[urq] Front Wheel Bearing Shift

[Frank de Kat]

Thanks to all that replied to my post earlier in the month.

I think it was Stephen M  who mentioned the 'scoring of the inside of 
the hou8sing with an air chisel' was the solution to stop a wheel 
bearing from moving...

Anyway, I had the time to investigate the 'clunk' on  on the weekend.

With the strut out, It was still really hard to tell if the bearing 
was shifting by just pushing and pulling on the hub, but then, that 
probably was way too little force to move it anyway.

With no way to really test (and as the bearing didn't feel in the 
best shape anyway), I decided to just replace the bearing anyway, and 
see what was going on.


First clue that the bearing may have been  shifting was that I 
managed to easily hammer the bearing out of the housing. No press 
required!  (In a way, I wish it was always that easy..)


Next clue was the brown on the outside of the bearing, with some 
shiny spots. I'm thinking the brown was what was left of grease, and 
the shiny areas were where contact was, when shifting. I seem to 
recall reading somewhere that you are *Not* supposed to lube the 
wheel bearing when putting it in. And thoughts on that?


As attacking the housing with an air chisel to provide a tighter 
fit  seemed a bit dramatic, I instead attacked the inside of the 
strut housing with the center punch, creating a bunch of 'divots'. 
New bearing and old bearing measured to be the same diameter, so I 
didn't think just replacing the bearing was going to fix the problem.

Even with the center punch 'divots', Assembly of the bearing into the 
housing went surprisingly easy. (As a backup, I also used green 
'cylindrical' locktite, just to help out the bearing stay in place.


So far, no more clunking when backing out of the driveway, so I'm happy!

=Frank de Kat=