Removing axle grease seal from rotor.....Help! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Removing axle grease seal from rotor.....Help!

AlaskanJack

Elite Cabin-Fever Captain
Joined
March 24, 2002
Messages
4,531
Reaction score
2
City, State
Centralia, Washington
Year, Model & Trim Level
91 , 93 & 01 Sports
Hi all, I'm starting to feel like an unwanted step child here. Pretty soon someones gonna tell me to start taking my Ex to a shop. hehe hope not!!

Well I finished doing my knuckle and rotor replacement on my passenger side and started doing the bearings on the drivers side. I had to replace the left rotor so I didn't encountwer this. My inner bearing is wobbling around in the race so I want to take a look at it, like I will know what to look for. ha anyway How do I take the grease seal off. I was trying to tap on the bearing from the other side but that wasn't working, do I just pry the seal out with screwdrivers? I know they are cheap, but can the seals be reused? Just in case the need ever comes, when offroad.
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





do not re-use the grease seal, its just not gonna happen

Pry that sucker out with a flathead. Getting the new one in is the tricky part.

Also to get the bearing race out of the rotor use a BFH and a large flathead from the opposite side.

When installing new races make sure the rotor is CLEAN, you can use the old race as a spacer to pound the new one in. MAKE sure the race is seated completely in the rotor!!!!!

Hell no dont take that sucker to a shop!

Dont forget to grease up your slide pins, soak the hubs in ATF while they are off (drip dry), and to re-install teh brake pad anti rattle clips.......

I have dont my wheel bearings so many times now I can do both sides by hand in like 45 minutes.......
 






Well I was just coming back to delete this post since I tried several creative searches to finally find the info I needed. Its amazing doing a search for grease seals didn't get me what I wanted but bearings did. I only posted after my initial searches came up gonzo.


.
Dont forget to grease up your slide pins, soak the hubs in ATF while they are off (drip dry), and to re-install teh brake pad anti rattle clips.......


But anyway this was beneficial because I forgot to soak the warn hubs I got from the salvage yard. Good catch. I would've gone to put them on and went crap. Then would've had to wait for a while for them to soakl a bit
 






To soak:

turn the hubs upside downfill them ATF, click them from lock to free about 100 times. This will allow the ATF to get in there are release any trapped dirt.

Then just sit the hubs on your drain pan and let them drip dry, then re-install.

EVERY single time I have my wheel off the hub is soaking, I dont care if its for five minutes............Also my trail spares get the same treatment.......
 






Oh heck, I almost forgot! It looked like the inner bearing was quite loose and wobbly in the race. I don't remember my other side being like this. It's greased really good, but maybe it lost a bearing or the race is worn. I don't know but I have 2 spare new races so changing isn't a problem and I have a spare bearing that is still good just needs to be repacked.

Anyone see this with their inner bearing before?

I was also suprised to find that my drivers side didn't have the spline washer just after the retaining c-clip. I thought that was odd. spindle nuts were loose and the spacer with the holes in it took some time to work off when the other side just slid right off.
 






sounds like somebody forgot to install the splined washer, not good because that is your fail safe just in case the spindle nuts fail......

The inner bearing will be loose as a goose when the rotor is off the truck, the grease seal doesn not sit tight against the bearing in other words...

You have the proper proceedure for torqueing the bearings correct?

What size tires do you have? 35's? yikes!!

Here's what I would do:

-put the rotor and bearing assembly on the spindle.
-install the inner spindle nut to finger tight.
-turn the rotor about five times
-torque the inner nut to 50 ft lbs
-turn the rotor 5 times, both directions
-back the inner nut off 1/4-1/2 turn
-spin the rotor again, carefully
-torque the nut back down to about 25-30 ft lbs
-spin the rotor again
-install the lock washer, make usre it slides onto the pin, if it does not line up, TIGHTEN the spindle nut to get it lined up
- finally install the outer nut and torque that sucker down to at least 150 ft lbs

BOTH sides should have the splined washer, then the c clip.

Also the spindle should be checked for wear, I have found that these spindles may look okay but if the threads are *****ed up at all or if they are grooved even slightly it will allow the bearings to work themselves loose..........

Good luck!!! hehehehe I do mine at least twice a year and I only run 31's......
 






Just figured I'd throw this out there..

If you are going to change your bearings and need to pull the inner bearing and seal, there is an easy way to do it.

take the outer bearing out, then put the outter "nut" back on part way (enough that all the threads of the nut are on the spindle).

Now grasp the rotor with 2 hands and "yank".. It will pull the bearing with seal right out of the rotor.. works great and is much easier than using a screwdriver.

~Mark
 






Quick question, trying to buy grease seals for front break rotors on a 1993 Explorer, can somone send me a part number so I can be sure I'm getting the right part?
 


















Back
Top