[Bronk93]

Replacing my gf's front wheel bearing hubs in her 2001. Im using a block of wood against the axle and beating the hell out of it and I cant get it to break free from the wheel bearing hub, any ideas?

[crypt keeper]

Put the hub nut on the end of the axle to protect the threads and hit it with the hammer until it starts to push into the hub.

The block of wood is absorbing the shock needed to break it free.

[peva]

Best to use a 3-jaw puller on it, but they can be pretty close to impossible to separate if it's rusted. Last Fall when I did one of mine, I broke a medium-size 3-jaw puller that I owned, and got a 7-ton loaner puller from O'Reilly, and it started pulling the hub into a wave shape without pushing the axle out, and it mushroomed the tip of the puller with a 4-foot cheater pipe on the wrench I had on it. Of course I used P-B Blaster, and hit the end of the puller bolt with a large hammer with the pressure cranked up, and also tried heat as a last resort with no success. I ended up pulling the axle out with the hub/bearing assembly and replacing the axle too. The outer CV joint was slightly bigger than the hole in the steerking knuckle, so I had to grind down the diameter of the CV joint about 1/16" all around so it would come thru. A 45-minute job turned into a half-day ordeal.

That was worst case. Between my two Concordes, I've done it several times before without that problem - P-B Blaster and a 3-jaw puller always worked without problem, but this particular one was rusted on pretty badly - probably that one had never been separated since new and I think the car had maybe lived part of its life in the rust belt.

[Scooter-Man]

Ouch. what a pain in arse.

[hrmwrm]

put the nut back on as stated above, or i usually have good luck with a large brass punch to start driving them through. (good 3lb mallet too)
like peva's problem, i've only ever had it once where the axle shaft won't release.
a honda a couple years back. used a 50 ton press on the end and it still wouldn't budge even with heat. took the axle apart, cut the cups out with a torch, then pushed the bearing out of the spindle. (the hole wasn't big enough for the axle part, so it had to come out the back, hence the torch)
otherwise, it was just about new spindles complete with hub and axles.
worked to just axles and hubs.

[peva]

50 tons! WOW!! My 7-ton borrowed puller didn't have a chance.

I wonder if that is a legal/safety requirement - so that if for some strange reason the bearing/hub lets loose, at least the wheel is constrained somewhat from coming totally off the car, and the friction will pretty much slow down/stop the vehicle.

[hrmwrm]

after thinking a bit, i'm sure they were like the neon set up where you can't buy a hub assembly, just the bearing that presses in the spindle, hence the need to remove the axle from the back, so the bearing can press out the front.
doubt a legal requirement, as most 4x4's have a hole large enough for the axle to fit through once the hub is removed to replace the axle u-joint. (maybe not with cv equipped axles)

[ronbiggs]

Maybe I'm missing something (quite likely)...but I don't understand why you are beating up on the axle shaft to push it through. IIRC the problem I had getting the bearing hub out was that it was rusted to the knuckle. After removing the axle nut, and the hub bolts (from the inside of the knuck;e, with a lot of WD40/PB Blaster soaking, and I just kept banging outward on the ears of the bearing hub to break it free of the knuckle. After that, it slid pretty easily off the axle shaft.

By just banging on the axle shaft, seems to me you are compressing the CV joints and not really doing anything to free the hub from the knuckle.

[peva]

No - I don't know about the Neon, but on the LH's, the bearing is not serviceable separately from the hub - you can only buy the hub abd bearing as an assembly. (To be honest, I'd have to look at one to see if the bearing could be removed without destroying either the hub or the bearing, but if I had to guess, I'd say you couldn't do it.)

There are two potential sticking areas, Ron: 1. Where the OD of the hub mates with the ID of the knuckle, and 2. Where the ID of the bearing mates with the OD of the axle stub. You had problems with 1., we had problems with 2. But - yes - either can be a real bugaboo. Heaven help you if both decide to permanently bond on the same corner - then you might need bearing/hub, axle, *and* knuckle!

[hrmwrm]

if you can't get the axle stub to move, the hub won't come without removing the axle. i use a brass punch on them after removing the nut. if it starts to drive in, then removing the hub will be less of a problem.
a trick with dodge 4x4's is removing the hub nuts half way, then different extensions with the socket braced against axle mounts, then using the power steering repeatedly on front and back bolts til the hub pops. otherwise, you could be hours beating on them.

[crypt keeper]

Once the axle no longer frozen in the hub this tool makes removing the hub pretty easy.



As you can see part of the hub assembly is still stuck in the knuckle but is not to hard to knock out from behind with a punch or impact hammer like i used.

[ronbiggs]

Thanks...I guess I was lucky. I didn't have any issues with the axle getting stuck on the hub. Maybe when I was banging on the hub with the sledge, it jarred it up enough to break the axle shaft free.

BTW..Crypt Keeper...was your solution the impact hammer, or the big-ass jug of propane behind it

[crypt keeper]

Yep ah good propane explosion will help loosen anything on ah Trep. lol