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

[scdix50]

Pressing rear bearings

Addition to post 372.
Thursday 7 Feb. I pressed both rear wheel bearings & hubs on my 04EB. Both bearings I removed were ### Brand bearings. The hubs had no markings as to where made or by whom. The bearings were made in Canada.
The right bearing & hub pressed out fairly easy even though it was the one I was concerned about. The left side would have been OK to run awhale longer. I did both because I had the parts and shop time. The bearing was a bear. The hub pressed out hard all the way and the bearing was no better. I had a 30inch pipe slid over the jack handle. As MITCHWSL had noted, he saw some signs of wobbling on one hub. Isaw some early signs of wobble on the left hub. This condition maybe a reason for hard pressing.
The photo of the black sleeve used in pressing the bearing, I had to grind it around the bottom to finish pressing the bearing

 

[Jasone352]

Okay so apparently good machine shops are hard to come by here in Ocala, FL. I got the knuckles off and brought them to two different machine shops this morning. The first guy acted like I was a moron for even considering him for the job so I left, and the second "garenteed" me that he would break the knuckle if he tried to do it.

I even called the local stealership and they basically gave me the run-around which eventually left me in the same predicament.

I called two more auto places and both of them are charging me about $100 give or take (which seems awfully steep). But alas, my ride is at work now and I have no way of getting the parts there. I guess I'm going to have to go another day without a vehicle.

Geez what a headache!

 

[SyberTiger]

Okay so apparently good machine shops are hard to come by here in Ocala, FL. I got the knuckles off and brought them to two different machine shops this morning. The first guy acted like I was a moron for even considering him for the job so I left, and the second "garenteed" me that he would break the knuckle if he tried to do it.

I even called the local stealership and they basically gave me the run-around which eventually left me in the same predicament.

I called two more auto places and both of them are charging me about $100 give or take (which seems awfully steep). But alas, my ride is at work now and I have no way of getting the parts there. I guess I'm going to have to go another day without a vehicle.

Geez what a headache!

Yup, you can read my version of your story HERE. Basically, the easy part was getting the spindle/knuckle assembly off although that was no great joy either. The hard part was finding someone competent enough to do the job without screwing it up or forcing you to buy parts they will destroy...like hubs.

Try finding a NAPA autoparts with a machine shop.

 

[Pontisteve]

I'm in Ocala too. A machine shop very well may break the knuckle if you try to press it out as-is. You have to bust the bearing and hub out first, then score the race deeply with a whiz wheel on a 45 degree angle. That will weaken the race enough so that it will bust when you press it out. Even then, the press has to use considerable force.

 

[SyberTiger]

I'm in Ocala too. A machine shop very well may break the knuckle if you try to press it out as-is. You have to bust the bearing and hub out first, then score the race deeply with a whiz wheel on a 45 degree angle. That will weaken the race enough so that it will bust when you press it out. Even then, the press has to use considerable force.

I think his point is that finding a competent shop is not a "no brainer". When you pay for this service they should have the expertise to do the job correctly. There should NOT be a discussion where the customer has to educate the shop.

As you know, this was my problem. Either their technique was garbage or they had absolutely no reasonable idea of how to do it correctly. When that happens your best choice is to walk away which is what Jasone352 did.

 

[Pontisteve]

Oh I get that. But my point is that walking away from multiple machine shops doesn't get you any closer to getting your car fixed. Most shops either know how hard they are and avoid doing them, or don't know and end up breaking the spindle.

You bust the bearing and hub out, score the race, and bring it to a machine shop. If they give you the line about how the spindle will break, you point to the race that you have cut halfway thru, and tell them that this will give before the spindle does. Anybody competent will immediately understand the solution you just provided.

They probably already know it, and don't want to do it. Its hard, time consuming, and you risk cutting too deep and cutting into the spindle. Don't do that! Mostly weaken the race in the middle where the two tapered bearings come together. And then a little bit everywhere else.

 

[Jasone352]

Well I just picked up the knuckles with my new bearing assembly installed. $116 later. About to go reassemble and hopefully everything will go smoothly.

 

[sslaymon]

I've called several machine shops in the area and no one will touch them on removing the old bearings. Is it possible to cut the bearings and then work them out? Might be a PITA but I don't have a press.

