wheel bearings final

SAFE HARBOUR STATEMENT:This “How I installed it” essay is presented asgeneral information and has been prepared bya Triumph TR6 owner with very limited automechanic knowledge. The installation proce-dures shown in this document are not profes-sional instructions and are not intended to besuch. The front wheel bearings and wheel hubsof a 1969 Triumph TR6 were successfully refur-bished with these amateur procedures and Iwas not injured during the process.

The following essay documents the removal,cleaning and refurbishing of both front wheelbearings. Therefore these procedures can alsobe used to remove old wheel bearings and install newsets. Specifically, the recommended every 20K mileroutine maintenance task of cleaning, inspecting andrepacking wheel bearing with new grease

TOOLS I USED TO COMPLETE THE PROJECT:

In order to access and remove the wheel bearings,the project requires removing the two wheel hubs,both disc brake calipers and both brake rotors. Theworking space is mostly open with easy access tomost of the fasteners. Most of the bolts are fairly hightorque and require a long handle ratchet for leverage.

Normally, I work with two jack stands but this was notpossible due to no access on the opposite side of thecar. (car non-functional) I worked with two primaryhydraulic jacks and a scissor jack for a third.

WHEEL BEARINGS REFURBISH

The work area in my car presented difficult workingconditions due to the many years’ accumulation ofold grease and road dirt. Many of the fastener boltheads and nuts could not be seen due to thick layersof grease / road dirt.

Four days before I began the disassembly, I sprayedthe entire wheel hub and suspension system area with a heavy degreaser liquid. I applied thedegreaser several times over a three day period.

After three days of soaking in degreaser, I hookedthe garage hose up to the hot water tap and pressurewashed the wheel hub and suspension components.I let the work area air dry. I then sprayed the boltheads and nuts with Liquid Wrench and let it soak infor one day.

Wheel hub before cleaning

Wheel hub after cleaning-below

There was still a ton of grease and road dirt inside.Have plenty of paper towels and garage rags onhand. You will need them in order to keep your toolsand hands clean and for safety reasons.

Step One: Remove Brake Caliper-

Brake Caliper - seen from behind

As an amateur trying to perform auto mechanics, myown safety is always foremost in my mind. Workingbeneath a car and putting my hands and tools inplaces I cannot see with my eyes scares me.

The Bentley Book is a great resource but it does notalways give the depth or perspective of how thevarious pieces fit together. For this reason, I try totake photos of fasteners before I put tools onto them.

Two bolts secure the brake caliper to the calipermounting plate, as seen above. The two bolts alsosecure two of three tabs that attach the circular dust shield and the brake hose clip.

A brake caliper centering shim should be foundbetween the two bolts. The shim was missing frommy car and is on order.


Removing the two brake caliper bolts is a difficult taskand requires great strength. Perhaps the heat gener-ated during braking has caused the bolts to seize.

After soaking in Liquid Wrench for one day, it was stillnecessary for me to lie on my back and with a longhandled ratchet and 9/16” sockets, put my entirebody weight onto the bolts before they would rotateand could be removed. Use only six sided tools forthis project or you will round off the bolt heads andhave a real mess on your hands. Be sure to wearsafety goggles as a lot of crud falls down in your face

Brake Caliper Removed

Once you have removed the brake caliper it is veryimportant to secure the caliper to the upper A-Arm soit is out of the working area and more importantly, soyou do not break the rubber brake hose or connec-tions. Set the bolts aside and label them.

With the brake caliper safely secured out of the way,it is now time to removed the wheel hub and brakerotor disc. This is an easy, straight forward task.

The wheel hub and brake rotor are secured to thestub axle by a single castle nut, cotter pin and largesteel washer. Remove the cotter pin and back off thelarge castle nut and set them aside and label them.Gently work the washer off the stub axle.

Outer Wheel Bearings Exposed

Once you have removed the cotter pin, castle nut andsteel washer, the outer wheel bearing is exposed. Asseen above. The bearing will slide out into yourhands. For now, wrap it in a clean cloth, label it andset it aside with the other removed parts.

Note: Now is probably a good time to remember acamera is a tool you need for this project. Takemany photos of pieces before and after you haveremoved them. They make an excellent referencewhen you try to put things back together.

With the outer bearing safely set aside, it is time toremove the wheel hub and disc rotor. Firmly grip therotor at 9:00 and 3:00 and pull it straight toward while being careful not to bang up the stub axle.


Once the brake rotor and wheel hub are removed asa single unit; the stub axle, caliper mounting plateand dust cover are exposed as seen in the photoabove. Pretty nasty looking to this non-mechanicguy.

