Write-Up: Spindle / Wheel Bearing / Hub Replacement

Write up: https://rivperformance.editboard.com/brakes-suspension-f6/write-up-spindle-wheel-bearing-hub-replacement-t1569.htm#31484

I have a 95 supercharge, I need to know if the spindle is difficult to replace. I think a bearing is bad and need to replace the whole thing. I am getting a humming noise from my front end but when I vir to the right the noise stops and starts when I straitin the wheel. I had the car in the air and put it in drive but no noise, I its only when pressure is applied. Any ideals? Thanks

put the car back in the air and shake the wheel up and down. meaning put one hand on the back of the wheel and put one at the front of the wheel and shake it. if you have movement then its a hub bearing. a new bearing probably will cost about $150 bucks. if you dont know how to check the front end out. take it to your closest sears auto center, because we do front end evaluations for free. jus make sure you ask for the list of things thats wrong with the front end. replacing a hub bearing will probably take you 30-60min. after that you will have to take to get an alignment done, because you would've taken apart the outer tie rod and strut from the steering knuckle.
reese

Most of the time shaking the wheels is to check upper and lower ball-joints......

on that note changing the wheel bearing out is easy.... it bolts directly to the knuckle,so no need to remove anything else but your wheel,and rotor,and caliper.... on the spindle itself theres a large hole just big enough to get a socket through..line that hold up with the bolt..an remove them....next remove the large CV shaft nut.... unplug the wheel speed sensor plug..if abs equipped,because its integrated in the spindle itself...

will probably require some force to free it from the knuckle....and a bit of force to slide the splined cv shaft from the spindle...i recomment a soft dead blow hammer or a piece of brass to pound against..so you dont mess the threads up.... then installaion is reverse..make sure to clean any rust an dirt from the mating surface .....pretty simple...and no alignment needed.

this sound like a quick job, thanks guys I will let you know how it turns out.

I can't seem to get the bolts free from the spindle, I broke 2 star sockets...they wont budge should I apply heat to them?

Spray (soak) with this, then let sit for an hour and try again:



(PB Blaster penetrating catalyst)

Use an impact if you can.....also something to try is...use a long drift or a punch,place in the center of the bolt..an hit the other end with a hammer...it will help knock whatever has it in there loose...

i would try the impact, but dont use that to put the bolts back on, its a possiblity you might brake them. if you dont have acess to air tools then try using a 1/2 in. breaker bar

rob you were right, you dont have to take the strut off, but i always unbolt the outer tied rod from the knuckle so i can turn the assembly to get to the bolts a lot easier.

i've just pulled the spindle off and I noticed that the one I got from the junk yard is missing the back end that covers the inner workings, can I go and get the part from the other side of a rivi from the junk yard. will if fit or are they made of specific sides (driver-passager)

Well I found out my answer, so i'm looking for another 95-96 Rivi or Rurora.

Good news- www.tripleedgeperformance.com's transmission is installed and is amazing!

Bad news- damn driver's side wheel bearing hub went out on the drive home.

I have replaced hubs before on different cars but want to know if anyones done it on the Riviera. I would assume it is fairly straight forward but it's nice to know any tricks before I start. If anyone could provide a brief write up with a tool list, I would appreciate it.

Note: this write-up by deekster caddy involves partial disassembly of ball joint & strut to access the hub/bearing. On a '98 at least, it is possible to remove the hub without the need to remove anything but the brake caliper and rotor. Pictures and comments specific to hub/bearing removal/installation added by AA. My additional comments are in blue:

I just did this. I've seen two different approaches - some drop the lower ball joint and pull the strut outwards. The book says to leave the lower ball joint attached and somehow get behind the outer CV joint to loosen the bolts. I don't see how that's possible but that's what the book says... I took the approach of seperating the lower ball joint, I think it's easier that way. Also, my car is a '98, I know some cars had big torx bolts but mine didn't. I think you'll find all sizes the same.

