I have my rototrs off from the strut mount repoair job and its just about time to start putting things back together. I guess its a good idea to repack the bearing while everything is out. I have no clue of what to do. Are there any guides with pictures out there? I found some generic how tos, but they aren't very descriptive and I feel that this is something fairly important and if i mess up, very bad things will happen LOL


Heres what I think I have correct

Take the dust cap off (done)
Take the cotter pin, nut and washer off (done)
Take bearing out ?
clean everything
repack bearing
apply a light coating inside where the bearing goes (i don't know what this is called)
plop bearing in
stick the whole assembly back on the steering knuckle

reinstall washer and nut.....
tighten nut by hand and then a bit more with a wrench
spin rotor a bit
back off the nut and tighten to hand tight
install cotter pin
lightly tap dustcap in

Ok, i'm lost in the area of repacking the bearing itself and how to tell if everything is tight or loose enough when putting the rotor back on. And what is this seal or gasket on the rotor guards called? I assume I need new ones, but don't know what to ask for.

Sorry if I rambled a bit, but I want to do this right, and I like to have a step by step guide in my head before I attempt something

 

You will need a Wheel seal. This is the seal that goes into the back of the rotor, holding the inner bearing in.

Look very closely at the bearings after you clean them. Look for pits or excessive wear on the rolling "pins" also look at the cage and make sure there is no wear on it.

If there is pits or excessive wear, replace inner and outer bearing and the race that comes with it.

To pack the bearing...
Place a big glob of wheel bearing grease (for disk brakes) in your palm. grab the bearing in your other hand. Holding the wider end down, push the bearing into the edge of the grease. The grease should be forced up between the "pins and cage." You will begin seeing the grease coming out the top. Rotate the bearing until you have the grease all the way around.

Here is some good infoAutoZone

 

I'm really confused now.. I got the repacking part down.

My bearings litterally fell out when I took the rotor off, I also need to take out the wheel seal? This is inside the rotor?

The gasket I can't identify goes on the back of something.. Ahh geez.... I'm really having a time with this. It goes on those guards that are behind the rotor. I think they seal the steering knuckle to the guards. It doesn't look like the pic at autozone.

What solvent should I use? My dad said gasoline, and I don't think thats a good idea. Maybe just a towel and some work?

 

A grease seal should have been on the rear of the rotor, which should've been holding the inner (larger) bearing to the rotor. Yes, the outer wheel bearing will fall right out on you (don't drop it)! Bang it (edit 7/16, by "it", I mean "the grease seal") out with a screwdriver and hmmer; lay the rotor so the outer bearing faces upward. I usually aim the screwdriver so it rests across the inner bearing itself; the grease seal isn't in there hard (unless it rusted) so it doesn't take much pounding to make it pop out.

The seal that I think you're describing goes between the spindle and the dust shield; you can re-use that one. It's more to prevent a metal-on-metal squeak/creak noise then to actually seal anything off. If you tore either of them (or if you really want to put a new one on), you could probably cut your own new one from a $2.00 flat sheet of thin black gasket material. I just rebuilt my +250,000 mile suspension and my spindle-to-dust-shield gaskets were okay; I re-used them.

Ask - no, tell - the parts store that you need two grease seals for the front wheel bearings. They're about $1.50/each. After you repack the rear wheel bearing, drop it into the back of the rotor, and carefully tap the new seal in ("closed" end of metal facing outwards, "U-shaped" end of metal facing inwards) to the end of the rotor with a hammer. It's a pain to start because if it's at a slight angle, it won't go in (don't force it), you gotta tap evenly around it's diameter to make it seat.

When done, the metal ring of the seal should be flush (or sunken in a very tiny bit) with the edge of the rotor. Oh, by edge of the rotor, I mean the outside of that area where you just tapped the seal into.

Hope that helps... remember to turn the wheel forward as you tighten the spindle nut to 12 ft/lbs. This helps remove any burrs from the bearing. I guess you could turn the rotor forwards after you torque the spindle nut, but that won't do much of anything. But yes, then you back off the nut, tighten it hand tight, and try to install the cotter pin. If the cotter pin won't line up with the hole in the spindle, LOOSEN the spindle nut to make it line up. You don't want to tighten the nut.

I use Kerosene and a small parts brush to clean the bearings. When I'm done, I wipe the outside over and over and over and over again until the paper towel's dry, then I re-pack them. (I use valvoline synthetic grease) Gasoline might burn your hands... be careful!

 

Ok, thanks a bunch! All of this is easier to do than describe. I got new wheel seals, and after taking everything apart, saw how simple it all really is/was. I used gasoline and it cleaned everything up really well. I finished the rotots off with soem brake cleaner. I now have the bearings repacked, the wheel seals in, and the bearings back in. Now I just need to finish up the strut mounts and I'll have everything back in.

I don't have a torque wrench, so I hope I can guess enough to be right LOL

The wheel seals seemed pretty easy, I used a piece of wood that covered the entire seal and tapped it. The seals went right in. Also, the dust cover seals are OK, I was confusing them with the wheel seals (which I didn't know the location of).

The car has 291,000ish miles on it and it really looks like the bearings have been replaced at soem time. They look just about brand new. I'll have to take a look at the records I have and see when they were last serviced.