67 Front Wheel Bearings-how difficult

[Gerard F.]

Now that I have the two rear trailing arms replaced with new, thought I'd now address the front wheel bearings, at least clean and repack these original 67 front bearings.

How difficult is it to change the front wheel bearings? Do you need any special tools? Any tips.

[Dick W.]

Re: 67 Front Wheel Bearings-how difficult

Front wheel bearings are very straight forward. Just remove the hubcap, wheel, caliper, the grease cap, cotter pin, nut, and voila! you have the hub ready to remove the hub. No presses needed, just a new seal, solvent to wash the old bearings in, grease to pack the bearings and reassemble.

[Joe L.]

Re: 67 Front Wheel Bearings-how difficult

Now that I have the two rear trailing arms replaced with new, thought I'd now address the front wheel bearings, at least clean and repack these original 67 front bearings.

How difficult is it to change the front wheel bearings? Do you need any special tools? Any tips.

Jerry-----


Like Dick said, very straight-forward and really quite easy to do. A few tips:

1) If the bearings have very high mileage on them, I would consider just replacing them. My originals were in apparently good shape at 200,000 miles but I replaced them, anyway. However, I cleaned and repacked them frequently over the years;

2) If you use new bearings, I would use Timken. The bearings may not be of US manufacture, though. Timken has plants in other countries, most notably South America. Wherever they come from, they'll be top-notch Timken quality, though. GM bearings for your application are discontinued for the outer bearing, but available for the inner bearing. The inner bearing is GM #457196. However, I think you'll also find this to be a foreign-manufactured bearing. If it happens to be Japan, you're in luck since Japanese bearings are the finest in the world. Otherwise, who knows? It MIGHT even be a Timken bearing (and will be so identified on the inner race) in which case all is well, too, regardless of where it's manufactured;

3) Use a HIGH QUALITY, HIGH TEMPERATURE grease. I like Valvoline full synthetic. Or, you can also use GM #1051344;

4) Make sure you adjust the wheel bearings per the instructions in the GM Service Manual. You do not want any pre-load on these bearings and using the specified procedure will ensure that you don't end up with any. You will end up with end play in the range of .001" to .008" if you use the procedure. It's not possible to pre-determine just where in that range you'll end up unless you get into fancy things like shimming or surface grinding the washer between the nut and the bearing. I don't recommend either action. Just follow the procedure.

[Joe C.]

Re: 67 Front Wheel Bearings-how difficult

Now that I have the two rear trailing arms replaced with new, thought I'd now address the front wheel bearings, at least clean and repack these original 67 front bearings.

How difficult is it to change the front wheel bearings? Do you need any special tools? Any tips.

You're talking about both inners and outers, right?
It's a good idea to use a brass drift to remove/reinstall the races.
Be very careful when installing the new inner bearing seal. It's better if you can find a very large socket slightly smaller than the seal's diameter to tap in the new one. I like to apply Loctite (or equivalent) sleeve sealant around the periphery of the new seal (if it doesn't already have sealant applied). I was taught to spin the drum (rotor) while tightening the bearing nut with a pump pliers until resistance is felt in the drum, then back off to the next castellation, and insert the pin.