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Decided to replace a front wheel bearing. 2008 Outback  Can not get the bearing hub to separate from the knuckle. Hammered on it. Bolted on a used rotor and hammered some more. Rented a slide hammer and gave up after 30 minutes. Plan now is to take the knuckle to a machine shop and hope they can free the bearing without breaking the knuckle. What the hell is going on here?  Can rust be that strong?  

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You can buy the hub and bearing assembly on that car for a little more then just the bearing.

 

Don't waste your time and money with the machine shop. Buy a hub and bearing and you can get it back together in an hour

 

At least for me, time is more valuable then the money.

Edited by golucky66
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I have an wide assortment of 'stuff', I've always been able to fully support the knuckle right at the end of the bearing housing proper.

Having seen the force required to get pretty much every one of those out, I can see the risk of distorting the knuckle.

 

I finally broke down and bought a harbor-freight FWD service kit, just for the assortment of support sleeves, saved a lot of time hunting for just the right scrap to support things!

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Well,  things went downhill this morning. Before heading to the machine shop, thought about that ball joint. Just like the bearing, frozen. Even an impact would not loosen the pinch bolt. Had enough and ordered a new knuckle. 

 

But when picking up my tools, I noticed a metal rod about the diameter of a pencil and 4 inches long on the ground. Only thought is it is part of the ABS sensor, which I removed early on in the process. 

 

Is this rod somehow part of the hub/knuckle/sensor?  

 

Would hate to put all this stuff back together only to have to take it all apart again.  

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"Don't waste your time and money with the machine shop. Buy a hub and bearing and you can get it back together in an hour

At least for me, time is more valuable then the money."

 

Had to smile reading the "back together in an hour".  It will be days before what I ordered gets here and since this is the wife's ride, I have several days of evil stares/the silent treatment  to put up with.  

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Dave and others - this is not a press in/press out bearing like the pre-05 cars had on the front. This is a bolt-in pre-assembled bearing assembly that he is having trouble removing from the large opening on the knuckle. The Harbor Freight set will not work in this case. He is trying to remove a 4-bolt flange from the knuckle, not a pressed, round race. The only suitable method for both this, and the ball joint, is an oxy-torch and an air hammer. 

 

GD

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Those hub assemblies can put up quite a fight. I've seen the guys here at work fight with them (usually the rears). It can be difficult to get the heat where it needs to be without melting important stuff (axle boots, abs sensors, etc.).

 

Some guys just go after them with an air hammer. One guy made a puller that threaded into the mounting bolts, but about a third of them he just pulled the threads out of the bearing housing.

 

One of the guys has one of these, and has pretty good success with it. It puts a bit of a twisting force on the whole thing to knock it loose...

ATD-8629.jpg

https://atdtools.com/8629

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Put one of the bolts in a top corner, one in a bottom corner. Socket on the bolt and pound away with a 4lb hammer. Haven't had that method fail yet.

 

On some vehicles with the proper selection of 1/2" socket and extensions you can turn the wheel and use the steering to help put pressure against the bolt, and then a combination of that and some creative hammering pops them out.

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Dave and others - this is not a press in/press out bearing like the pre-05 cars had on the front. This is a bolt-in pre-assembled bearing assembly that he is having trouble removing from the large opening on the knuckle. The Harbor Freight set will not work in this case. He is trying to remove a 4-bolt flange from the knuckle, not a pressed, round race. The only suitable method for both this, and the ball joint, is an oxy-torch and an air hammer. 

 

GD

 

Ah, one of those.

I have done a couple, removed them by pounding the crap out of the backside of the hub flange.

I have always been leery of using the blue wrench on the knuckle, other than the pinch bolt area.

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Caliper slide pin?

I thought that this morning.  Don't recall a slide pin when I removed the caliper.  Went to rock auto and checked some photos of calipers and didn't see a pin.  Have to look more closely tomorrow.  But I do know whatever that pin is it isn't part of the hub/knuckle   and only the caliper is left. 

 

Don't know if this is related but bought the car 2 years ago and it had a brake shimmy.  Replaced the rotors and pads. Little better but the shake still there. Hardly ever drive the car as it's the wife's car and she rarely uses it. We are both retired. 

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The slide pins usually stay in the caliper bracket, but I imagine that's also been removed if you have it down to the wheel bearing.

Did the pin have grease all over it?

 

Can't get a link to post but rockauto lists it as a "caliper guide pin". Similar, but they only show aftermarket versions.

Edited by Fairtax4me
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Put one of the bolts in a top corner, one in a bottom corner. Socket on the bolt and pound away with a 4lb hammer. Haven't had that method fail yet.

 

 

Tried your suggestion tonight and took maybe 2 minutes and the hub popped out. Have a new knuckle in the mail but just couldn't let a hunk if iron defeat me.  

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