Norcal Rear Wheel Bearing Tech Session - April 25th
 

Per chance there is someone here from Northern California that isn't on the Norcal928.org maillist, I want to announce our tech session this Saturday, April 25th

WHEN: Saturday, April 25th - 12 noon to 5 pm
WHERE: Bill's Place in Alamo (PM for address and directions)
WHAT: Rear wheel bearing replacement clinic

Come see a demonstration of rear wheel bearing replacement and share an afternoon with your Norcal928 buddies even if you won't need wheel bearing replacement soon.

We have acquired (on loan from Dr. Bob) a special wheel bearing service tool that should allow replacement of rear wheel bearings in about 1 hour per side (I hope) without need to remove the hub carrier or use of a hydraulic press. One of our members, John Fagerlund, is in need of rear wheel bearing replacement and his car will serve as the subject for this clinic.

We will try to completely photo-document the process too.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/east-coast-p...walnut-creek-2

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YE0RWEYfXA...Pizza+Logo.jpg

Bill,

Anybody up for going to my favorite pizza joint to enjoy a wedge or two?

I'll be there. I have to do my rear wheel bearings at some point so this is a great opportunity to learn. I can take pics so the people doing the actual work won't have to get their cameras all greasy.

Andre: I hadn't planned a post-session dinner, but others have mentioned it too. Sounds good!

Damn - would love to be there Bill but I'll have to wait for the next one - busy times right now.

Bill - Try to make Sharks in the Park!

Get ready for a work out. Seriously.

I'll be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a day of driving a girlie car around the track....I need to see some REAL machinery!!!!! :>)

The Sir Tools kit that Bill will be using gets rid of the 'work out' portion of the project. There's a handy fixture that allows you to gently and easily extract the hub and stub shaft from the bearing. Assemble the fixture, tighten the jack screw, out it comes. This is the big advantage over the slide-hammer or remove-and-press methods you used. No need to undo any suspension bits, everything is done with the upright still in the car. No rear alignment needed either. Other than that, the effort is pretty much the same.

:typing:

Cool!

The prices are fair and the food is fantastic! I already got approval for us to take over the place :cool:

Dr. Bob said it was quick and easy!

Bill good luck on the bearing install I hope that you have a Mapp Gas torch it will make things very easy, dont forget to put the bearing in the freezer ASAP as well as the hub flange

I sure hope so. I used the HF front bearing kit which did work well, but it still required a tremendous amount of arm strength to extract and install. Like I said a work out.

4 hours total time with most of it spent on the first side to learn :thumbsup:

Yep, 4 hours. The hub extraction went pretty easy. On the first side we then did battle with a bearing circlip that seemed to be stuck. Took about 20 minutes. (The one on the other side was out in less than 10 seconds.) Bearing extraction went OK. While the bearings were in the freezer, I decided to heat the hub a little. Used propylene which is supposed to be 3600F. It was slow going and never got over 140F before I gave up and started to press in the bearing. We had some trouble with the bearing starting in cocked. Were able to back it out and start over. Eventually swapped a few parts in the Sir kit to get a more stable setup and the bearing went in. Separated the race from the hub with my hydraulic press and a bearing separator. Hub went in fine. I'd say it's 1-1/2 hours per side, and that's with helpers. Alone, figure 2 hours because you will struggle with a few steps. This includes the time from wheels up to back down.

We will have a photo documents soon.

We were using a full Sir B90 kit rather than a Porsche-specific kit. That made things hard as the directions are not real specific and we put together incorrect configurations a few times before we got the best working ones. When our bearing kept going in cocked and we could not determine exactly which parts would work best, it got a little frustrating. Our Sir-experienced local reference, Edco, said the Porsche-specific kit is easier as there are no extraneous parts to confuse you. He used that kit about a year ago but was equally frustrated by not being able to point out which parts were the Porsche ones. Anyway, we got through that and had things buttoned up early with plenty of time for pizza afterwords.

We'll have photos showing the configurations that worked for us.

The parking brake reassembly went remarkably easy this time after Dr. Bob gave me some tips.

Charley and I will be doing his car on Wednesday starting at 10 am. One of the benefits of both of us being unemployed - weekday wrenching sessions! Drop by if you are in the area.