legacycentral bbs

The time has come for me to fix my wheel bearings. They have gotten to the point where I needed to put off all the other things I wanted to do with the car in order to get them replaced ASAP.

Wanna know how bad they are? Right click and save as on this link for an in-car demo of just how noisy they are. That horrific moaning and resonating noise that drowns almost all the other sounds out is the bearings. That vid is about 9MB I believe so 56k might wanna just pass on this one.

Here is a pic of the new bearings (I went aftermarket for 2 reasons: 1. This project is costing me enough money as it is, just in parts and 2. I think we can all agree that the OEM ones are garbage to begin with) and the GR2 struts that I will be putting on.


And I started taking it apart today:


More pics and info to come later...

I don't think your reasoning is very sound for the bearings. The OEM quality bearings are crap IYO, so you're going to bearings that are made to OEM spec but not quality.

True. But I wasn't ready to spend $400 on OEM bearings alone, not including seals. I got the aftermarket bearings and seals for less than $300.

I just need this car to be my daily through college. If it makes it that far without the drivetrain blowing up or getting T-boned at 50mph by some dumb bitch on a cell phone, then I will just go full resto on it after I graduate.

Also in the vid, those 3 clunks you hear toward the end, that is the clunk I've been describing. I don't think it's suspension-related. I believe it has a lot to do with the fact that I have a bolt missing out of my tranny Xmember thanks to a stripped hole in the body, and maybe the cross-threaded bolt holding my center bearing...

Anyway, I'll take some more pics as I go along.

Yummy...

Passenger side is completely apart:


Passenger hub (I think this bearing is the worst):


Passenger front old Monroe strut (and a wheelstud I pounded out made its way in there too):


Driver's front is completely apart:


Driver's front hub (and my foot ):


Driver's front old Monroe strut:


The front's easy... the back is a different story

This bolt sticking out took me about 20 minutes to remove, and 10 minutes of that was just breaking the threads loose. It's obvious the bolt has never moved in the car's life.

I hate to say it, but I could really use a set of air tools right now

To be continued...

Dude, open-toed footwear?

I have to agree with V, I'm all about sandels and going barefoot. However, car parts are heavy and have sharp hard corners, get some shoes on bro .

And of course, good luck with the back.

you have a funky looking set of toes, dropping something sharp on them could make it worse.

I was thinking the same thing about the footwear, then saw the other comments.

$300 for wheel bearings ???? Why so much ? I have never paid anywhere near that for wheel bearings, but I admittedly haven't bought any for Subarus (thank god)

I wear sandals when I'm working in the garage.....only when things don't get too involved though

Hey, I live in FL, I can wear sandals all I want

I've never dropped anything on my feet while working in the garage anyway.

But on to the next topic.

This is REALLY pissing me off. I'm totally ready to haul this car off to the JY right now.

This bolt, control arm bolt underneath the left rear hub...


... and this bolt, the other end of the control arm, bolted to the body...


...WILL NOT MOVE!!! I have broken two brand-new Craftsman ratchets on these bolts, I have used wrenches and BFH's, I have used PB Blaster, I have even tried putting a wrench on them and tried jacking the wrench up against the weight of the car, and these bolts WILL NOT MOVE!! At least one of them has to come out in order for me to get this hub off.

Suggestions?

Try harder - better quality tools. Use a breaker bar instead of a wrench.

Maybe it's time to call in some Aerokroil?

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=21094

I actually had a hard time with those too when I was removing the crossmember from the boostjunkie Legacy. The pneumatic impact wrench did nothing, and I broke a few ratchets that also did nothing. I ended up getting it finally with a really long breaker bar, as Jason is suggesting.

Go buy an electric impact wrench.

Yes, use a breaker bar and some man, and it should come off.

I too rarely wear closed in shoes, most of the time I don't wear anything.

THAWA wrote:
I too rarely wear closed in shoes, most of the time I don't wear anything.

Hippy.

I should have added, when in the garage I can't stand to walk around wtihout closed in shoes on when I leave the house.

I'm perfectly willing to try the Aerokroil stuff, but I have a concern. There are bushings where both of those bolts are; this stuff won't eat up those bushings will it?

These bolts are 17mm, and I only have a 17mm socket for a 3/8" drive, so I'll go get a 17mm socket with a 1/2" drive tomorrow so I can use my breaker bar on these fuckers.

It could damage the rubber, I suppose... But I don't think PB Blaster's all that kind to rubber either. There's lots of rubber there anyway. Right?

Go BUY a electric impact wrench. It's not like it's something you'll only use once, and I'm sure it'll help you again in the future.

If it won't get the bolt off, just return it, and tell them it's defective. I'm sure lowes or home depot carries them.

How much should I expect to pay for an electric impact wrench?

Vikash, I'm just concerned that I'd chew up a piece of rubber that's already close to 15 years old and then have to wait a week to order one from the dealer...

Yeah, it's not an unreasonable concern...

You've tried sitting there with a B.F. hammer and smacking on the end of a good wrench for what seems like hours on end, right? Kind of a poor man's impact wrench.

Yep did that already.

Well here's what I did today:

I got the socket I needed and got my breaker bar handy. I put a pipe extension on it as far out as it would go, and I put it on the trailing-arm-to-hub bolt. I put all my weight on it and it did nothing. I took the pipe extension off and hammered on it some more, then put the pipe extension back on. Then... it started to move!! Hallelujah I thought to myself. But it was in vain because I wasn't turning the bolt



I rounded it off instead.

A smilie will not express how I feel right now, but a picture of what I did right afterwards with the pipe extension describes it very well:



I am not going to touch this car for the rest of the week, otherwise I will just demolish it.

I'm going to do the best I can to keep from hauling this car off to the junkyard and taking out a loan from my bank for the 99 Legacy Brighton wagon that's at the same used car dealer that I bought this shitbox from.

At least that's the quarter panel that was pushed out when I took a corner too fast with a heavy object in the back...

Yikes.

I guess it's time to break out the angle grinder and chop the head off?

Yep, that's what I plan to do.

Forget the impact wrench, how much is a grinder?

Not sure of the cost on the impact wrench....I think 100 or so.

Grinder...should be had for under 50.