Just an FYI for people who might want to do their own front wheel bearing replacements in the future:
-Getting the hub off is relatively easy.
-Pressing the spindle out of the hub using a 20 ton press was easy as well.
-Pressing the old bearing out of the hub was easyNow for the hard part...
-Getting the old bearing's inner race off the spindle I put my bearing puller on the spindle/race and tightened it down until it became reasonably snug. I then took a torch and hit the bearing race to heat it up a bit, followed by applying a lot of force with the bearing puller. One of the nice forged legs on the bearing puller snapped in half and the bearing never budged. The lip of the bearing is too small and the gap too small to fit on my hydraulic press. I wound up having to drive to a machine shop I have access to, use a lathe to turn a flange that I could slide onto the bearing race, weld the flange onto the bearing race, and then put the spindle/race assembly into my hydraulic press for removal. While I was at the machine shop I also turned some mandrels for pressing the new bearing back in, which helped a tremendous amount. When replacing your front wheel bearings my advice is to pull the hub off yourself and let a shop with the right equipment worry about getting the bearings out/in. Also, when reinstalling the hub on the vehicle put a floor jack under the steering knuckle to load up the ball joint in it's taper if you're having trouble with it spinning while trying to tighen the nut.
John
EngineeringHobbyist.com
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