Front wheel bearing going bad on 1987 subaru gl sedan.I want to replace the bearing myself to save a repair bill.Does bearing have to be pressed out and back in or some other way.Need experienced help.

No press is needed, you can do it with the hub on the car but I find its a lot easier to remove the hub off the car so you arent trying to hammer a bearing back into the hub.

 

You can use a press if you want to... But its rather easy honestly.

Done lot's of bearings just using hammer and drift punch, both on/off vehicle. I find it easier to do it off the vehicle though.

 

Tried doing them using a press at work once. Found it to be more of a chore trying to get knuckle properly set on the press we had,

Since then, I've always done them with hammer/drift.

if you have significant rust then it may be worth trying on the vehicle. rusted nuts, bolts, ball joints, struts, tie rods can turn into a nightmare.

On my car I couldn't get the ball joint out of the knuckle or control arm. I'm sure I could have with more abuse, but I didn't want to damage the joint.

I just took the control arm off and brought the knuckle with control arm over to my bench.

To put the new bearing in, I used a 3" or so PVC adapter. It perfectly contacts the outer race of the bearing.

 

Now I've made a better tool, it's an old bearing race ground down so it slides in and out of the knuckle without getting stuc. and I welded a piece of metal to the middle of it. So I can tap in the new bearing evenly.

It can be done on car, but for your first time doing it, it's going to be a lot easier if you do it on the bench.

I have a Whuh-Whuh-Whuh pulsating noise in my 2005 subaru legacy GT. It is like a low "rubbing" noise. The noise speeds up with increased speed and slows down when going slower. I replaced a wheel bearing a few months back and the noise sounds different than when I had a bad wheel bearing because with the bad wheel bearing the noise was a constant "whirring" whereas now the noise is a whuh-whuh-whuh pulsating noise. I can feel the vibrations under the drivers side and through the gas pedal. Any ideas? Could it be a wheel bearing even though it is a pulsating noise and not constant? Rotors?

you should post in the New Generation forum, start a new thread or find one similar there.

 

your noise could be:

bad tire, tie rod, wheel bearing, driveshaft ujoint

 

does it do it all the time?

does steering, braking, or acclerating change anything?

 

wheel bearings can differ, they don't always sound the same when they fail, so it could be a bearing that just sounds different than the one you've heard before.

I have a Whuh-Whuh-Whuh pulsating noise in my 2005 subaru legacy GT. It is like a low "rubbing" noise. The noise speeds up with increased speed and slows down when going slower. I replaced a wheel bearing a few months back and the noise sounds different than when I had a bad wheel bearing because with the bad wheel bearing the noise was a constant "whirring" whereas now the noise is a whuh-whuh-whuh pulsating noise. I can feel the vibrations under the drivers side and through the gas pedal. Any ideas? Could it be a wheel bearing even though it is a pulsating noise and not constant? Rotors?

 

 

sounds like a bad cone washer/ loose hub.

heres a tip the lower ball joint pinch bolt likes to break so i drill out half the threads from the backside to weaken it so it dosent break then replace it thiss has saved me many broken pinch bolts and greif has a 90% working rate

So I just did the wheel bearings on my daughters 88 wagon.Now Do you need to fill the gap in between the 2 bearings with hitemp grease? right behind the tube thing,spacer that is in there.I have used a big syringe to fill up that area.A major hassel,do i even need too?? Is just packin the bearings enough??? thanks , OSF