PCB's Unbuild Thread

I've got crows, blue jays, robins, sparrows, seagulls, pigeons, mourning doves, cardinals, turkey vultures, starlings, grackles, squirrels, possums, rabbits, stray cats, and racoons..

Lot's of stuff to shoot at. lol

PS.. The racoon's really like cheese slices and peanuts !!

 
I haven't posted for a while mostly because my car is a rusty turd and I only work on it when it's screaming for help.(although I took it in for it's annual chemotherapy treatment. (rustproofing))

My front bearings started to roar again so I knew I had to replace them.

I went with the best this time (SKF. Fully sealed).

 
I learned a few short cuts the last time I did bearings so I removed the little center cap and peened (or unpeened??) the crimp on the axle nut.





The socket and big 3/4" ratchet handle fit right in.



With a little force the nut came off.

A few light hits with the hammer and the axle pushed right in.



I put anti-sieze on all the bolts and the drive axle last time and it really helped get things apart.
Even the tie rod end just popped off.

Thanks pb4ugotobed for your idea.

I backed off the tie rod nut a few turns, put the socket back on and hammered the socket.
It worked awesome !!

 
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Everhything apart...







I propped up the knuckle and hammered the inner race to get the spindle out.

That went well and even moved the inner race a bit before the bearings gave out.
(I'm going to try to hammer gently on the other side to see if I can push the inner race right off.)



I hammered a chisel in and got it to move some more.

Then I put my bearing puller on and finally got it off after a bit of frustration.

I didn't want to grind it off like they say in the FSM.



 
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My spindle/hub was looking a little rough with a few gouges in it so I sanded it down and took the dremmel tool to it to smooth it out.





The knuckle was pretty rusted where the drain notch was so I cut a deeper notch in it.

The groove where the big c-clip goes filled with crust so I cleaned it out. (before the picture.)

I'm thinking the notch stopped draining and brought the water level up to the bearings' rubber dust cap, feeding water into the bearing.





 
I put the bearing and hub in the freezer and put the knuckle in the oven at 425 for 45 minutes.



I pulled the knuckle out of the oven and put the frozen bearing in the knuckle and it went in 1/4" so I smacked it and it fell right to the bottom



PRESTO !!

It's seated !!!



Then I installed the rusty crusty big ass c-clip.
(as though it's even needed, like it's gonna go anywhere, it's fricken tight.)



Then I put the knuckle back into the oven but turned it down to 400... I didn't want to cook my bearing.

I took the hub out of the freezer and Presto!!
It's all back together !!!



Then a thunderstorm rolled in so I'm done for the day.
 
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I decided to spray some synthetic oil in the drain notch to help it to keep from rusting.





I'll install everything tomorrow and hopefully be able to get the passenger side apart just as easily.
 
Thanks.

I really like the car and don't want to drive anything else.

I'm hoping I can get at least a few more years out of it.
 
I got my knuckle reinstalled and took it for a test drive.

The roaring sound is almost gone but there is still a bit of rumble.

I kinda ran out of steam so I'm not gonna start the other side until tomorrow.

After the passenger side is done I'll do an alignment.
 
Nice write up on the bearings, I dread the day I have to do mine but this makes it seem quite a bit easier.

I've got a 3/4" drive socket set that was needed to get the hub nut off and I used the big socket as a die press.

I really had to hammer the snot out of the old bearing to get it out and wouldn't have been able to do it without the big sockets.
 
This is my socket set.
It's not metric but it doesn't matter much with big sockets.

That's my bearing with the socket I used to pound out the hub inside of it.
The big socket on the right is the one I used to remove the outer race and the socket on the left was for my axle nut.



Here's a link to my bearing thread from 2013.

https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123830659-Bearing-Replacement-With-Video&highlight=
I'm gunna have to get me a set, along with a 1/2" and 3/8" sets because my sockets like to grow legs and wander off lol. I honestly didn't think heating and cooling the parts would have that much of an impact on install, you actually make it sound feasible to do the bearings without a press
 
I think a big part of it working even better this time was that I ground down all the high spots (nicks and gouges and such) with my rotary tool.
I used a small straight edge to feel for the high spots.


If you get a socket set or two make sure they're 6 point sockets.
The 12 point sockets strip bolt heads really easily.
 
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