Recently did the front, passenger side wheel bearings and seals on my Loyale. After, I was getting popping sounds from that corner when gearing down. Took the hub apart and found that the inner seal was mangled. I looked at Nugs' post:http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77491

There appears to be a difference in the orientation of the new and old outer seals. (Or are they different seals?)

 

1. Which side of the outer seal is supposed to face the bearings? The flat side or the lip side?

 

2. Somebody else pressed the bearings in for me, if they were pressed by the centre race could this damage the bearings enough to get this popping sound?

Thank you.

The flat side should face the bearings, and yes, if the bearing was pressed in by the inner race, then it could damage the bearing, it should be pressed in using the outside lip of the bearing

Flat side (spring side) should always face the bearings. On some styles of seals you have to cut a lip off the inner seal or it will "ride" funny on the axle joint cup.... but that may be an EA81 thing.... I can't recall off the top of my head.

 

As for the bearings - pressing them in/out is entirely uneccesary. The interferance fit is not that tight. You drift out the old bearings with a punch and drift in the new one's the same way - being careful to line them up straight as they go in and working your way around the bearing outer race with a brass drift. As a rule you ALWAYS install bearings by pressing/pounding/whatever on the race that will not transmit the force through the balls. If you have to work with that race (As when installing the axles) then a puller should be used that applies even, steady force. Any hard jolts will work-harden the spots where the balls contact the race and cause premature bearing failure.

 

GD

i put my spindles on top of the oven and got them hot and put bearings in the freezer for four hours and they fell right in with light tapping. i think you could push them in by hand actually at that point.

The noises may be from a loose axle in the spindle. Either the axle nut wasn't tightened enough (some manuals have incorrect torque specs), the nut "loosening" over time (maybe from bearings not fully seated), or the dished washer under the nut facing the wrong direction or being replaced by a flat washer.

i put my spindles on top of the oven and got them hot and put bearings in the freezer for four hours and they fell right in with light tapping. i think you could push them in by hand actually at that point.

 

That's an excelent method if you have the time and the inclination to remove the knuckles. I leave them on the car and have the whole job done in a few hours (axles, bearings, etc).

 

GD

I froze new bearings and drifted them in with a brass punch, worked very nicely, thanks!

 

Still getting clunking on both accel/deceleration and in neutral.

a new axle didn't help. so far i have replaced the balljoints, bearings, seals, strut, cone washer and axle - i've torqued and retorqued the castle nut to 145-150 ft-lb to no effect. The spring washer's correctly oriented.

Could the hub splines have been damaged - the wheel bearings were quite bad?