SevenSisters Posted December 13, 2003 Share Posted December 13, 2003 Everyone on the board has been an inspiration and your postings on Legacy wheel bearing replacement (particularly the existence of detailed, new procedure directions at the Subaru End Wrench site) finally convinced me to I tackle the job my self. The left rear bearing on my ’91 AWD Legacy had been replaced by the dealer at about 60K, at least partially because of dragging brakes. About 40K miles later, it stated rumbling again and progressively got worse. I knew I was in trouble when I put on new tires and the noise continued. I continued to drive with the noise, but no apparent hub looseness, for about another 20K miles until enough was enough. After checking out repair costs at dealers and independents, as well as, Hub Tamer prices, I concluded I could buy the tools I needed, save money by buying internet parts, and at least break even with the dealer cost and still have the tools for when bearings go on the other side of the ‘ru or on another car. I bought a Hub Tamer from Tool Paradise for about $203 (when I called them their price was a little lower than listed on their web site and shipping was free) and the OE bearing, seals and axle nut from 1stSubaruparts.com. with no problems. I also replaced the brakes with non-Subaru rotors and pads locally purchased while I was at it. Another poster, alia176, commented that the forcing nut that came with his Hub Tamer was too tight. I encountered the same thing. Fortunately, I played around with the Hub Tamer parts and discovered this before busting the hub off. OTC acted like they never heard of this problem before but sent a replacement. (Poor QC) Lesson learned: if you buy a Hub Tamer or any other tool, make sure it works before you start the job. I pretty much followed all of the End Wrench directions using a slide hammer to remove the hub and then the Hub Tamer for the rest of the job. It appears that the bearing failed because the inner seals had deteriorated. They may not have been changed the first time the bearing was replaced by the dealer or the bearing may have failed due to the usual Subaru bearing failure reasons. I installed the new bearings like Subaru instructed. No new or additional grease. I’ll point out that I called a tapered bearing manufacturer’s tech service department (Koyo) and was told that tapered bearings should not be packed fully, only about 1/3 of the way to work properly. They claimed too much grease can lead to failure. If you do replace the grease, be careful you don’t add too much new grease. The tools described in the Subaru instructions are basically OTC Hub Tamer components, but with the addition a few key adapters. The “official” Subaru tools, allow you to apply pressure to only the outer race of the bearing during installation into the housing. Maybe I overlooked something, but I had to finagle the Hub Tamer adapters and wound up pressing the bearing into the housing the last ¼” or so by using the old outer race as a spacer to avoid putting pressure on the new bearing’s inner race. Of course, I had to grind the ends of the old outer race flat so it wouldn’t slip around. I wouldn’t use the directions that come with the Hub Tamer. They may only apply to the front wheel bearings or are just screwed up. The Subaru tools also have a slot cut into one of the adapters so you can force the hub into the bearing’s inner race and measure the correct seating depth at the same time. The Hub Tamer adapter does not. I pulled the hub in most of the way, removed the tools and measured the depth. Then re-applied the tools and carefully pulled the hub in the rest of the way based on the fact the forcing screw has 16 threads per inch (every full turn would move the hub in 1/16”). In hind site, I probably could have initially measured the original distance between the ABS tone wheel and sensor which are easily accessible, and with the Hub Tamer forcing screw still attached, pulled the hub into the bearing in one shot using this distance as a reference. The little ‘ru is running great now. Thanks for everyone else’s posts on this subject. I hope my experience helps the next person that attempts this job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alia176 Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Hey guys, I posted some pics of the Hubtamer in action on the SVX board. Hopefully the following link works: http://www.subaru-svx.net/photos/user.php?alia176|13589 I was surprised to hear that yet another person had the same issue as me regarding the tool! Tomorrow night everything will be done and I can move on to other projects. Cheers, Ali '95 Legacy wagon ps that price is even better than what I paid for it. Nice going! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FSC Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Where can I find more info about the HUBTAMER issues, I have just purchased one and if there is a problem, I would like to correct it before I get into a job with it False Alarm, Did a search and found what I needed, Thanx all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99obw Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Good info, I will keep that in mind when I use my huber tamer in the near future. (picking up the last of the parts tomorrow, special order) That is less than I paid as well. Perhaps we should have sevensisters look for the best price for things from now on. Just kidding... