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

[Alan at work]

• 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.

I realize number 12 is prolly done by now but this is what I found. Idk about pivoting down but I got my drive shaft out with the top of the knuckle still attached to the upper ball joint. I busted the bottom bolt loose and tapped that out, couldn't get the toe link out so I disconnected the arm from the center chassis. Then I was able to tilt the knuckle up far enough to get the splined axle out the back. There was quite a bit of allowable inward travel on the drive shaft. Then I rotated the knuckle on the top ball joint 180, still with the control arm or whatever arm that is. I had a heck of a job getting the ball top joint out. After trying a chisel in the top of the crack (I was told the top of the crack is where you get the best results) I found a wedge and tried lower down the crack and was able to catch the tip of the ball joint at the same time driving it up and out. I should have done some homework first because there is some good video on youtube.

I incorrectly assumed the ball joint had a tapered pin but it isn't. Although it seemed once I had budged the pin a little it got easier to drive out. Dunno what made me think it was tapered.

 

[Alan at work]

Oh yeah,
Never did get the toe link ball joint off. I sent it to the shop with the arm attached. Got the assembly back yesterday, should go back in the same with arm still attached I hope.

Let you know if there's any snags

 

[dla]

Gotta use a cold-steel chisel to spread the pinch bolt.

 

[tod701]

My apologies if this has already been addressed.
I searched for a while before posting.

What is the correct part number for the rear axle nut for a 2005?
My nut appears to be 22mm with a 35 (or 36) hex and I keep getting sold 20mm (32 hex).

 

[Number Twelve]

My book says, N808405-S100
because, "safety"...
and the cash flow caused by designing a car with parts that can only be used once.

My lawyer says, "Do not use blue Loc-tite."
That's the "medium" strength. Red is "High Strength".

I tried Red. It took about 450 ft-lbs to get the nut back off.
Have you ever bounced your whole self on the end of a two foot long breaker bar?
Then I put it back on with Blue Loc-tite.

Then I thought about how often a 200 ft-lb nut loosens up by itself.
Yeah, like my lawyer says, these things fall off all the time.
I don't think so.
If that nut falls off my car I'll warn you at your next seance.

 

[Michelle baumann]

The bearings and hub themselves may well fall out, but the race they are sitting in will need pressed/cut out. The only seals I can see at the knuckle look integrated into the halfshaft CV boot, unless your talking about the diff seals. Just as a note, i used some spline grease on the halfshaft when I did bearings in the spring. The halfshafts slid right out without the need for a puller this time. It stopped the rust from building up in there.

How long can you drive with worn wheel bearing hubs? My front drivers side is making noise but I can't get it fixed until next week..

 

[lincolnshibuya]

really depends on how lucky you are, ask the 8 ball app.

http://www.ask8ball.net/

 

[07gtman]

now i have read it nice job thanks ..i have 2 mountaineers this will be happening for me soon...

 

[Snowcone]

Just replaced the rear again for the 4th time.
This time I just did the one that failed instead of doing them both. It always the passenger side that fails on mine first.
I typically get 2 years out of a Chinese one so last time I ordered Timkens at 3 times the price and guess what - they lasted 2 years so Chinese are going back in.
Completed corroded out with rust even though this car has never seen the beach or the river, just normal road water.
I had hoped that each time they would come out easier but thsi has not been the case.
This time I couldn't even get the hub pressed out of the bearing.
I had to use the gas axe on both the hub and then the bearing too. Fortunately I now have a few spare hubs kicking around
1/2 an hour to get the hub assembly off, 3 hours farting around the get the bearing out and new one in, and 1/2 hour to reassemble - and I have done this enough times to know all the shortcuts!!!
Stupid Ford

 

[SPSully]

as of recently, Moog sells complete knuckles with bearings. I forget who makes hte bearings, but Moog puts their name on the line with them so they arent terrible.

 

[rocco123]

I have replaces all of the bearings on my 02 twice. If you plan on keeping the truck, get a press to do them yourself. Inner races are not sealed, so they usually start to rust.

 

[SPSully]

Or use better bearings. I have done all 4 with sks bearings and haven't had any problems. I'm at 249k

 

[martin_95037]

from start to finish, how long should it take to do this job for one side?

 

[madflower]

from start to finish, how long should it take to do this job for one side?

It depends on how adept you are with parking brakes, and whether or not you press in/out the bearing yourself. If you don't run into any major issues a maybe 2 hours for hub removal and installation. It can take a bit longer depending on how many issues you have. For the bearing pressing itself like a half hour if you are are set up to do it. It can be worth it to take it to a shop and have them press the hub and bearing.

 

[martin_95037]

It depends on how adept you are with parking brakes, and whether or not you press in/out the bearing yourself. If you don't run into any major issues a maybe 2 hours for hub removal and installation. It can take a bit longer depending on how many issues you have. For the bearing pressing itself like a half hour if you are are set up to do it. It can be worth it to take it to a shop and have them press the hub and bearing.

the plan is to do the pressing myself as my dad has a 20 ton press. I don't know anything about parking brakes beyond what the shop manual says

 

[rocco123]

Take pictures before disassembling parking brake. Just a suggestion

 

[martin_95037]

It depends on how adept you are with parking brakes, and whether or not you press in/out the bearing yourself. If you don't run into any major issues a maybe 2 hours for hub removal and installation. It can take a bit longer depending on how many issues you have. For the bearing pressing itself like a half hour if you are are set up to do it. It can be worth it to take it to a shop and have them press the hub and bearing.

There where issues. The outer race was a problem on both sides. had to weld a bead around the race, give it time to expand and contract then pound it out with a chisle and hammer. By welding a bead around the race is causes it to contract. dad learned a lot from a shop that worked on steam locomatives back in the day in San Jose.

new bearing where pressed in at the mechanics shop. he has a 40 ton numadic press with a gauge that says much pressure is being applied. gauge was at 500 as the new bearing that I pressed in and wrecked was being pressed out. when the gauge read 1,000 he stopped. he did it for free but said that he normally would have charged 50 per instalation of bearing for what he did.

dad had some pretty stote pipe sitting around that we used as a something to rest the hub on while the pressing happened. the orgical plan was to get a new cheap rotar and canibalize it for the project. I will post the dimensions of the pipe some other time. you might ne able to get some from a scrape metal yard and have them cut it perfectly straite for you. we tried using a cutoff saw and it came out a little crocked.