The Subaru SVX World Network   SVX Network Forums
Live Chat!
SVX or Subaru Links
Old Lockers
Photo Post
How-To Documents
Message Archive
SVX Shop Search
IRC users:

Go Back   The Subaru SVX World Network > SVX Main Forums > General SVX Babble

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 07-17-2004, 04:06 PM
thumper_svx's Avatar
thumper_svx thumper_svx is offline
Either committed, or should be
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 541
Send a message via ICQ to thumper_svx Send a message via Yahoo to thumper_svx
Registered SVX
Talking Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh........ <LONG>

Yeah, that's a sight of relief.

For those who have been following my postings to Technical Q&A, you'll know I've been working on my SVX for the better part of a week now. She's been off the road for the better part of 3 months since I just didn't feel safe driving her with the wheel bearing making such a god-awful racket. Why so long? Well, simply put I didn't want to pay $600 at the dealership to replace ONE wheel bearing, especially since in all likelihood this wouldn't be the last bearing to fail in this car. Besides, I wasn't even 100% sure which side was bad, I just knew the front wheel bearings were bad.

Anyway, I spent time just getting money together for tools and parts so I could do the job myself. This included replacing some old worn out tools (impact drill, air hammer, generall air tools), a new compressor (to replace the 1975 vintage gas-fired compressor I had before that took an hour to get to 90psi) and a Hub Tamer set. All in all I know I paid more than $600 for the tools... probably well over $1000 for the stuff I wanted... but I knew I would use all this stuff again.

Moving along... about a week ago I finally had everything together and spent several hours working on my car.

Got most of the way to getting to that damned wheel bearing, but ended up having to trash the axle nut to get it off. Spent two hours trying to carefully open up the "hammered in" portion of the axle nut (edge hammered into notch on drive shaft) and release the nut. Eventually just gave up and decided that a $6 part wasn't worth this much time... got out the air hammer and chisel and made pretty short work of the axle nut. Also jumped onto Subaruparts and ordered two new axle nuts and some other misc stuff I decided I may as well replace while I'm in there.

Anyway... the rest of the day went OK. Ran to Autozone and got some good Mobil 1 grease and a slide hammer on loaner. I would say things went great after that... but they didn't. Removed the bolt from the lower ball joint fitting to release it... but could I get the damned thing off? 2.5 hours and one bent pickle fork later I finally got a piece of wood across the lower A arm, pushed all my weight on one end and hit the other with a HEAVY mallet. Not as subtle as the pickle fork... but effective Looked at the clock... it was 7pm and I'd not eaten since breakfast. <sigh> Up to the shower, out for food... and I'd gotten NO further since then. Of course, a quick side-trip to Sears to buy a new pickle fork set put me another $30 down, and bought a new pneumatic grease gun; my old one is electric and the battery's starting to shoot crap. Problem with that is that said gun was a prototype given to me by an engineer from Lincoln; they never actually manufactured these things so the batteries are non-existent. Ah well, more toys for my compressor.

That was it for the first day (last Saturday). Tuesday night I worked on her again;

First of all, got the drive shaft disconnected and moved out the way. There's not a lot of room in there to put it out the way, but I managed. Then I used the Hub Tamer to get the hub out of the housing. Worked like a champ, but I was a little surprised when I pulled the hub and the bearing fell into pieces almost immediately; one of the races and the outer oil seal were still attached to the hub when I got it off. Ah well... checked the bearing... OOOOH yeah... lots of play. This bearing was DEFINITELY bad. Anyway, started trying to remove the inner oil seal. Strange... appears to be stuck...

Okay... let's skip forward about another TWO BLOODY HOURS... finally decided to just remove the housing from the suspension. I know the Hub Tamer allows you to do a lot of this stuff without removing suspension components... but I just couldn't see clearly enough what was going on behind the housing while trying to get that oil seal removed. The bolts were pretty rusted, but some WD-40 released them pretty well.

Anyway, once I got the housing removed and now hanging from a wire attached to the suspension coil (the steering ball joint and ABS sensor are still attached so I didn't want to stress components any) I turned it around and my heart sank. The oil seal was twisted, flattened and mangled in ways I wouldn't have believed unless I saw it. I guess now we know why the bearing failed; the seal wasn't put in properly (or may in fact have been an outer seal somebody tried to jam into that space) and dirt probably got into the bearing. Ah well, one mystery solved.

Finally managed to extricate the remains of the seal with a couple of good flat-blade screwdrivers and a lot of levering... then off with the C-Clip... then... bugger... scuppered again.

Okay, now the bearing's in pieces, but the outer race is still in the housing. The standard removal process isn't going to work... it's stuck fast. Clock says 9:49pm... time to call it a night.

At this point I search the board and find a post about the outer race being stuck (the search was "wheel bearing outer race stuck"... try it).

So the outer race removal was a little interesting. Basically found some references online that said that the Subaru SVX instructions in the Hub Tamer manual (yes, there actually were some) weren't necessarily the right way to get the outer race removed properly. I found a procedure that was marked for 2000 Legacy, Forester and Impreza wheel bearings that seemed promising. As a result, figured I'd try it.

