Wheel bearing upgrade?
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Joined: Jul 2005
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From: West Virginia
I think a lot of the problems with bearing failures is the install. I had my local Honda dealer do my first rear bearing swap and it went bad within a year of heavy track use (they pitched the "replace the hub too" recommendation). I've swapped the bearings on all four of the wheels myself now and haven't had another failure since. There's a crap-load of force used in removing and inserting the bearings and it's easy to screw it up if you don't take your time and get everything set correctly on the hydraulic press.
Honda may have been responsible for spreading the word on replacing the hub when replacing the bearing. It's a pain to remove the inner bearing race from the hub and they make an additional parts sale when you replace it too. I have to admit that I've replaced all my hubs though. The thought of having to redo it because I skimped on a $100 part was too much, but I do plan to carefully cut off the inner bearing race and reuse my next hub.
Honda may have been responsible for spreading the word on replacing the hub when replacing the bearing. It's a pain to remove the inner bearing race from the hub and they make an additional parts sale when you replace it too. I have to admit that I've replaced all my hubs though. The thought of having to redo it because I skimped on a $100 part was too much, but I do plan to carefully cut off the inner bearing race and reuse my next hub.
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Joined: Jul 2009
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No. That is a retaining C clip that holds the bearing into the knuckle. If you look at a wheel bearing, there is an outer race which is what would contact the knuckle and an inner race which is what would contact the hub. The inner race consists of two parts. One of them is retained by a metal seal while the other is retained by a rubber seal. The rubber seal obviously is not strong enough to support pressing the hub out of the bearing so the race separates from the rest of the bearing assembly and stays on the hub.
http://en.wikipedia....e_%28bearing%29
So, using the diagram, half of the inner part of #36 stays on #2. It seats right up against the actual hub IE where the wheel studs press into so it is a PITA to remove. A dremel is the best tool I have found for it. You can cut most of the way with a dremel and then use a wedge and a hammer to crack the remaining metal.
http://en.wikipedia....e_%28bearing%29
So, using the diagram, half of the inner part of #36 stays on #2. It seats right up against the actual hub IE where the wheel studs press into so it is a PITA to remove. A dremel is the best tool I have found for it. You can cut most of the way with a dremel and then use a wedge and a hammer to crack the remaining metal.
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