One shop said they will install the new bearings, but won't press out the old ones. I take it's easier to install the new ones than get the older ones out?

I'll be looking to tackle this tomorrow and Saturday, and Sunday if need be.

 

[Jasone352]

Ebrake spring

So how on gods green earth am I supposed to get these MF'ing springs back onto the ebrake shoes. I have spent about 45 minuets trying to get it back on and simply cannot do it. I am just going to reassemble without the springs for now since the shoes need to be replaced anyways. When I removed the rotors the surface on the shoes fell apart..

However I will need to do this eventually, any advice?

 

[SyberTiger]

So how on gods green earth am I supposed to get these MF'ing springs back onto the ebrake shoes. I have spent about 45 minuets trying to get it back on and simply cannot do it. I am just going to reassemble without the springs for now since the shoes need to be replaced anyways. When I removed the rotors the surface on the shoes fell apart..

However I will need to do this eventually, any advice?

I thought I told you to read my post.....

You would have seen that it is best to put the brakes back on before the hubs are pressed in. Oh well...I tried to help.....

 

[xlt03]

Hook da spring...
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270833

 

[Jasone352]

Tiger, I did try to assemble the pbrakes before I mounted the assembly, I was still unsuccessful...

Thanks xlt for the link, I'm going to get me one of them there awls and give that a shot.

 

[Pontisteve]

So how on gods green earth am I supposed to get these MF'ing springs back onto the ebrake shoes. I have spent about 45 minuets trying to get it back on and simply cannot do it. I am just going to reassemble without the springs for now since the shoes need to be replaced anyways. When I removed the rotors the surface on the shoes fell apart..

However I will need to do this eventually, any advice?

You gotta read all 20+ pages of this thread to find out! LOL

The BEST way to do it is by using a headlight adjusting tool. It's basically a T handle with a small hook on the end of it. By having a hook instead of a straight point, you are not going to have springs flying all over the place. You'll also have better leverage.

The only downside to the hook is that once you get the spring end in the hole, the hook kind of gets in the way of itself being removed. So you just get the spring started in the hole, remove the T-hook, and then tap the spring in place with a flathead screwdriver and a hammer. Works slick, and no more cussing.

As a bonus, those headlamp adjusting tools are easy to come by. I think I got mine at the local Advance Auto.

 

[Jmoney352]

You gotta read all 20+ pages of this thread to find out! LOL

The BEST way to do it is by using a headlight adjusting tool. It's basically a T handle with a small hook on the end of it. By having a hook instead of a straight point, you are not going to have springs flying all over the place. You'll also have better leverage.

The only downside to the hook is that once you get the spring end in the hole, the hook kind of gets in the way of itself being removed. So you just get the spring started in the hole, remove the T-hook, and then tap the spring in place with a flathead screwdriver and a hammer. Works slick, and no more cussing.

As a bonus, those headlamp adjusting tools are easy to come by. I think I got mine at the local Advance Auto.

Thanks for the tip steve, i will look into that as well.

I am going to deal with this as soon as I have the time. Work, school and family are currently taking up about 120% of my time so unfortunately it will have to wait...

Also, I think I read it somewhere in this thread that you should get your tires aligned after replacing bearings. Is this correct? If so that will be my next order of business. That and fixing those leaky valve covers.

 

[Pontisteve]

If the alignment was correct before the bearing went bad, I don't see why it wouldn't be correct after. Unless you altered the steering rod or ball joints.

 

[sslaymon]

I must say the original post with pictures was very informative and helpful. I completed teh remove within about 3-4 hours. You are right, the control arm and end toe link are in there.

I got the control arm out easier than the end link. I had to remove the entine hub/knuckle from the lower ball joint and upper control arm along with pressing out the hub off of the axle. It then remained attached to the toe link and at that point I was able to turn the knuckle around, spray inside the pinch bolt gap and then hammer in a wedge to help pop out the end link joint.

Since no shop would touch the bearings Friday or Saturday, luckily the father in law is a machinist and could remove and install bearings and hub for me at work last night. Installation should be pretty easy after hammering out those pinch bolt links.

