...Struggling to find what I missed. Replaced front left bearing and race. Pressed the race to meet with snap ring in the knuckle... pressed outter bearing all the way snuggly against shelf on the hub... assembled hub/bearing into knuckle then pressed inner bearing on to hub spline shaft until inner bearing and outer bearings met.. installed seal- assembled knuckle onto vehicle then torqued CV nut to something really tight using breaker bar. Drove 5 miles reaching 60 mph- bearing disintegrated- inner bearing collars spun on spline shaft welding it together for millenia. ... how can these bearings be over tightened? the bearings are designed to contact one another inside the race correct?

What year? What model?

 

And are these single-row ball-bearings?

Or double-row tapered?

 

This info would help with diagnosis.

1998 Outback Wagon. Double taper bearings.

I'm not familiar with the details of your car.

But the axial pre-load on double taper bearings is usually set by tightening the axle nut.

cheap bearing

previous bearing ran into the ground, damaging the hub and the new bearing.  replace hub.

grease? was it greased? 

 

can you install the bearing as one piece instead of "inner bearing" and "outer bearing" separately?  i've only ever installed one piece bearings at the same time....a two step process there sounds odd, but i haven't done tons of 95-99 bearings.

135 Ft-lbs. torque spec. Over tightening can crush the inner races and eat the bearing.

Also subaru warns against tightening the axle nut with the vehicle weight on the wheel. Torque needs to be done before putting the wheel on.

 

Could have messed something up while pressing the bearing in. Was the bore in the knuckle clean? Did the bearing get cocked crooked while it was being pressed?

 

I re-read. I think what you did wrong was pressing the inner race onto the hub first. Leave the inner races IN the bearing, press the hub into the center after the bearing is pressed into the knuckle. There should have been a plastic ring in the center to hold the races against each other, that gets pushed out by the hub when you press the hub in. If you pull that out and the races slide apart, the rollers can get knocked crooked and/or score the race as you're pressing the assembly together.

Edited September 9, 201510 yr by Fairtax4me

Hm not sure I've done two of that kind using the Harbor Freight FWD adapters, the part in yours that sounds strange is 'pressed outter bearing all the way snuggly against shelf on the hub'. What do you mean by shelf? With the FWD adapters basically on installation you end up pulling the hub through both parts of the bearing until the hub is a few mm short of being flush with the inside bearing.