gencollon2

First things first: I notice a humming noise from the right rear of my car at speeds above 40mph and it gets louder the faster you go. It also gets louder when turning left and quieter/goes away when turning right. I figure this means my right rear wheelbearing has just about had it.

I figured that since I had a clear agenda today and tomorrow, it would be a good time to try and replace a rear wheel bearing! I ran into some trouble right away though!

I just tried to break free nut #1 in the first picture here
http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/susp-11.htm
by blasting it with some PB spray, then dropping the weight of the car onto a 2.5 foot breaker bar wedged against a jackstand (as per the Clark's procedure)

I had a friend in the car holding the brake pedal about as hard as he could, and the whole rear hub would still spin before the nut would come loose!

Is there a better way to do this? Maybe this really is a job for a pro with a 1/2- 3/4 impact wrench?

JohnKoaWood

3/4 breaker bar, wheels on the ground, e brake set. I bought the breaker bar and sockets just for this job!

Done a few, the arnworks tool is perfect!

Where are you located?

Van

Yes. In fact I did it on my 911 last week (same as on the 944). You'll need a 3/4" drive torque wrench (that axle nut is 340 ft/lbs); and I use the SIR wheel bearing tool to press it out and put the new one in.

Use some heat on the aluminum control arm before pressing the old bearing out.

joejoe

Some directional tires can give the sounds you have described. I found this out on my 928. After replacing bearing sound still there, then started reading many people were having same problem with bridgstone tires. They were very good for first 4k then sounded like bearings were bad. I could not even stand the tires on my '90 944 cab and gave them away.

Red1

Ditto.

Having an impact wrench to use on the bearing puller made this job a snap. Doing this job w/o the bearing puller or air would be a pisser.

It was this job that I used as justification for buying an air compressor. Money well spent at that!

Once the old bearing was out, put the new ones in the freezer, put a light film of grease in the bearing race and heat the control arm for a few minutes with a propane torch. The bearing went right in under finger pressure - popped the c-clip on and viola - all done. Brilliant.

gencollon2

I am located in central CT.

I was using a 1/2 breaker. I took the wheel off, didn't even think to remove the center cap of the wheel and put the car back on the ground. I think I will try that next.

I was able to borrow a bearing puller/installer tool that looks very similar to the Arnnworks tool you mention.
My bearing is already in the freezer, I just need to break this nut free!

And I am running Yoko YK580 tires back there right now, and they are a bit quieter than the goodyears I had on before, which had a V pattern to the tread. I am pretty confident that it isn't just a tire noise issue because the noise is very clearly coming from just one side of the car.

gencollon2

good news: I just broke free the hub nut by removing the center cap and using the car jack to turn the breaker bar. lets hope I can keep making progress.

FRporscheman

I don't have a torque wrench that goes to 340 ftlb, but I've done the rear wheel bearings on a few cars successfully by doing some calculating.

Use a pipe on a breaker bar to make the length exactly (340lb)/(my weight in pounds) feet, make the bar about horizontal, and stand on it. Every few degrees of turning I take the bar off and make it horizontal again. HTH

JohnKoaWood

All down hill from here!

crooster

I broke a couple of breaker bars doing this job. Love the Craftsman lifetime warranty! I used the Arnnworx tools and it was smooth sailing once I got the nut off.

Oddjob

I have done it w/o a bearing puller, and would not recommend that to anyone. Wont do that again.

gencollon2

WOW! I have not had much time to work on her, but pulling the bearing out was a real nightmare! I spent hours using a soft drift to drive the hub out and one of the inner races of the bearing came out on the hub shaft! That was easily pulled off with a shaft puller.

I mimicked the arnnworx tool using the bearing puller kit I borrowed, and was able to pull the bearing out without much issue (after a couple hours of figuring out all the hardware I was going to use; the kit I borrowed is just the endplates of the tool, I needed to figure out a center shaft and the nuts to spin it. If I didn't have a kit to borrow $105 for the Arnnworx tool sounds like an awesome deal. It would save many hours and is 1/3 the price of having the pros replace your bearing.
http://www.arnnworx.com/catalog/index.php?
main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=185

I carefully pressed the new bearing in straight, put the C clip back in place, and then pressed the hub into the bearing. I think I'm done for the night. I just need to connect the CV axle back up, slap the caliper on and my wheel.

I have one question though: When you got the new bearing in, was it more difficult to turn than the old one? I am wondering if the new one is just not broken in, or if the grease inside is still cold from the freezer, but it seems more difficult to spin the hub by hand than the old bearing was.

JohnKoaWood

Yes, the new ones are tighter, and have fresh grease compared to your old ones...

They will be fine!

968 GUY

I recently replaced both bearings on one of my 968's. I had noise like you described and thought it was the tires, but since I had the same set on the 951,with not as much noise, decided to change the bearings.
Noise is still there so I'm going to put up with it til I buy some Yokos to replace them.
Hope the bearing solved your noise prob.

gencollon2

Well I will find out about the noise problem tomorrow.
I can say that if the problem is not the tires themselves, or the wheel bearing, then the problem is the alignment of the tires.
That is next on the list by the way, if the bearing does not solve my issue.