If that were the case; I'd stop working 8 hours a day in this hell hole 5 days a week.

 

You'll appreciate your job more after you get that import torn apart and re-assembled. Trust me.

 

It's only money till you dont have that hell hole 8 hours a day 5 days a week to make more of it.

 

I think I'm getting it. I managed to get the nuts off the three connecting points for the knuckle. I can't seem to get things separated. I think I'll have to get a pickle fork from the parts store.

 

Got the steering knuckle off. I guess now I need to find a place to do the bearing for me.

 

Just wanted to thank you for the pics. Very cool. I'm thinking of doing this same thing to my wife's old Taurus just to learn about it. (Crazy maybe, but oh well.) Now I'll know what to look for.

 

Any decent machine shop can press the old out and the new in for you.

 

You have waaaay to much time on your hands....

If your that board, come over here, I have alot of stuff that you can learn on.

 

So I checked two machine shops; no bearing press. I finally found a guy here in town that has one at his house. I plan to go there tonight.

So at lunch today; I had to take the 20-minute drive back home to get the parts. Took me 20 minutes to get to Mom's house to borrow her car so basically; my lunch hour was gone. When I get home, the girlfriend is there. She's sick; I thought she was at work. So I end up spending 10 minutes there with her. Then I have to run to the Park-n-ride cause I had remembered the part was actually in my truck at the bus place. I go there; throw the part in the trunk and get back to work 20 minutes late. Guess what; I forgot the new bearings on the bench seat of the truck.

So do I waste another 40 minutes after work to go get the $60 part; or do I buy a new one locally, and return the other one at my convenience to the parts store by my house?

This whole thing is a nightmare.

 

Long drive, but you should take it to Havana Machine if they're still open.

 

I think the tarass hubs bolt in. So you won't need the press. You will need a little more coin though. As hub assemblies run 80 bucks and up, we have sold some that were 300 +.

Most of the sealed bearings like in his honda and some of the others are maybe 20-60 bucks.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I'm surprised you couldn't buy a complete hub/bearing assembly ready to install for that Civic.

 

I'm sure I could. But today I have to go drop my F150 off at a shop and spend $700 or so to repair the cracked frame.

It took me two hours and a Harbor Freight shop press to get-r-done. It was quite the pain in the butt. I'll post more info and some photos, for anyone that cares, come Monday.

 

Don't try this at home. I spent another 8 hours on this project over the weekend. The worst part...... trying to tighten nuts on a ball joint to 80 ft/lbs. Ball joints move you know? Here are my final notes.

Manual Shop Press.
Hardest Part: Getting steering knuckle to sit exactly balanced/flat whatever. If it's not exact, or very close, the bearing tries to press in crooked. What a pain.
http://www.northerntool.com/images/p...s/14590_lg.jpg

Here's the old bearing. It is missing a portion that covers the ball bearings. That part didn't press out but rather remained pressed to the wheel flange.
We had to cut it off with an angle grinder; careful not to damage the flange.


Here's the new bearing. As you can see in this; the inside is a two-piece design as noted above. I had a similar problem when trying to press in the new bearing...half of the two pieces came out the other side when I pressed it in. Talk about a poor design.


Here's a close-up of the bearing. I highlighted in yellow the axle flange (From yellow inwards). Not only is the bearing pressed into the steering knuckle, but also the axle flange is pressed inside the bearing.


Axle flange from the front
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1...IMG_0913-1.jpg

With the steering knuckle removed.


NEVER open the axle boot. BAD idea.
I had to use a pickle fork, as mentioned, to remove the steering knuckle. This process damages the ball joint boots in all three places. Upper ball joint, lower ball joint, and steering arm thingie. If I leave it as it is now; I think the ball joints will fatigue due to lack of grease sooner rather than later.

Energy Suspension does make a ball joint boot that you can get from local parts stores. I'm not yet certain this is the answer but it only runs $7