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Front Wheel bearing hub nut (spindle nut)

7K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  tuttebenne 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me how to get the front wheel hub nuts off. I just had another passenger side front wheel bearing failure (2nd in a year), last time i had a small shop around where I live do it, this time i'm doing it myself. It appears to only be the outer bearing, which is completely destroyed in about 10 chunks.
The problem i am having is getting this nut off. Ive taken the c clamp nut off (that clamps the big nut together), and have tried an adjustable wrench, as well as a pipe wrench and cant get it to budge. I'm not sure if there is a special socket, or if i need an impact wrench or what. I have also been trying to heat it with a propane torch, pb bolt blaster and prying the nut to get it to open up a little around the threads to loosen and still no luck. Any help or idea would be appreciated!
BTW: I am assuming these are regular left handed threads
 
#2 ·
Once you remove the 5mm allen head bolt from the larger "C" shaped spindle nut, you should be able to almost remove it by hand. If you have been heating it and using a pipe wrench, it was put on way too tight, hence your constant bearing failure. They are standard threads on the spindle. If you can get a chisel and hammer, holding the chisel with vice grips, hit the large nut in the counter clockwise direction to loosen it. Be careful not to do any damage to the hub. Once you get this off, go to your local dealership and but a new nut, and infact all securing parts for the bearing, as they are most likely all destroyed. When you put your new bearings in, make sure they are packed well with the correct grease, and make sure everything is clean.
 
#4 ·
Ok, so after a whole day of wrenching and some running around I was able to get a Hub nut (C clamp nut) from the dealership , and complete this could have been nightmare of a job. The nut was 11 dollars from the dealer, and I went to lowes for the small screw that holds the clamp nut tight to the threads of the spindle. I actually had a distributor cap screw left over from caps and rotors I just put in, and it was the exact size i needed.

I ended up cutting the old hub nut off with a cutting wheel into 2 pieces and was able to pry it off with minimal damage to the threads. There was no other way to get it off after heating, beating, and mistreating it. I believe the nut coming loose is what caused the bearing failure. The small screw that clamps the nut probably eventually came loose, and the nut tightened to the outer bearing. Once I pulled the rotor off the spindle, i discovered that the ball bearings and inners of the bearing where gone, but the housing that mounts to the spindle was fused on. So back to the cutting wheel I went and had to cut it off, where i was able to chisel it off the spindle.

The inner bearing and race, as well as the grease seal were in good shape mainly because I had this same bearing fixed about 8 months ago. I made sure to clean all off the chunks of old bearing out and repacked the new bearing with grease. I did not check the bearing clearances to be honest, and just did the tighten and back off a 1/4 -1/2 turn trick. hoping to at least make it another year and hopefully more :D but at any rate, a pretty easy job with a few snags.

Hopefully this post can help someone out if they run into a similar problem in the future, and thanks again KASarich for your help!!!!!! :thumbsup: Joe M
 
#5 ·
These bearings have a specific pre-load requirement when tightening them. Check the workshop manual. You might go to a reliable Indy and pay them $50 for a half hour to correctly tighten the nuts for you if you don;t want to do it yourself. Its cheap insurance.
 
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