Replaced rear wheel bearings 87 Eagle.

[JayRamb]

Last week, while I was away and out of town, my friend/mechanic took on the job of replacing the 87 Eagle Wagon's rear bearings. If you have a HUM from the back end while driving and it gets progressively worse, you need to have someone look into your rear end bearings/hubs. My hubs were good and didn't need replacement, however the bearings were a different story. The left side had the worse HUM/DRONE sound than ever. That bearing was dry. The driver's side was the worst of the two. The bearing was rubbing into the race. There were metal shards and the bearing was VERY dry. The cost for the rear bearings was only $425 w/parts and labor. I also had him tear in to the front passenger bearing. That too was dry. Boot was replaced as well as the upper ball joint.  Total all in all was $629. Drives and sounds like a new car!

[Whuntmore]

That's great.  I bet it does drive awesome

[LaGuardia]

Ugh ! That's pretty much money... Glad you had it fixed before major damage occurred, anyway.

May I suggest just one thing ? Unless you are really really sure of the shop that made the job, take your time to have the central big nut's on both sides torque double checked according to the TSM specs.

Ask me how I know...

[JayRamb]

Do I dare ask?

[LaGuardia]

Well... it seems that an overtorqued axle nut could bring to this:

http://forums.amceaglenest.com/index.php?topic=22246.0

It happened to me...  Don't want to scare you, just my advice...

[shanebo]

Bearings are no joke!! I need to look at mine in the rear as well before I put it back on the road. While 600.00 isnt chump change its do-able. I was guestimating the job to be around a grand so that actually pretty encouraging news

[philotomy]

I had mine done back in 2008 and my receipt reads: 1 BCA A6 left rear axle bearing 10.67,tax .64 ,labor 1 1/2 hrs: $82.50,also he checked the other side and retorqued the axle nuts;
  total:93.81
 I thought the axle itself was gonna "walk out" on me ,heard a loud bang too,just the bearing went the hub/race was still good though

[A-A EAGLE]

Today I greased my rear bearings. As I did not had a puller to remove the hub I took the whole assembly of the rear axle. I greased the bearings and installed a grease nipple between the oil seal and bearing. Now I can grease the bearings any time I want...

Anjo
Holland

[JayRamb]

Today I greased my rear bearings. As I did not had a puller to remove the hub I took the whole assembly of the rear axle. I greased the bearings and installed a grease nipple between the oil seal and bearing. Now I can grease the bearings any time I want...

Anjo
Holland

NICE...didn't know that was possible

[shanebo]

How did you do that Anjo? I would love to insatll a grease fitting!! That would make things alot easier.

[A-A EAGLE]

Shanebo,

Remove the wheel, brake drum, brakeshoes an brake line. Undo the four bolts that hold the backingplate.

As the bearing slides into the axle (tight fit) you have to tap the whole assembly out. I made a piece of steel 1 ft or so, which hooks on the back of the hub and welded a plate on it on the other side so I could gently tap the whole assembly (out) off the axle.

What you will see then is that there is space between the inner oil seal and the bearing. That is where you can drill a hole in the axle housing and put a grease nipple in. Be care full not to drill into the oil seal (which I did offcourse). Take the metal pieces out as the will ruin your bearings (this is why you have to take the whole assembly off, otherwise you can not clean the axle from metal pieces).

Grease the bearing as far as you can, be carefull that there is no dirt falling from the backingplate into the freshly smeared bearing..... Then install the four bolts and tighten them evenly (turn by turn crosswise) to press the bearing nicely into the axle. Further installation is the same as removal. Take the air out of the brakelines!

It takes a bit more than an our or so to fix each side depending on how handy you are wich installing the brakes (allways a struggle for me).

BTW, the idea of installing a grease nipple is not my idea, I saw this on the Nest some where on a picture, but I think this the first description how to fix this. Maybe something for the Eaglepedia?


Anjo
Holland

[shanebo]

thankyou anjo!!

[maximus7001]

Today I greased my rear bearings. As I did not had a puller to remove the hub I took the whole assembly of the rear axle. I greased the bearings and installed a grease nipple between the oil seal and bearing. Now I can grease the bearings any time I want...

Anjo
Holland

NICE...didn't know that was possible

Mine had the grease fittings when I got it.