SkiBumBrian Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Anybody ever service or replace the rear wheel bearings? I am in the process of replacing whatever is shot in my rear bearing carrier. I know the FSM shows all the fancy Nissan specialty tools for doing the job but was wondering if anyone has accomplished this without the axle slide hammer, press, etc. gotta wait til payday to tackle it but would like some feedback before I start this next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 I have seen it done before. It is quite the job, you need to press or hammer the bearings off and there is a lock nut that you can use a hammer and punch to loosen IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiBumBrian Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Thanks for the insight and tip!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Let me know how it goes please. I have to replace my axle seals and might jsut replace the bearings as well when I am in there... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiBumBrian Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 I plan on taking some pics and doing a write up. Seems like this task needs some info, doesn't appear many have to get in the axle housing often.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiBumBrian Posted October 12, 2013 Author Share Posted October 12, 2013 (edited) OK, here is the story. Not as eventful as it could have been, thankfully. It is not as big of a PITA as I thought it would be. The biggest pain is removing the emergency brake cable which entails dismantling the drum brake behind the disc rotor(if you have disc brakes). if you have drum brakes I bet you can skip a step. After you get that free and remove the four nuts holding the axle assembly to the axle housing the axle should pull out with a few grunts. Then you will be looking at 2 surfaces, the seal that stayed in the axle housing and the assembly on the axle which holds the bearing. All the bearing assembly is held together and controls the axial play by a castle nut with a lock washer. Here is where my issue was found (I think). I noticed that the castle nut was not locked by the lock washer but continued to remove the castle nut like anyone would that did not own the special Nissan tool, with a large punch and a hammer.... It came off quite easily and exposed the seal and bearing. After close inspection I decided that the bearing and seal were in awesome condition and would not pull the bearing. I deduced that the castle nut was the culprit, loosening and allowing some lateral play in the axle (had it been like this since 1991?). I reinstalled the castle nut, tightening it in the same Neanderthal method I removed it with a bit more torque determined by the swing of my hammer.... After swearing and giggling about the tedious job of reassembling the E brake mechanism, she went back together and it was time for a test drive at 2 o'clock in the morning. I headed to the Safeway parking lot, lots of speed bumps and dips where the symptoms reared their ugly head in the first place. The problem had all but gone away. The movement was diminished to almost none but I could have tightened that castle nut another 1/4 turn I bet.... I am gonna drive it like this for a day or 2 and see how it feels. It went from feeling like the rear end was gonna fall off to an almost indistinguishable nuisance. When I go back in for the final tweaking I suppose I can have this done in less than a couple of hours. So the long story short (too late). This really is no big deal, if you need to replace seals or bearings and have a puller in your arsenal this is quite a simple, straightforward, procedure. If my present diagnosis is incorrect and have to dive back in I wont worry about it, there are ALOT of other things more time consuming and difficult. I am just glad the problem wasn't in the LSD.... Edited October 12, 2013 by SkiBumBrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted October 12, 2013 Share Posted October 12, 2013 Cool! I'm glad it wasn't a big deal and thanks for the heads up! I have to change the rear drum brake shoes since they are contaminated from a leaking seal, so I'll be taking all that apart anyway.. B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RF600 Posted October 13, 2013 Share Posted October 13, 2013 You might want to keep an eye on things. Bearings like to "keep" the same pattern. If you have a lose bearing for a long time it will find a groove it will seat in. When you tighten the bearing it will find a different groove. That could potentially have a ill effect on the life of the bearing. That is usually for a tapered bearing. I know the rear bearings aren't exactly the same. But it could have an effect on the bearing life. The axle could have some damage on it also from not riding on the machined surface properly. Listen for some noise coming from the rear. I'm not saying it will happen. It could at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiBumBrian Posted October 13, 2013 Author Share Posted October 13, 2013 Thanks, I plan on watching and listening closely. I am carrying a laser thermometer too so when I get out after a good long drive I can take some readings at the end of the axle. I am a bit anal about noises coming from my vehicles so I don't expect anything to get by me for long.... These next few days of commuting will speak volumes. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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