Rust + 15 Years = Wheel Bearing Hell

[quattro527]

Long story short: my driver-side rear wheel bearing decided to finally give out. I've tried looking for replacement bearings, and after calculating the costs to have new ones pressed in and from all the rust on the current one, I managed to pick up an entire hub assembly from Autozone (cost me $80) with bearings already intact.

Now the fun begins: The car is a Michigan native (snow + salt..go figure) up til about a year or so ago when the previous owner moved out here to CA. That along with 15 years old of simply age, NOTHING is coming off unless it is broken off. The hub assembly has managed to weld itself via rust onto the arm assembly...and no matter what I've tried, it simply does NOT want to come off. I broke 2 hammers and 1 mallet so far, and the entire hub is really literally "trashed" now.

Now a friend also mentioned that I might want to simply have the hub pressed out as well... so now I move onto the next step: trying to remove the entire control arm from the chassis. So in comes dilemma #2: breaking the rusty bolts free to remove the control arm. I have already broken 2 bolts, one of which holds the sway bar in place which can easily be replaced, same with the other. I am basically down to my last bolt--the bolt holding the arm onto the subframe/chassis. This bolt also has 15yrs of accumulated rust. Because of the limited space in there, it is very hard to get a hammer in there to give it some good bangs. The bolt also managed to seize itself to the rubber grommets inside where it doesn't want to be banged out either. All the rubber inside the knuckle is also hardened and simply wouldnt allow the bolt out.

So right now, I have a pretty screwed up hub that I cant even put another wheel on to roll the car out, and a hanging control arm with half it's bolts rusted and broken that doesn't want to come out either.

Any advice or recommendations at this point would be greatly appreciated. Looking at the condition of the arm itself and everything around it, I have came to the following choices:

a) Continue to muscle and get the arm off, and bring it into a wheel/suspension shop to have the hub/bearing assembly removed and replaced with the new one...and reuse arm.

or

b) Find a fair/good condition arm with a good hub/bearing assembly already in there, and simply call it a day. If so, would anybody know of where I can find a Rear D/Side control arm?

Thanks guys.

 

[awdtalontsi1992]

Join the club. I had the same problem with my car. When I did mine I figured that my best bet was to leave the arm on the car and get the hub out of the arm. I managed to get the nut off the inside of the hub but the hub was still stuck. At this point I employed a trusty balancer remover that I put around the arm. Then I screwed the jack screw directly against the end of the hub. After a 3 foot breaker bar and a bloody lip later it finally broke loose and shot out 15 feet into the side of my grandparents cherokee( he wasn't too happy). This was the way I got mine out. If that suggestion won't work there is always a torch

 

[Black Venom]

A and B are good, C= Can you cut it off?

 

[awdrst]

Have you tried a ton of pb blaster? Also a good amount of heat will usually loosen up stuck bolts. I'm up in nj and my car came from ct so the rust of most of the bolts was bad. I just got a nice oxy/act torch and went to town on the bolts that got stuck and a couple of seconds later they came right out.

 

[quattro527]

A and B are good, C= Can you cut it off?

Cut off the control arm bolt holding it in?...or cut the hub out?

I'm running out of options here... and will cut what I need at this point. I had to CUT my struts off when I replaced those as well.

 

[drivemusicnow]

I just did this... now I took the wheels, rotors, calipers etc all off of my car, but here is the Key. By a torch. I used one of those cheap benzomatic mapp gas ones and it worked. Get it REALLY hot, and then through a wrench on it and use your leg/foot to loosen it.

You're not cutting the bolt, you're just getting it really damn hot. Using PB and heat also works, however I would suggest not lighting your car on fire.

 

[keeler]

I'll rarely say this but if it's just too big of a deal...take it to a shaop and have someone else wate their time.

 

[Black Venom]

Try cutting the bolt out, if you need to then cut the hub out.

Heating with a torch works most of the time, but sometimes if time is a concern cutting is a better option.

 

[alkadaypx182]

Its funny because I just got done doing this about a month ago. It took me about a month to get the old hub out(working on it for an hour a week, just because I get easily frustrated). What I did is a slow annoying process but it worked for me.

First a got my trusty hammer and 2 or 3 thin edge flathead screwdrivers, and 2 thick edge flathead screwdrivers, and lastly pb blaster.

I first sprayed lots and lots of pb blaster all over the place, including the back side of the hub(where the axle goes). Then I screwed one of the bolts that holds the hub in place on the wrong side and banged that for a good amount of time. Slowly but surely, the hub was coming off. After i destroyed all 4 threads on the hub I placed a thin edge screwdriver where the hub meets the arm and hammered it in. It takes a long time but it works. After that, i got another thin edge screwdriver and did the same thing to the other side of the hub, just so it comes out evenly. Once I got the 2 thin edge screwdrivers all the way in, I picked up the thick edge screwdriver and started hammering those in. The more you get them in, the more it comes out. Every once in a while I would spray pb blaster all over it. Sooner or later it finally popped off.

It was a headache but that's how I got mine off. I also thought about taking the control arm off but I didn't feel like destroying the bushings or trying to get those insanely torqued bolts off, especially since they are in hard to reach places. If you do get the control arm off though.....its real easy to get the hub out just by hammering on the side where the axle goes.

I wish I had a camera so you can see pictures, because I suck at explaining things. I hope this helps.


Edit: I also used a slide hammer that i borrowed from an auto zone. It helped seperating the hub a little bit from the control arm.

 

[hellraz0r1337]

ok well i have this same problem been working on my axle thru my hub for over a month.... my axle is seized inside of my hub completely wont move so do i just cut the hub right off and get the axle out? or is there anyway to get my axle out nicely im trying to not spend alot of money on the axle after paying alot for the bearing. I would really like to just smash the end of the axle alot more... but the treads are starting to move just a lil