I had been hearing a humming sound from the rear and finally figured out that it is the driver's side wheel bearing. Ordered a replacement from Amazon. Right now I don't have the $100+ to get from a local auto shop. Watching a video, looks pretty self explanatory. Have a question however The person in the video tightens two bolts in the protective covering on the brake drum to get it off. I would likely just get the specific bolt size if I can from Lowes. Does anyone know the thread of that bolt?
M8-1.25. A lot of the bolts securing random things under the hood are that size too, and can be borrowed.
You talking about to push the drum off first put kroil on hub centric center piece smack drum on then hit it at 12 o'clock then 6 and back to 12 . Repeat see drum moving out on hub center piece . Usually twill walk off . Cept in da great North
Any good tricks to remove the wheel bearing assembly from the backing plate without the thin metal plate breaking free and the brake line getting damage. I have made new brake lines but certainly do not want to if I don't have to. My understanding is that it can be pretty hard to get free. I figure start spraying the back plate with PB Blaster before I start removing drum cover but don't know if there are any other tricks. Edit: If people want, I can try to do a photo array of the project.
I had a paragraph on how I separated mine from the backing plate in this post (paragraph starts "To separate the backplate from the hub"). Oh yeah, the paragraph before that had a good tip, about leaving the bolts still loosely into the hub a couple of turns from behind, while slide-hammering the hub out. That way, when it finally comes free, at (and the backplate, and the brake line) only come that far, and stop, so you can then deal with separating the plate.
Can you show me what kind of slide hammer I am looking for? Is this a tool I can get on loan from auto part shops?
A set looks kind of like this: Notice one or two attachments in there that look sort of like duck feet, with three slotted toes and a slot at the heel. You should be able to get one or the other of those to fit over a couple of your hub studs, put your lug nuts back on those, and then bang away with the slide hammer pulling away from the car. Yes, most auto parts stores probably have one you can borrow. I had to slide hammer for several minutes straight, leaving my arm very very tired. My whole hub bearing unit came out, which was what I wanted to happen. The other possibility is just the hub pulls out of the bearing, which would have been a disappointment. (But then you can maybe insert the slide hammer shaft through where the hub went, then put some attachment on the end big enough to get behind the bearing, and resume hammering to get the rest of it out.) These days, I own an air hammer, and if I had to do it again I think I might air hammer around the base flange of the hub bearing unit, trying to get it to turn one way and then the other (with the bolts removed of course). That might loosen it enough to come out. Or, if I could get it turned enough for the bolt holes not to line up, I might be able to press it out the rest of the way by reinserting a couple of the bolts. And the air hammer would be doing the hammering, instead of my very tired arm.
I just replaced an old slide hammer on Amazon for a nice Chrome looking thingy it was like $19 I I already haveostvadapters. They're really inexpensive these days. .that and a bit of kroil and in my area they come flying out
The slide hammer I rented from O'Reilly's did not work. It was not able to lock on the hub. I ended up using a small sledge hammer and in the end to separate the hub from the brake drum used a long bolt through the lug bolt holds and tapped on them with a hammer to get the hub loose. Just suddenly came loose. Got the two loose just as it is getting dark. I put away my tools, used a wire brush on the rim, cleaned up the work site, and planned for tomorrow. Hopefully easier to put everything back together. Should I get any anti-seize, where should I put it, and how essential is using a torque wrench? I do have one.
No need for a torque wrench just lean on the 1/2 Dr bar anti seize yes clean up hole w crokus cloth . If you have to do the other side get two half
Half in bolt 3 inches or so.nut washers you can push it off this way you need two bolt sets videos on the tube
I could not find my 1/2 to 3/8 converter for the torque wrench. As such, I used the breaker bar to make each old a little tighter than I would with a wrench. Used sandpaper to clean everything beforehand and applied anti-seize. One of the pins holding the actual drum pads in place had come loose and likely the hardest part of the repair was getting that pin back in. I don't have the proper tool and was using pliers. Otherwise, just slowly tightened bolts one at a time until snug. When I was getting the drum off, I did end up using the 2 M8 bolts to remove it. Just tightened the bolts until the drum came off. Tried to use them along with nuts to push the hub out of the rim but did not work but instead bent the bolts. However, I did end up using them to tap the hub out of the hub even though bent. I could inset them through the stud holes and tap on them with a hammer. Pretty much mangled the bolts however. Drove the car a short distance and the noise I had been hearing is gone.