1) car on jack stands
2) remove wheel (19mm), spray penetrant on axle nut threads. PB blaster is one that works well. Spray liberally 1 hour before for best results. Repeat use every few minutes during the removal procedure.
3) caliper (15mm) These bolts can be stubborn. Impact gun recommended, or you can take a small jack and push "up" on the end of the ratchet. At least this works on one side of the car.
4) stick screwdriver in rotor and let it sit against caliper bolt to hold rotor while you undo axle nut (1-3/8" or some metric size)
5) caliper bracket and rotor (15mm) Here is a pic after brake caliper and rotor were removed. I removed the caliper and brake hose (vac pump holding pressure in line), but you can simply hang or zip tie the caliper up and out of the way:



Here is a USA-made Timken hub ($129 at AutoZone):



5 1/2) Disconnect speed sensor wire, shown below:



6) with soft hammer, knock axle inward to free splines. (don't try to remove, just free it). If you don't have a soft hammer, put the nut back on flush to the end of the axle to protect the axle's threads. In fact, if you don't have a soft hammer I'd be reluctant to try it this way. I've found these hubs can be a PITA to get off. In my case, the axle was basically welded into the hub. If your bearing is going bad, chances are it gets very hot when spun, so it can seize to the splines over time. You can rent a puller tool from Advance Auto Parts for free, but I've managed to break them on two separate occasions. Below shows the tool in operation. BEWARE: when you use this tool, lots of force is involved, so something's got to give: 1) the axle (hopefully), 2) the lugs/nuts, or 3) the tool itself. Wear eye protection, and stand clear! I was sitting beside the wheel once, tightening the tool, when a lug nut broke away from the lug and hit me right in the chest with considerable force. Had this been my face, I might have been knocked unconscious.



If the above tool doesn't seem to work, or you don't have one, try the soft hammer. If that doesn't do it, take a small sledge and tap the axle in with the nut on the end to protect the axle threads, per deekster's instructions. Do not pound on the end of the axle without the nut in place, or you likely will not be able to thread the axle nut back on.

If it's still not coming off, make sure to spray the axle again with PB Blaster and let sit a while. Try tapping it again, HARD. You can tell when the axle starts to move because it will sound different. If still no success, try using a butane torch to heat up the outside of the bearing:



After heating and some hard pounding, it should eventually start to move. You may damage the axle nut in the process ($7 at the dealer, surprisingly NO auto parts stores carry them). Here's what happened to mine; you can imagine how much force it took to do this:



Not to worry, the threads are from the nut, not the axle.

7) lower ball joint - remove cotter pin and discard. 18mm open end to undo castle nut. with nut removed, tapping around just right with a hammer frees the ball joint... I did not do steps 7-8.
8) pull bottom of strut out away from car, knock axle inward with soft hammer (it's a plastic hammer, right?). When CV joint is free, swing it out of the way.
9) unbolt bearing (13mm) Once the axle and hub are freed, you can unbolt the bearing. Here's a look at the bolts from the back side. There are three total:



10) smash old bearing outwards. This is why I choose to take the CV shaft out first. Aluminum and steel corrode to each other badly. Be careful of the steering knuckle, it's only aluminum... The way I did this was to loosen the hub bolts, then tap the axle through, then loosen some more, tap some more... The hub will just slide right out:



11) clean up steering knuckle. Get rid of that corrosion with a round file or some heavy sandpaper. Don't reshape the opening, just clean it out. I used a razor knife tool to shave the rust and dirt off the mating surface:



Reassembly
12) install new bearing. I like to use loctite on bolts but it's not called for in the book. tighten to 70 lb ft. Be very careful to route speed sensor wires through steering knuckle. The back side of the knuckle is sharp, so watch the wires don't get pinched.
13) Spray CV joint splines and threads with WD-40 for reassembly help. pull strut outwards and squeeze that CV joint back into the new bearing.
14) lower ball joint in. tighten nut until it's really tight and the cotter pin lines up. Can't put a torque wrench on it because CV joint is in the way. Insert and bend NEW cotter pin safely. (reusing cotter pins is a death wish)