Spray the area with degreaser liquid and start clean-ing up the work area. This will take a bit of time andmake a great pile of greasy paper towels. I preach tomy construction workers “ A clean work area is asafe work area.” I don’t see why auto mechanicsprojects should be any different.

Clean all threads with tap

After the stub axle, caliper mounting plate and dustshield were cleaned of grease and road dirt, I ran atap thru the two bolt holes of the mounting plate toclean up the threads. This task can be viewed in thelower left photo.

The front wheels rotate on the stub axle and aresupported by two sets of bearings. An inner set andan outer set. After I had removed the grease androad dirt I polished the bearing’s areas of the stubaxle with #1500 wet grit paper, as seen above.

I lightly coated the exposed metal surfaces withwheel bearing grease and then removed the dustshield to inspect the suspension system behind it.

Remove 3rd dust shield bolt from caliper mount.


So far, it has been about four hours time to get to thispoint. Now would be a good time to scrub the greaseoff your hands and arms and take a beverage break.Coffee, beer, iced tea. Coca Cola- any will do.

Wow, that icy cold Coke hit the spot. Now back to the Wheel Bearing refurbish.

The wheel hub with inner and outer bearing sets isfastened to the brake rotor disc with four (4) bolts asseen in the photo above. It is easier to remove thebearing components with the wheel hub separatedfrom the brake rotor.

The four bolts holding this hub and rotor togetherwere “frozen” so tightly even an 18” ratchet extensioncould not break them loose. I filled the bolt area withLiquid Wrench and set it aside to soak overnight.

With the wheel hub and brake rotor set aside soaking overnight, now is an excellent opportunity toperform a little general suspension / steering cleaningand inspection. As seen in the photo below left, thebrake caliper mounting plate looked pretty sad andthe vertical link and trunion behind it were bothcovered with at least a 1/4” thickness of ancientgrease and road crud.

The brake caliper mounting plate is held in place withfour bolts and two sets of tab-lock washers. Theyellow arrows show the tabs in their down orunlocked position. In the UP position, the tabsprevent the bolts from rotating. I used a flat screw-driver with a ground off, widened tip to flatten thetab-locks.

The four bolts are thru-bolts secured with conven-tional lock nuts on the opposite side. Two bolts areshort and easily removed after sprayed with LiquidWrench. A 9/16” socket is required on the bolt headand a 9/16” wrench is required to keep the lock nutfrom rotating.

The other two bolts are long thru-bolts passing thruthe caliper mount plate, a steel spacer and the steer-ing control arm. These two bolts might be difficult toremove due to rust build-up inside the steel spacerand steering control arm. Use Liquid Wrench and aratchet extension to remove these two bolts.


Grip the caliper mount plate at 9:00 and 3:00 andpull straight forward over the stub axle. Make sure tokeep the stub axle lightly coated with grease.

If you are going to all the trouble to rework orreplace the wheel bearings, the few extraminutes it takes to inspect the front suspensionbushings is well worth the effort.

As seen above and below, All the suspensionbushings in my front end were either deterio-rated with age or were not the proper bushing forthe component. The inspection of this carindicates a complete replacement of all thebushings is required. Also, a broken tie rod end wasobserved.

Bushings Deteriorated


Next day after the wheel hub / brake rotor haveSoaked in Liquid Wrench:

SEPARATE WHEEL HUB FROM BRAKE ROTOR:

Four bolts secure the wheel hub to the brake rotor.They are a bear to back out even with Liquid Wrench.This odd position with the rotor locked against mylegs was the easiest for me to hold everything tightand use an 18” extension on the ratchet.

Once you have the hub separated from the brakerotor it is easier to work with things. The inside of thehub might be filled with old grease. Yes or no, cleanthe hub interior thoroughly. Once clean, you will bebe able to see the bearings access slots, as below.

(bearings and races removed to show accessslots)


The outer wheel bearings have already beenremoved and are safely wrapped in clean cloth andset aside. The outer wheel bearing race piece is stillin place inside the hub. The inner wheel bearings and race are also still inside the hub and must beremoved.

The access slots are narrow and rectangular inshape. I ground down an old screwdriver to make apunch tool to fit the shape of the access slots. Asmall hammer is used to lightly tap the bearings’edge or race edge where they are exposed in theaccess slots. Tap from side to side so the pieceslides forward and does not jam. A great deal offorce is not required.

The photo above shows the inner bearings tappedout thru the two access slots. The bearing race isstill in place and requires removal as well. Thebearings retaining band is also shown with the feltgrease seal removed for photo clarity.

