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Posted by: Rand Oct 28 2007, 08:15 PM

I know there are some of you out there who have never checked your wheel bearings. I recommend doing it.

I figured it was time to check mine. So, I jacked up a front corner to get a wheel off the ground. Grabbed the wheel and rocked it back and forth to feel for any slop.

Drivers side good. Tried passenger side.... HOLY COW! WAY loose! Tried tightening up the nut a bit to see of the slack came out... No! Something's wrong.

Removed the wheel. Removed the caliper. (A small rubber cork works perfect for plugging the line BTW.) Wow, that hub/disk was sloppy! Took it apart and found... Outer bearing toasted! Retainer shot and loose bearings inside! Outsch. The race on the bad bearing was also badly pitted.

The inner race and bearings were fine, but my FLAPS had them all in stock and cheap - so I went ahead and replaced them all. My son enjoyed helping pack the grease and working the brake pedal at bleeding time.

It's a cheap and easy job, so you might want to check yours out.

Posted by: scruz914 Oct 30 2007, 12:03 AM

Me too. Two weeks ago. I had a humming noise on the freeway. Louder when I changed lanes. Almost the same issue as you. Outer passenger side bearing was shot. No scoring of the race though. I ordered mine from Pelican because I could not find them in stock locally. Pretty easy to knock out the old races and put the new ones in. I left mine in the freezer over night but they didn't shrink as much as I expected. Light tapping around and around using a wood block worked. I also took some time to inspect my tie rod ends which also need replacing soon.

-Jeff

Posted by: village idiot Oct 30 2007, 12:44 AM

I did all four corners this past weekend. Fronts were easy. Rears a little bit more difficult, but not too bad still. Also did the front ball joints and again they were pretty easy.
Now it's off to alignment:D

Posted by: Blood red 914-6gt Oct 30 2007, 12:45 AM

Wow Rand... Glad you caught that one.

Yeah guys. You need to check those things every 3000 miles at least.

Posted by: Aaron Cox Oct 30 2007, 12:57 AM

i re-packed my 911 hubs up front when i did the brake swap this weekend....

Posted by: lotus_65 Oct 30 2007, 07:06 AM

i did my fronts a couple weeks ago, not too bad.

of course i came up with a trick...

i wanted to make absolutly sure the bearings where fully packed, so i threw them in a ziplock half full of new grease and let my 6-year old daughter squish it for 10 minutes.

she had fun, and i did less work!

Posted by: URY914 Oct 30 2007, 07:53 AM

When I was in high school and young and stupid (no comments please) I had a VW Bug and one day I get this squeeling noise from the right front wheel. I take it a part (for the first time) and find the bearing race completely broken up, all the rollers were loose and two of them were welded together at 90 degrees to each other. I still have them.

Posted by: 1bad914 Oct 30 2007, 08:17 AM

Fronts are perfect, the rt rear is humming pretty bad. Are they that difficult?

Posted by: porsche913b_sp Oct 30 2007, 08:25 AM

Sorry if this is a hi-jack. How do you take the dust cap/cover off to access. I have strut off the car and cant get a good grip to take it off. I tried searching in the forum and looked over 29 pages. Maybe I am blind.

Thanks.

Posted by: Rand Oct 30 2007, 12:24 PM

I used a prybar. After the wheel is off, slip the tip under the edge of the cap lip, pry until it moves, and work your way around.