[timbits]

I'm working at getting my car ready for the the track season and one of the items I need to take care of is replacing the front wheel bearings. Now I've read up on the procedure and gone over the 944 workshop manual for it and everything looks pretty straight forward. However I am a bit concerned about how difficult it will be to get the old bearings out (and not maring the hub) and getting the new ones in and seated properly. Will they slide out and in fairly easily with doing the oven\freezer trick?


Thanks,
Tim

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[PorscheDude]

http://clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/susp-08.htm

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[968rz]

The front bearings are no hard to replace/repack than an Americen car with rear drive.
I think you are talking about the race (bearing surface pressed into hub) they knock in and out easy, no need to heat/freeze.

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[xrad]

easy to do but you will need a proper bearing extractor and a hydraulic press (manual will work fine) to remove and seat the bearings properly. A bearing extractor passes through the bearing and has an expandable lip which catches on the inner bearing margin. The assembly is then easily pressed out from the opposite end.

There are grooves in the inner hub which let you see the bearing edge. Do not use these as hammering points. DO NOT hammer them in or out, you are just going to damage the bearing or hub.

Be sure to check bearing depth on the originals before removing so that you can seat the new ones accurately.

I have done this job and it is very easy with the right tools.

Harbor Freight sells the above tools inexpensively.

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[pipalli]

I plan to also replace these soon. I've read in other thread of possible hub failures.
Has any had this happen or know of a case?
If so, then while the bearings are out would be the time to check.
JP

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[968Syncro]

Tim, I did this on my 944 (same basic design) about a year ago using the instructions at the Clark's Garage link from PorscheDude above. A few clarifications:

• - I used a couple of "brass drift" (i.e. punch) that I picked up from Harbor Freight for about $10.00 and used the punch out / punch in method.
• - This made me very nervous. Although this method works, using a bearing remover and press is certainly a less risky way to go.
• - The brass punch will deform a bit, so there is always the problem of getting little brass particles into the sticky (greasy) pieces.
• - I recall reading at the time that Autozone rents the needed bearing removal/pressing tools.
• - I did heat the hub in the oven for an hour, and did freeze the bearings, before putting the new ones in, but cannot report how much that helped. To remove them, I just pounded them out without the heating.
• - Only other thing that Clark's leaves out is to check the tightness of thrust washer locking collar (nut) after a short drive and the bearings have seated. At least I had to adjust one side afterwards, more experienced people probably get it right the first time.

Agree with everyone else, this can be done at home, since it is a pretty straight forward procedure.

Roland

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[timbits]

<!--quoteo(post=67259:date=Feb 17 2009, 03:41 PM:name=968Syncro)-->QUOTE (968Syncro @ Feb 17 2009, 03:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Tim, I did this on my 944 (same basic design) about a year ago using the instructions at the Clark's Garage link from PorscheDude above. A few clarifications:

• - I used a couple of "brass drift" (i.e. punch) that I picked up from Harbor Freight for about $10.00 and used the punch out / punch in method.
• - This made me very nervous. Although this method works, using a bearing remover and press is certainly a less risky way to go.
• - The brass punch will deform a bit, so there is always the problem of getting little brass particles into the sticky (greasy) pieces.
• - I recall reading at the time that Autozone rents the needed bearing removal/pressing tools.
• - I did heat the hub in the oven for an hour, and did freeze the bearings, before putting the new ones in, but cannot report how much that helped. To remove them, I just pounded them out without the heating.
• - Only other thing that Clark's leaves out is to check the tightness of thrust washer locking collar (nut) after a short drive and the bearings have seated. At least I had to adjust one side afterwards, more experienced people probably get it right the first time.

Agree with everyone else, this can be done at home, since it is a pretty straight forward procedure.

Roland<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Great! Thanks for the tips guys. They'll certainly help when I can get the parts ordered and they come in [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img] I think I'll play it safe and pickup a bearing puller and see about renting or borrowing a press. Harbor freight does have one (thanks for the tip xrad!) that looks like it'd do the job and isn't too expensive (http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/di...umber=1666).

Also what grease is recommended for this job? In another post it was mentioned that the Redline CV stuff was mediocre. Is there something better that is easily available?

Thanks,
Tim

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[Ryan]

If you take your old bearing race and grind around the outside using a bench grinder untill the race slides into the hub with no effort you can reverse the race and use as a blocker for the new race. That way you are not hammering directly on the new race. I found a large socket that fits the old race dimensions and hammer on the socket.

A bearing press would be the best though.

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