Essentially, the procedure utilized different pieces of the Hub Tamer tool to remove the bearing. Even then, I found the instructions only got the bearing race out just enough that it formed a "lip" just outside of the bearing housing that wasn't even deep enough to fix locking pliers to. Well, screw that... I'll adapt the method a little and see if I can get the bearing all the way out.

Twenty minutes and some adaptation later I have the bearing almost... almost... thunk! The entire assembly almost falls completely out of the back of the housing, bearing and all!!! Yay!!! Okay... dismantle the hub tamer... bugger! Hell and damnation... now the bearing race is stuck inside part of the hub tamer tool!!! <sigh> Some days you just can't win. Ah well, a crisis for another day to work out...

So pressing the bearing in? Well, the instructions weren't specific on a lot of details... but the general instructions in the Hub Tamer manual worked well. Took less than 10 minutes to press the new bearing in with my impact wrench, though that forcing screw got pretty toasty warm while I was pounding on it.

Next up, the inner seal. Apart from having to push it in straight (which is tougher than you think pushing a circular seal into a circular hole that's fits incredibly snugly)... ended up using the Hub Tamer collars again as a makeshift seal-tool... just hand tools this time, an impact wrench is probably what toasted the old seal... I hate techs who think the impact wrench is the cure for all ills. It's a great tool... BUT IT ISN'T A TORQUE WRENCH!!! Sheesh!

Okay, enough of a rant. With the seal snugly in place I install the outer seal. Similar deal; use the hub tamer collar and a piece of wood with a rubber mallet... no problem. I could've gotten fancy with the hub tamer screw and stuff, but this seemed quicker.

Next... OK... time to reinstall the hub. Again, everything by the book and it went pretty smooth. The hub pressed beautifully into place inside the new bearing. ALRIGHT! Now things are going my way. Okay... next push the axle back into the hub... lovely... reattach the lower ball joint (made easier again with my bit of wood and hammer)... OK! Now we're getting somewhere. Okay, the lower bolt in the upright reinstalled (made moving the bearing housing around easier as well as removal of the axle)... now we're looking good.




Hmm... or are we?



There's something missing here... something's wrong. Suddenly it comes to me. Aw ****... I forgot to reinstall the dust shield before I pressed the hub back in. I look at the dust shield for several minutes trying to figure out if I can get it on without having to press the hub back out again. It appears not.

<sigh> I already know the answer, but I posted to the forums asking if the dust shield is an absolute necessity. I don't really want to pull it all apart again... partly because I fear breaking the bearing or getting dirt into it... but I don't really know how much of an impact this piece of metal will have if it's missing.

Ah well... 9pm. Time to call it a night again. Time to watch some Season 2 Farscape before I go to bed. I still don't have the new axle nuts yet anyway, so reassembly is somewhat moot until I have that. I'll decide tomorrow (today) if I feel energetic enough to remove the hub again!

SO ANYWAY... finally yesterday I receive my new axle nuts (I joked with my wife that she'd always wanted to have my nuts in a box... ahem) so today I decide is the day to put her back together again.

Everything went back together without a hitch. The only heart stopping moment was lowering my car back down onto its own suspension again... wondering if my work was going to hold or was the wheel going to fall off???

Okay... she's on the ground... all her weight on her own wheels. Now to replace the crank position sensor.

I won't go into detail here... that was a non-event. Get my wife to hold the light while I detach the alternator and get in there to replace.

Finally she's back together. I open the garage and tell everyone to stand back in case I lose something (like the wheel)... and reverse down the driveway. So far so good. OK... back up into the garage... excellent. Back down the driveway onto the street... down the end of the cul-de-sac... nice sweeping turn around... and back into the driveway. <grin>

OK... now for the BIG test. I grab my wallet from the counter in the kitchen and I'm off down the street with my cellphone sitting nearby.

<grin> Now I'm cruising down the street again in my SVX... she's quieter than she's been since I bought her... though now I can hear that the other front wheel bearing is making a little noise (though not as much noise in the cabin as before). A job for another day... took me a week to do the first one! My arms are black from the elbow down... my jeans are streaked with oil, grease and 8 years of grime that's come off my SVX. The grin on my face as I cruise down Page to Creve Couer airport and back again is wide enough that I think people are starting to wonder who the maniac in the green coupe is

I've been back in the house for an hour and a half now... had a shower and getting ready to go out for the evening. My SVX will have to wait for a few more days until I drive her properly; got a few more kinks to work out before she's truly back on the road.

Thumper is back in the saddle... and DAMNED happy!
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 07-17-2004, 04:53 PM
HighwayUFO's Avatar
HighwayUFO HighwayUFO is offline
After 200, it's all the same.
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Caldwell, Idaho
Posts: 1,009
Congratulations on the inaugural re-driving of your newly repaired SVX. I know what it feels like to finally drive your baby once again.

Keith
__________________
The member formerly known as Civic_Slayer
1992 "Robins egg blue" SVX Originally Claret 147k- CURRENT

1992 Pearly 187K and climbing (11-91) #964 *retired

1992 Pearl SVX 122500 miles #86 FASTAR THAN THE OLD ONE.*SOLD

Everytime I get into my car, it always reminds me that it has POWER
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 06:22 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
© 2001-2015 SVX World Network
(208)-906-1122