Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement

[Chadwick]

Originally Posted by zgn

Well the passenger side rear axle is finally off. I beat the living mess out of the spindle and it will need a bit of grinding to allow me to put the new axle nut on.
Removing this brings back a memory of when I had new tires put on at Firestone in Inverness, AL on HWY 280 about 6 years ago. Well they broke a wheel stud on this axle and they replaced it with another. Knowing what I know now they had to remove the axle to replace the stud. The next day I drove down to Flordia where my rearend, I thought, started makeing noise. When I got back I replaced the rearend and transmission with a new one, as 2nd and 5th were hard to shift into. Then I drove the car a few miles and back to the shop where it sat it idle for a few mins untill it just cut off. Well that was the last time my motor ran for the next 2.5 years. It had a bad oil injector and it scored up my rotors and I lost compression.

OK back to the Axle.
Question: when you remove the axle what are the chances of the original bearings going back into the axle and still working properly?

I have been driving this way to long with this roaring noise and now it is time to silence it.

They are designed to be replaced once removed. If you try to reuse them you will be doing it all again in a day. Real pain in the ass if you break a wheel stud.

Dan