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alia176 Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Are you picking up more parts for the Hubtamer or car parts? I need to add the "hub puller" thing to my tool box. Basically this is used in conjunction with the slide hammer to push the axle out of the hub. However, this tool is used for "gently" with the hubtamer to do the same thing! Basically you slide over the lug bolts and reinstall the lug nuts to secure it. Then you attach the hubtamer tool to this thing and force the axle out toward the inboard of the car. FYI. Ali Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99obw Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 I am doing the struts at the same time, and I am waiting for the little rubber donut that goes between the spring and the strut. If you didn't have that tool to force the axle out of the hub how did you do it? I have always just used a BFH, but perhaps I should try to be a little more civilized. I have a harmonic balancer puller that I may be able to use in an improvised sort of way. Perhaps I could weld a nut to a piece of steel that has holes drilled in it for the wheel studs and use a long bolt to force the axle out. Did your axle come out hard? Did you repack the new bearings? Why did you replace the bushing? PS: You have a nice shop! Hydraulic press, parts cleaner, air tools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alia176 Posted December 17, 2003 Share Posted December 17, 2003 Glad you liked my shop. The shop is never complete as you know! I recommend getting a press, at least a bench top one if you got room. Doing bushings/bearings is much easier when you're using a press type device. The old bushings and lateral link bolts had to be cut out with a sawsall. They became *one* due to many years of salty roads. I just hope the SVX will be easier since it didn't start out in the salt belt! On two occasions I used two different methods of pushing the axle out: 1- large brass drift and a BFH to hammer it out! This if for both front axles. 2- rented every thing from the local auto parts store and used the tool I mentioned previously. Shoulda seen teh look on the counterperson's face when I told him I wanted everything to do with hub/wheel/suspension work. However, the axle wasn't "frozen" to the splines, so it came out rather easily. If you don't use a brass drift, then there's a chance you'll "mushroom" the head of the axle and then it may not want to come out. Or, worse, it will ruin the splines as it gets pushed out with the hammer. Ali Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenSisters Posted December 18, 2003 Author Share Posted December 18, 2003 Alia176, Nice pictures of the job and your shop. I wish I would have thought of pictures while I was busting my knuckles. Only thing left to take a picture of is the screwed up inner race that caused all the noise. Hope attaching it to this message works. If not, someone tell me how to do it. OBW99, The hub tamer should let you push the axle out of the hub. Mine came out easily. Again, I used a Subaru bearing and did not repack it. Only time will tell if I did the right thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alia176 Posted December 18, 2003 Share Posted December 18, 2003 I don't know how to upload pics here either, so I picked the SVX site's "Personal Locker" for alia176 to store them. Maybe there's a way to do the same here? Regarding the hub tamer tool to push the axle out, I didn't think this was possible due to a missing tool. That's the tool that attached to your hub using the lugs and becomes the anchor to which the forcing screw goes through and pushes the axle through. I've yet to purchase this handy tool. Can someone tell me the approx distance between the "tone ring" and the ABS sensor? I'm using this distance as my reference for how much deeper the hub needs to go into the bearing housing. I'm sure this info is in my repair manual somewhere! Thanks for the info and the compliments. Ali Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenSisters Posted December 19, 2003 Author Share Posted December 19, 2003 According to my manual (please check yours and the End Wrench article) on the rear, Subaru specs 1 to 1.5 mm for the gap. I measured the actual hub depth when inserting the hub and the tone wheel gap wound up on the high end of the spec. but works fine. This was probably due to the fact that the tone wheel was really rusty and a lot of crap came off when I brushed it to clean it up. As an aside, before I replaced the bearing and put on new pads and rotors, I was getting an ABS error code (check under the passenger seat for the display) for a bad sensor (about $150). After the job there were no codes. I'm thinking that the rusty brakes or bad bearing caused the sensor to heat up and thus screwed up the magnetic field and ABS the signal. The hub and wheel did seem to get noticably warm before the job. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alia176 Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Think I ended up around 1.5mm, eyeballing it of course! Anyway, everything is back together and went for a ride. Much quieter now than before! I'll need to calll OTC about my tool replacement as it hasn't arrived yet! Tomorrow, I'll check the temp of the hub/rotor for both sides to make sure the new bearing is seating in properly. I'm expecting to run a tad warmer on the new bearing side until everything is properly seated. Another reason why your ABS throwing codes was perhaps the wheel wasn't spinning "true"? Anyway, my back can use a little break for a while 'till the SVX project! My wife is very happy and that's all that matters. Take it easy, Ali Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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