake first and that spring just easily comes out? Is that where you will use headlight adjustment tool for? (parking brake just behind the upper arm ball joint in the below picture)

the below picture doesn't show that it was disconnected, somehow the parking brake was disassembled first?

or is that headlight adjustment tool used to re-assemble the parking brake springs?

-----------------------------------------------------------
MY MOUNTY
http://www.facebook.com/diyfordexplorer

 

[Pontisteve]

Pull the rotor off (make sure e-brake pedal is not depressed obviously), and the parking brakes are exposed. But the shoes are so small that they almost hide entirely behind the hub. The parking brake cable goes into the back of the brake backing plate, and has two fingers that poke thru to the front side of the backing plate. The E-brake shoes attach to these two fingers at the top. The parking brake adjuster attaches at the bottom, between the shoes. Then an upper and lower spring hold tension on the two shoes towards eachother.

You use the headlight adjusting tool to remove the springs. Then the shoes come off, the adjuster falls out, and the E-brake cable can be pushed out. Clean it up and don't forget to use a little caliper slide lube/grease on the contact points of the shoes when putting it back together. But don't get crazy with the grease, or it'll end up on the shoes. The contact points are at the top, where the shoes meet the cable, and along a couple points on the backing plate. These points are raised up, and guide the shoes. Don't go overboard on these points, as you're basically lubing up the sides of the brake shoes. And you don't want that to smear over to the friction material.

When you depress the E-brake pedal, it separates those fingers on the cable end, which spreads the brake shoes apart and pushes them into the drum, applying brake friction.

Don't forget to hang the caliper out of the way. I used a couple of OTC caliper hanger brackets. They're S shaped hooks, and are pretty handy to own. Don't let the caliper hang by the hose.

 

[esclamada]

Thanks PontiSteve, the instruction/tip is way better than haynes or chilton Looks like more time will be spent on this parking brake.



-----------------------------------------------------------
MY MOUNTY
http://www.facebook.com/diyfordexplorer

 

[Pontisteve]

FYI, Lisle makes a tool that measures the inside of a drum (rotor in our case), and then you can lock the tool 1 mm less than that size, and use it to gage how far out the brake shoes are supposed to be adjusted to.

In other words, you adjust the brake shoes O.D. to be 1 mm less than the brake drum's I.D. Kind of a handy tool. It's basically a big, low quality dial caliper.

 

[tmaher]

i took the metal clip off each shoe first and then just spread the shoes appart to remove the top spring. Putting the spring back on was the beeeaattchhh.

 

[xlt03]

Use a scratch awl to install spring. Works just like tool for regular rear brake shoes.

 

[Pontisteve]

Headlight adjusting tool makes it much easier.

 

[guilateen]

This will be my second replacement on the rr hub. First was a timken lasted about thirty thousand, then a duralast about the same. Both I had the pros install still went bad. This time around I'm going to do it right myself. Meaning following all the torque specs. I'm thinking of buying the primechoiceauto for 32.00. I know sounds kinda of crazy but my budget is low. I just purchased 4 struts, all front bjs, 4 new tires. So i have to cut somewhere. Lots of guys on this thread have had great luck whith there struts hopefully there hubs r just as good. Anyone try them yet? Also any advice on some decent brands other than timken. I mean 5times the price is ridiculous. Wish me luck and any input is appreciated.
http://www.primechoiceautoparts.com/c-47-hub-bearing-assembly-mmy-MERCURY-MOUNTAINEER-2002.aspx

 

[Pontisteve]

I think ford uses SKF bearings. They are good. Or just Ford ones. I wouldn't trust my life to a chinese bearing. Find out where they are built! Timken are usually very good. If you don't support the bearing correctly when you press in the new bearing, you can ruin the bearing. Keel the bearing out of water (no boat ramps for these trucks), and make sure your dust seal on the back side of the bearing is good.