New hub installed:



15) Rotor and Caliper Bracket (15mm, 147 ft lbs) This torque value seems high to me. I used 50 lb-ft for the caliper bolts.
16) put a lug nut on the rotor during reassembly, it's just easier. Put screwdriver in rotor to caliper bracket, tighten Axle Nut to 107 lb ft
17) Caliper - I compress the piston with a 6" C Clamp. Put new anti-squeal on back of old pads. Bolts to 55 lb ft.

Rotor and Caliper installed:



18) Wheel. Lug Nuts to 100 lb ft. Be sure to reconnect the speed sensor wiring to the hub!

19) After a couple days of driving, retorque the axle nut to 107 lb-ft. Check again in a week or two - it's easy to do.

I'm not 100% sure about the caliper and wheel bearing bolts. Looking for them in shop manual, will edit later.
-Derek

Derek- Thanks for the quick reply and the detailed write up! Will tackle tomorrow...

Hmm, still need to confirm those two torque specs, plus I forgot to write about the ABS wires. It's just unplug/plugin, depending on the bearing you got you may need to do something with the wire holding clip.

I understand the wheel speed sensors are part of the hub assembly, and if youy have a bad hub, then likely the wheel speed sensor could be damaged. And they are integral part of TC and ABS.

That's probably why my TC would engage anytime I tried to go somewhere for the past two days. I ended up having to turn it off everytime I had to drive.

good luck man!

I've done this twice on the Riv. It's very easy if you know how. No need to remove the ball joint on my '98. Just loosen the hub and smack the axle with a hammer. I think you can also use a tool to push the axle in.

Two very important things:

1) Keep the axle nut on the end when you pound it through - to avoid damaging the threads. Get a new axle nut for $1 if you need, but protect the end of that shaft!

2) Disconnect the sensor wire before anything, and keep track of it so you dont get it caught, pinch or sever it during install. Mine has been soldered and heat shrunk because some idiot (me!) didn't pay attention.

Good luck!

Are you guys sure that the axle nut is 1-3/8" I just bought a 1-3/8" socket and it's really loose. I put as much pressure on it as I could with the breaker bar and it didn't budge, and I don't feel safe adding a cheater bar and putting more pressure on it.

Sounds familiar to me. It's actually metric, so if you are buying a socket get the right size. It's probably around 33 mm or so. I only used the standard size because it's what I had.

You do need to put a LOT of force on it.

IIRC 1-5/16 is too small and 1-3/8 is a little loose, but will hold.

Yeah, I went and picked up another socket and they let me go out to my car and fit it. 1-5/16 is still a little big, but would probably work. You're right though, 33 mm is the correct size.

okay, wow, what a PITA. I got the axle nut off, the three bolts out, and for the life of me I can't get the hub off. I tried using a few different pullers that I have (had a load of pressure on it and it didn't budge). While the puller was on I tried using a big slide hammer to try to knock it loose. No dice. Is there anything that I haven't tried that might work. The bearing is definitely shot. It grinds really bad and the car shakes a little when I brake. It was like this when I bought the car, so I have no idea how long it's been this way.

Please help!!! the last thing I wanna do is put everything back together and take it to the mechanic and pay $50 per bearing to have the new ones put on. Especially after I just spent $30 on tools.

I think the fronts have 4 bolts... one is very hard to get at...

Mine have three bolts. I have the replacement bearings right here :/. I tried smacking it with a BFH quite a few times and that did nothing. Looks like I'll be taking it to the mechanic.

Only took me a couple minutes to put the bolts back in, the nut back on and the brakes back together

Mine have 3. I had to whale the F out of them with a sledgehammer from the back to get them out.