front wheel bearing frustration

[guitarranger11]

I’m replacing the front wheel bearing on a 89 jeep Cherokee and I got everything off including the 3 bolts on the back side that holds the rotor shield and the hub or bearing carriage I’m not sure what It’s actually called. Anyway I got everyrhing off that holds that on and I can’t get it off no matter what I do and I’ve done almost everything u can do without destroying everything. Please tell me what I’m not doing right. Thanks in advance

Topic

[Matt]

Are you replacing it I’m guessing? Beat it out with a BFH yo.

[dreamer2355]

Did you look at the free Chilton’s online we have a link to in the ‘How To’ forums?

Those bearing are tapered bearings so they should not be that hard to remove, unless they were never greased and packed correctly and have fused themselves to the bearing races.

Did you try a hammer and brass punch?

And you did remove the axle nut correct?

[dreamer2355]

Did you look at the free Chilton’s online we have a link to in the ‘How To’ forums?

Those bearing are tapered bearings so they should not be that hard to remove, unless they were never greased and packed correctly and have fused themselves to the bearing races.

Did you try a hammer and brass punch?

And you did remove the axle nut correct?

This is on the assumption you have removed the hub by using a press…

[guitarranger11]

I did look at the chilton and it conformed everything I did. And I promise you that I did use a bfh and I did forget to mention that I was replacing the bearing. I am thinking it must not have been greased good at all, I’ve never worked on a car with such difficulty removing a wheel bearing.

[dreamer2355]

Well keep us posted. You may need a press if the bearing is that seized inside or some type of cut off wheel.

How difficult was the hub to remove without a press? I am just curious C8-)

Once you get the new races and tapered bearings install, done forget to grease and packed them correctly and torque the axle nut down to specifications.

Here is a video Eric made on how to repack those style of bearings –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … csbu2hT0MI

[Matt]

They are tapered bearings? Is it a 2 wheel drive? You may have to pull the steering knuckle and taking it somewhere that has a press. I’ve done that on some of my FWD cars that had press on bearings, and Pep Boys will press ’em apart and back together for $35 last time I checked.

[619DioFan]

I will assume you are replacing the hub/bearing assembly as one unit. with the three bolts removed from the back of the hub/bearing assembly it should come out of the knuckle. it could how ever be rusted in so use plenty off blasters and let the penetrant soak for a good long while. try a heavy duty dent puller with hub puller attachment. you can also try threading some longer bolts into the bolt holes ( use grade 8 bolts ) and beat on those bolts to try and drive the bearing out of the knuckle.

[Mike]

Did you use a slide hammer? It should pop it right off. Or screw the 3 bolts half way back in and hit them with a hammer. Slide hammer is my preferred method though.

[dreamer2355]

So i was just looking online for wheel bearings for this vehicle.

The 2wd is a hub assembly so once those 3 bolts and axle nut are removed, you should be good to go.
The 4wd option does show tapered bearings as well as a hub assembly also (to make it more confusing for us)

Let us know how the progress is going with the vehicle.

[skim3544]

Whenever I run into problem like this, I take out the whole axle and take it to a machine shop. The machine shop use charges $10 per press.

[EricTheCarGuy]

Welcome to the world of working on Jeeps. That said it would be good to know if you have a 4wd or 2wd model but if memory serves it’s just a matter of removing the 3 fasteners on the back to ‘free’ the bearing. I don’t recommend heat for this ever but a bigger hammer is often the cure.

[Author]

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