Wrap the inner bearings in a clean cloth and setaside.

Photo above shows removing outer race.

Tap out both bearing races and wrap them in cleancloth with the two bearing sets. Once again cleanthe inside of the wheel hub and give the machinedmetal surfaces a light coating of wheel bearinggrease.

Prepare a work area that is very clean and shelteredfrom the wind. Locate a very clean work surface tobegin the bearings sets refurbishing. Now go take acoffee break and scrub your hands as clean as youcan get them.

It is very important that the work area be 100% freeof any grit or sand that might get into the bearingsdestroy them.


I cleaned the bearings and races with a commercialgrade grease remover. I then inspected the bearingsand races for indications of wear or scratches. Every-thing looked acceptable.

The bearing are now clean and prepared to berepacked with wheel bearing grease. Make sure youpurchase wheel bearing grease formulated specifi-cally for disc brakes.

Scoop up a palmful of grease and work it intoeach bearing making sure to roll the bearing toexpose all surfaces.


The photo above shows the outer and inner bearingsresting within their race rings. I also coated the innersurface of the two (2) race rings with grease prior toinserting the bearings sets.

I began the bearings reassemble with the innerbearings first. As seen in the photo below left, I useda flat steel bar and medium weight hammer to startmoving the bearings’ race down into the hub. Irotated the steel bar at 90* intervals to keep the racemoving straight downward. Very light taps with thehammer are all that is required. Too much effort withthe hammer and you might drive your wheel studsout.

Once the race is flush with the hub, you need todrive the race home with a flat punch tool, again at90* intervals. To completely seat the race, I set the hub and lugs into the wheel. This protected the lugsfrom being driven out by the final strong forceneeded to seat the race.


After you have seated the inner bearings’ race is anexcellent time to clean out the mounting bolt threads.It takes just a few extra minutes and makes for abetter reassemble.

Install the outer bearings’ race exactly the same wayas the inner race. Now it is time to insert thebearings. Begin with the inner bearing first because ithas more pieces.

Lightly grease the inner bearing's race and then setthe bearings into the race. Make sure they rotatesmoothly. Next tap in the retainer band with thepunch tool until it comes into contact with thebearings. Add a dab of grease and push in the feltgrease shield. The finished assembly is seen above.


Reinstall the brake caliper mounting bracket and dustshield as seen above. At this stage, the dust shield isheld in place with one bolt as seen in the photoabove. Tighten the four bolts to 30# and make surethe bolt flats line up with the tab-lock washers. Nowbend the four (4) tabs of the tab-lock washers upward to hold the bolts in place.

The wheel bearing project is just about completed.The inner and outer wheel bearings are installed inthe hub and the hub is attached to the brake rotor.

Carefully lift the hub/rotor assembly and slide it ontothe stub axle. If you accidentally push out the outerbearings, that OK for now. You will “feel the innerbearing felt grease seal seat itself around the stubaxle assembly. ( see photo bottom left)

If the outer bearings popped out while you weresliding the hub/rotor assembly over the stub axle,carefully slide them back into the race.

Now slide the large steel washer over the stub axleuntil it begins to push against the outer bearings.Install the castle nut onto the threaded end of thestub axle and begin to tighten.

As you tighten the castle nut, rotate the hub/rotor.When the hub/rotor becomes very difficult to rotate,back off the castle nut one flat until a slot is lined upwith the 1/8” diameter hole drilled thru the stub axle end. Insert a new cotter pin and bend it in oppositedirections.

The wheel bearing project is now complete andshould look something like the photo below. Reinstallthe brake caliper, dust cap and put on the wheel.

Yisrael and Randall: Technical advisersDale: Author and photographer

One optional page follows>>>>>>>>>>>>>


This page is totally optional and has nothing to dowith wheel bearings: But while I had thingsapart........might as well----------------

My wheel hub was really nasty looking and had a lotof surface rust. Plus the lug studs were so filled withcrud it was difficult to remove or install the lug nuts. Iused a paint brush to apply rust remover to thesurface of the wheel hub. The I applied clean water towash it off. I used several cycles of this.

Then I used a thread die and cleaned up the four (4)studs. Next I wired brushed the hub surface with arotary drill wheel to get down to clean metal. Then Iwashed it with xylol

I masked the threads and hub opening with hightemperature tape. Then I powder coated the outersurface of the wheel hub with gun barrel black. Itcame out looking much better than before.

I hope this “HOW TO “ essay might behelpful to other non-mechanic oriented TR6owners. Dale Aug 2007


wheel bearings final

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