 

[Pontisteve]

I think one of the worst parts (besides pressing out those bearings) was removing the steering link joint from the knuckle. I had a heck of a time with that. And, there isn't a step on the joint that allows you to use a pickle fork to separate it. If you try, you will damage the boot.

I did end up using a pickle fork, but not in the traditional sense. I wedged it in there between the joint and the knuckle on the outer edge. That's not the way that's supposed to work! I also damaged one boot finding that out. And you can't buy just the boot.

 

[Dwelves02XLT]

2 Hours spent doing 1 side

So I finally got around to doing the rear wheel bearings. Took two hours to do and I actually had fun doing it. All the tools where readily available at the base auto hobby shop to include a 15 ton press.

I purchased 2 new rear knuckles to have as a back up a while back and have bearings already pressed done by local auto shop to ease up on time it made for a smoother process. I simply press out the old hub and remove brake plate from old knuckle and apply brake plate to new knuckle and press in new hub.

Looking forward to doing the left side even fast seeing after being crash dumby on the first, its going to be much easier. Took a few snap shots with a crappy cell phone. The right rear were so bad that it sounded like I had mud terrain tires when riding.

The hub, dont know what brand, but it was a piece of crap

The old bearing in the old knuckle.

Overall, my greatest fear in this was the press, never used a press before in my life and after reading some of the horror stories on this thread, I was concerned. Not going to lie, did recieve a little bit of help from the staff, but after they better explain its really easy to press both hub and bearings out and in and thats when I started having fun, as a matter of fact I wanted to press more crap in and out..

Final result, no more mud terrain tire sound coming from the rear.

 

[Artbaileyjr]

So after reading all of these horror stories, it was time for the big bearing day. The knuckle came off quite easily thanks to the tips in this thread but the shop, who had experience, broke their press, and with a new press, they broke the knuckle. OK,... no biggie. It was heavilly rusted and had the original bearing in it, so I called the Ford store and they said that they had the knuckle in stock for two hundred and someodd dollars, BUT, the knuckle had been superseded by a later part that required a new toe link. I said, "OK, How much is that?" They said that it was another two hundred and someodd dollars. So now I'm getting a bit irritated until they told me that it was on back order for almost 45 days!!!! WTF???!!?

So NOW I'm calling every Ford wrecking yard in the book and no one has one. I had used an Explorer, Mountaineer & Aviator ONLY yard previously and they had one for $150.00. The problem was that it was almost 100 miles away, but what are you gunna do?

We drove the 100 miles and checked that the steering knuckle had the smaller ('02-04) toe link hole. I happily plopped down a buck and a half and I was on my way. It came complete with parking brake shoes, hub and bearing. On closer inspection, I realized that the bearing and hub were relatively fresh, as were the shoes, so I just bolted the whole assembly on and called it good. Nice and quiet now... Quiet enough to hear the OTHER SIDE starting to sing.

A few days later, we made the 100 mile drive BACK to the yard and bought one for the other side for future use. Fortunately, it too had a fresh bearing and hub on it as well as a good set of parking brake shoes. This one even came with a good disk. (Bosch)

Now I have a fresh, unused bearing and hub, a full, new set of parking brake shoes and a hardware kit to put on the shelf.

Here's the lesson that I learned. The vehicles that these knuckles were pulled from were old enough that they had needed bearings, and got them, but were wrecked, so they were rolling and in good shape. In as much as I'm in the SoCal area, they are also rust free, other than the flash rust from being stored outside at the yard.

So, the whole thing, bearings and labor included cost me $150.00 a corner. Not bad.

Thanks for all the input on R & R ing the knuckle, and fortunately, the press work will have to wait for a couple more years.

Art

 

[Pontisteve]

I can't prove it, but I believe the factory uses Loctite for bearing races, and that's why these things are so hard to get out. I also believe that you can heat the race up with a torch and possibly burn out this loctite, making it easier to press out the race.

But if that doesn't work, rather than BREAK the spindle or the press, why not just take my advice and bust out the hub and bearings, and then cut thru the bulk of the bearing race with a whizzer wheel. Then, the race will easily break when you try to press it out, and out she comes... WITHOUT breaking the spindle.