2G Wheel Hub replacement Fun

[XiKeiyaZI]

Well hello there guys.

Been a while since I posted, but I'm at a point where I'm stumped on where to go with this next.

The driver side front wheel bearing on our Auto AWD was bad and needed replacement. I went ahead and got a quote of $800 from a local shop to replace it and thought "eh. " So i did some research and decided to replace the wheel hub with a Timkein (spelling) wheel hub assembly. Seemed very straight forward enough. As we had changed all of the control arms/ball joints on the vehicle it was very easy to get to. Popped an impact on the four bolts that hold the hub assembly to the knuckle, all four came out, and then was left with this - and this sucker wouldn't budge.

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Anywho after a bit of heating and beating, I slapped a pulley puller on it and started cranking. After about 10 minutes of doing this the outer hub popped out and left me with this.

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So here I am, having went ahead and just pulled the entire knuckle (along with the curved lateral arm as for some reason I can't get the ball joint removed) and attempted to press out with a crude Table-Vice setup. All that succeeded in doing is demolishing the bearing itself and leaving the hub casing still seemingly welded in place. Sadly I don't have a socket quite that large which is odd to say as the ones I have are rather large.

So, where can I go from here? A pneumatic hammer won't budge it, I can't seem to press it out. This is frustrating and seeing as this is the daily this isn't exactly a positive thing.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

Air chisel on one of those ears from the side until the thing starts to twist in there. But if you have the whole knuckle off the car, just whack the back of the bearing with a sledge hammer; it should pop out in one or two whacks that way. Clean out the inside of the bore with a wire wheel on a die grinder, and slather antiseize in there.

 

[JusMX141]

Remove the entire knuckle, then press. If you've made it this far, you're golden....the biggest bi*** in our area is normally getting the axle itself out of the hub thanks to corrosion from road salt.

 

[XiKeiyaZI]

Sadly an air chisel didn't work. I ended up knocking out the bearing center section by section until I was left with only the housing and even the massive 1 xx/xx Sockets I had wouldn't fit - So I threw my hands in the air, sat the bolts in from the back, and smacked the hell out of those. It popped out in 5-6 whacks. This thing was rust-welded in there.

So, false alarm - a bit of desperation answered the call.

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Notice the lighter - that was used right then and there for a Nerve-Smoke.. and I'm not even a smoker. This is likely the most frustrating thing I've ever done with one of these vehicles.

 

[Colt4G63 also]

Looks like an easy one to me. I do super corroded ones on 1 ton pickups that plow snow in Buffalo NY. After doing that, those little car ones are a pleasure.\

In fact, I did ones on a Ram 2500 before that I had to pound the backs of the bolts so much that it needed all new bolts too.

When the chisel hasn't worked, it's because the bolt holes on the sides of the housing don't exist anymore.

 

[XiKeiyaZI]

Looks like an easy one to me. I do super corroded ones on 1 ton pickups that plow snow in Buffalo NY. After doing that, those little car ones are a pleasure.\

In fact, I did ones on a Ram 2500 before that I had to pound the backs of the bolts so much that it needed all new bolts too.

When the chisel hasn't worked, it's because the bolt holes on the sides of the housing don't exist anymore.

Haha. Well thankfully I haven't had to deal with anything of that magnitude. You can keep all of those jobs for yourself and I'll just keep on believing that this stuff is difficult.

On another note, somehow the threads for the curved lateral arm were damaged - thankfully upon inspection the ball joint was going out. Talk about ironic : That would have been a nightmare had that failed, especially after going through this. Thankfully we have a 24/7 AutoZone which carries that lateral arm.

What a night.