Wheel Bearing Install Fail, What did I do wrong? Options

[Langing]

Excuse me for repeating a post, but this was buried where I was not sure someone would read it in time to be of any help.

I need to ask an urgent question:

When I finished pressing the wheel bearing back in place and installed the snap ring, both oil seals, the lower ball joint, the dust cover, everything, I tried turning the hub by hand.

TROUBLE. . . I could hear and feel that something was wrong with the new bearing. It made a slight but rough sound as it rotated, and I could actually feel a vibration in the steering knuckle where I held on to it while turning the hub. Now, considering that I had trashed the bearing, I have it taken back apart, except for pressing out the outer race. I have another bearing set which I was going to use on the other front that I will use on this side, but don't want to do it again and get the same results, so. . .

WHAT MESSED UP THE BEARING; WHAT DID I DO WRONG; HOW WAS THE BEARING AFFECTED SUCH THAT IT WAS VIBRATING?


BTW: I used a Harbor Freight front wheel bearing tool set to press in the bearing and hub. I used an adapter that caught the just outer race of the bearing when pressing it into place. But, for pressing the bearing onto the hub I used a flat adapter against the pulled side of the bearing, such that it might catch both the inner race and outer race at the same time. I'm thinking this is the problem but need verification by someone telling me EXACTLY what I've done to the bearings to make a perfectly good new bearing immediately bad.

Here is a photo of the inside of the steering knuckle showing the newly pressed bearing and its snap ring locking it in place.



Notice that the two inner races have begun to come apart. The bearing came with a plastic insert which I took out as soon as possible. Perhaps that was used to keep the two races together until they were pressed onto the hub spindle?

Also, from looking at this photo, now I am guessing that the flat adapter must have been forcing against the snap ring as well as the inside race of the bearing when pushing it onto the hub spindle.

I also messed up the inner oil seal by banging on it too hard, and by using a punch where I thought it wasn't set deep enough.

THAT'S A SECOND QUESTION: How far into the bore does the outer seal go, and is there an open space left between the bearing and seal.

\When putting in the inner oil seal, I began using an adapter that caught the ring of the seal and tapped it into the bore. I couldn't seem to get the seal seated far enough down into the bore such that it provided a 'seal' over the bearing. That is to say, there was space left open between the seal and bearing, space into which I imagined I should be pushing a wheel bearing grease to fill it up. That's why I began using a punch on the metal of the seal (that's a no-no, from reading about seal installations). It got so bad that when I was almost down to where the seal would make closure with the bearing, I could see that I had damaged the seal in such a way that the little weird spring-ring (See photo) part that is inside the seal had come off and was pushed down into the bearing area. Here is the photo:

[richee3]

Forgive me for speed-reading, as I may have missed it. Did you tighten the axle nut all the way? I had to replace two bearing back to back, two weekends in a row, over that simple mistake once.

[Langing]

Forgive me for speed-reading, as I may have missed it. Did you tighten the axle nut all the way? I had to replace two bearing back to back, two weekends in a row, over that simple mistake once.

Hello richee3,

You bring up an important issue that I do not not fully understand.

First, the answer is NO. . . I never re-assembled the FRONT AXLE HUB ASSEMBLY (steering knuckle assembly) back onto the axle and strut, so never used the axle nut at all. I had seen/read/heard somewhere that the bearing is set up by the torque you put on that nut, but didn't think of it before I decided to start over. I had only manipulated the AXLE HUB by hand, while holding the assembly in the other hand. That's when I heard and felt what I interpreted as bearing roughness. Should I have gone all the way to torquing the axle nut before deciding that the bearing was truly messed?

And, if that's the case, could I just get some wheel bearing grease (since I removed all of it to see the guts of the bearing) and put back the ball bearings (in their cages) and the inner races, and tap on new oil bearings? I can't see any damage to the bearings or races.


Second, it turns out that I had damaged at least the inner oil seal, by hammering on it in an attempt at 'seating' it down to the bearing (to eliminate what I thought was an opening to the outside), which was not correct. Certain about the inner seal, but I think that both seals lost their springy-ring thingy (see photo). BTW: How far should the oil seals be tapped down into their respective bores?:




Third: I failed to explain this, and have no idea whether it could have negatively affected the bearing, so let me document that now, to make the problem description complete. Before pressing the bearing in place in the steering knuckle, I froze the bearing and heated the steering knuckle to 300 degrees F, to slightly expand the bore while slightly decreasing the diameter of the bearing, just enough to make it easier on the Harbor Freight tools. If anyone can tell me why that would be wrong, please let me know.


Thanks for asking this question richee3.