Replacing a steering knuckle

[jamal]

A while back I hit a curb and bent a control arm. I replaced the arm, and discovered that I had managed to destroy the wheel bearing as well. It was making loud noises at like 10mph. Being a poor college student, I didn't really want to buy a new bearing, and then have to take it to a shop and pay them to switch them out. Also I would have had to deal with repacking the bearing and all that. I just called up the junkyard from which I got my control arm, and they sent me an entire spindle/hub/wheel bearing assembly for $45.

Well anyway, here are some pictures and directions of the install.

Firstly you're probably going to want to jack up the car and take off the wheel.



Oh damnit I forgot to break the axle nut loose. Took off the center cap, put the car back on the ground, and used this gigantic socket.



I used the nice little trick of pulling the car forward, with the breaker bar resting on a jackstand to get it loose without incident.

Okay so the next step is to take the brake and dust shield off. A paint can you found in the pantry makes a good place to put the caliper.



Then you're going to want to take off the tie rod end.



A little work with a puller I rented at autozone had it off in about 10 seconds.

The ball joint then needs to come out.



I was pretty excited because it came out really easy and is still in good shape. Then of course the strut needs to be disconnected and the knuckle comes right out.

JDM yo



Installation is the reverse of removal. Ha.

I seem to have a bunch of stuff strewn all over.



It started to get dark and I had to break out my LED headlight to finish putting everything together. Also my camera stopped working so there are no more pictures. It seems to be fine now.

[evolutionmovement]

The axle nut is staked. If you take a screwdriver and punch the little dent out, it should come off easy.

[jamal]

yes I was aware of that. It just didn't want to come off very easily.

[greg donovan]

The axle nut is staked. If you take a screwdriver and punch the little dent out, it should come off easy.

mine did not want to come off easily when i replaced my cv axles. i actually broke a socket. sure it was a cheap one but it still broke. i drove it to a mechanic and had them release it and then put it back on. when i got home it came right off again w/no worries.