Has anyone here attempted this? Trying to get a feel for the job before I take it on. I purchased a wheel bearing assembly from a salvage yard. Should be here Monday. If can determine by then whether or not to take it to a shop, it'd be great. I've looked over Motorvates site on this. With the right tools, it doesn't seem to be too big a deal, but not a piece of cake either.

Feedback from anyone who's taken this job on themselvs is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

I got a salvaged hub, removed mine, and had a shop press in the bearing. Not too hard of a job, the problem I ran into was the ball joint on the controll arm. Couldn't use a pickle fork to seperate it. Once I bought the ball joint seperator it went quick.

 

Here's mine (and a bit more). Like MikeD says, have a shop do the press work for you.
http://forum.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=479796

 

Mike, Thanks for your input. Do you happen to recall how much it cost you to have the shop press the bearing for you?

 

You should have bought your wheel bearing from a dealer, and have the old one pressed out and the new pressed into the hub. Its pretty straight forward once you get the hub off.

 

Whats up Xlr8r. Thanks for responding. That’s one whopper of a thread you got there. Looks like I've got more printing to do. I think this will be very useful!

Thanks brudda!

Capitone

 

Hey man. Question:

Is the 30mm Socket you mention to help with pounding out the wheel bearing the same size needed to break the axle nut? Haven't started, but thought I'd ask. I could just rummage through my ghetto tool kit and see what size nut that is but.....Im lazy :]

 

The axle nut is 36mm, not 30mm.

I did my wheel bearings by removing the whole knuckle and paying a shop to press out/in the new bearing. It cost around $40/side for the pressing labor.

Dave

 

Same here, i brought it to my guy and he charge me a total of like $30bucks cash. Also, if your brakes seem to be going, do it at the same time, now that it'll be all off

 

Sweet! Thanks dgeesaman and 95mtlMAXSE. Looks like Im ready to get to it.

To all, your inputs been great! Much appreciated.

Capitone out

 

Update: Salvage yard gave me the whole spindle/knuckle so I decided to skip messing with the bearing and attempted to simply swap out the spindle. 3 hours and one fair walk IN THE RAIN (huricane season for NC) with that whole spindle in my seabag to use "as a reference" for sockets, I had nothing to show for my efforts save for one stubborn axle nut and two broken Breaker bars. Took the hike to autozone (brotha was determined to get this done!) and purchased another breaker bar with a lifetime warranty on it. Sufficed to say, upon my return from autozone, that axle nut made PERFECTLY CLEAR that it really didn't give 2 ***** what type of warranty I had on my brand new shiny breaker bar. Breaker bar indeed…..it certainly did break.

So with that, gentlemen, I thank you all again for your input. Im sure it would have prooved most useful had I not run into the torqued axle nut from h*ll. Lol. Pepboys finished the job for me this morning. I get to pick her up today. She's been out of action for almost TWO WEEKS! Can't wait to get in the drivers seat again.

Ok….Im done!

Capitone out

 

I had a regular ratchet w/ the 36mm socket over that axle nut, plus a 4' lead pipe, and all I ever did was turn the engine over. Passenger side tire was on the ground and the engine was cranking right over the compression. I think if the brake rotor and caliper are left on, then you can have someone wrench on the brakes while you attempt to break that nut loose. I even tried an impact wrench, and still nothing. If nissan used a regular tapered bearing like they used to, that nut wouldnt be such a big deal.

 

I use a sears 18" breaker bar (1/2" drive).

I also take a plain steel bar (3/8"thick by 1/1-4" wide), set it across 2 of the wheel studs, and support the end of the bar with a jackstand. Then using the jackhandle I lift on it until it breaks free. It really does let go with a little bang - perhaps some extra penetrating oil and some heat on the axle nut will make it easier for you.

Dave

 

Air tools boys... now that I've got em I don't know how I lived without em.

Anywho I see the original poster ended up getting his done but if anyone else reads the thread with the same question, I did my wheel bearing the other day, pressed it out at the shop I work at. Easy to do if you have a press, if you don't then you've got the option of doing it the motorvate.ca way, or taking the steering knuckle off and taking it to a machine shop. Most machine shops charged $40-50 to do a wheel bearing. Given those two options, I'd take it to the shop. The motorvate.ca way seems like quite a bit of messing around.