| slymer |
Sep 13, 2009 01:07 PM |
You may need more than just a wheel bearing. When I took mine to the shop and it was just humming at the time, I had an etched axle (replaced that bearing with a spacer bearing so it would ride on a fresh part of the axle - probably what you'll need), new carriage bearings, a new pinion bearing, and since everything was apart, we replaced the other wheel bearing just for good measure. What I thought was a single bearing turned out to be almost all of the bearings in the rear axle. You'll definitely want to get it fixed, but you'll probably need to check the rest of it to make sure you won't be ripping it apart again in 3 months. As far as fixing it goes, you'll need to be able to get the car off the ground and be able to take the axle apart (drive shaft removed to get at the pinion stuff, wheels off and drums/disks removed to get at the axles, differential cover off to get at the C-clips that hold the axle shafts so they can be pulled out to be able to replace the bearings, etc). You will also need a few special tools to make sure that the pinion and ring are set right when everything is put back together if you need to replace the carriage bearings too. You'll also need a spacer kit (come with the carriage bearing set usually unless you buy bearings separately - the spacers are hard to find by themselves). Unless you really have all the tools for this, I would suggest taking it to a reputable shop that will give you at least a 12 month/12,000 mile guarantee and let them fix it.
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