[s-cars] Front Wheel bearing cost

[Igor Kessel]

serge wrote:

> I called Blau to see if they offered bearing/tool kit, the guy said they
> looked into it and decided against it. He volunteered to me that Harbor
> Freight tools had a puller/installer tool for the front wheel bearings that
> came with a wide range of adapters.
> 
> I searched and found for $77.99
> http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=45210
> 
> That is as far as I got, if anyone has direct experience with this tool set
> please chime in.
> 

Serge,
this kit is similar to the $400 one that Mark Pollan had kindly lent me 
to do this job back in December. However I have three major concerns 
about this particular inexpensive tool:

1. it is missing the horseshoe shaped plate which you insert behind the 
hub and against which you butt up the two 14mm bolts in order to pull 
the hub out from the inner racer.
2. the long 14mm bolts themselves are missing.
3. if this kit is made from the inferior imported steel it is not likely 
to withstand the tremendous pressure to which I subjected Mark's 
American-made kit when I was replacing the RF bearing since obviously 
the RF strut housing diameter in my car was a mill or two undersized. 
Suffice to say that I broke a Craftsman 1/2" breaker bar in the process 
and had to buy a Craftsman 3/4" breaker bar and a big ass socket to 
finish the job.

-- 
Igor Kessel
two turbo quattros in the stable,
the third one is in the works