Wheel bearing replacement question

[Jeff Discos]

Front left wheel bearing, 97 D1. Heard slight clicking noises some time ago, only when wheel is at or near full lock. Recently the noise has become much worse. I believe it is the wheel bearing. It's possible the CV is going bad too, right?

I have the bearing kit and was going to replace it today, but the Haynes manual says I may need a press to remove the bearings from the hub. Are the bearings usually tough to remove? I have everything necessary to do the job with the possibility of an arbor press. I could go find one tomorrow if necessary, but don't really feel like it until I get the word it will most likely be required.

Endfloat is easy to do with the proper dial indicator, right? Sounds easy enough.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Jeff Discos]

Yeah, so...

hub is off vehicle. Hub and disc brake will not separate. Is the separation of the hub and disc usually difficult? Any tricks to separating them? All bolts are removed, yes.

Bearings look fine, hmmm. Not good. I expect this leaves only the CV joint to be faulty. That's really not good, because I have to put it back together by tomorrow, and don't know of any parts sources where I am for rovers.

Thanks for the replies, again... lol

 

[Jeff Discos]

Okay, so because of all the replies :flipoff: I'm here for some more self-punishment.

I replaced the front left cv joint with a HD one from GBR today. Did it at a friend's house (I have no garage). On the way home, which is about 50 miles, I heard a high pitched whine coming from somewhere around that area possibly. It only happened for about 10 seconds maybe, so it didn't startle me that much, being as it is a land rover and well, you know about hearing strange sounds...you begin to enjoy them. If I ever had hypochondria for my vehicle, it went away a while ago a few months after owning the vehicle.

So. I swapped the cv joint. Did it all per the directions via here/dweb/pirate/rave cd/haynes manual. Cleaned out all the grease I could in the swivel pin housing. Inserted the cv joint. Torqued all bolts to spec. Added swivel pin grease. Yes, I used the LR genuine one-shot swivel pin grease (on another note, PT on pirate said not to use that crap, but it was all I had, and I couldn't find anybody to give advice on an alternative. For additional brownie points, what should I replace it with next time?). Used my handy dial test indicator to set the endfloat to have .010" play. It actually came out to .008" after I torqued the locknut to spec. Figured that was fine, very close anyway. Everything has threadlocker on it that is supposed to, as well.

Also, filled up the diff with 80-90w gear oil. It was low.

So to sum up, a few questions.

1. Is .008" endfloat gonna be fine?
2. What swivel pin grease do you all use when doing maintenance?
3. Why is there no swivel pin drain plug, OR swivel pin oil level check plug in my swivel pin housings?
4. High pitched whine. Wheel bearings possibly too tight? I don't think so, because the hub was quite easy to move the .008".

'97 DI, built in 12/96.

Thanks yet again.

 

[joey]

Sorry, I didn't see your post earlier.... (had a rough last few days with work).

I am pretty sure my '97 has a swivel pin drain plug...

High pitched whine could be either too tight, or possible contamination of the bearings.

Here is a good site for the swivel area of the Disco.

http://www.sf.hiof.no/~frodehaa/axle.htm#rebuild swivelhousing

 

[Discosid]

I don’t believe there is no fill or drain plug on your year of Rover. Take another look. Small box head screw in on the top and small 6 sided to drain on the bottom of the hub.
If you are facing the road from the outside IE Lug nut facing you the fill screw is at about 10 o’clock and the drain at 7. I can only think that they have been damaged or broken off.

For the swivel housing I use good 80-90 Synthetic oil (Amsoil, Mobil 1, etc)
I some time add 25% Lucas oil to the mix. I’ve always looked at the grease as a cheap fix if the swivel seals leak. I personally would rather see the CV sitting 2/3 deep in a bath of oil.

 

[Jeff Discos]

I think I'll take a picture of the swivel housing sometime soon, and post it. I can't imagine there not being a oil level check plug or drain plug either. Maybe one of you can point it out to me. I could hardly imagine that I've missed it, though.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

[Jeff Discos]

Here's the pic. See anything I don't?

 

[Jeff Discos]

*cough* *cough*

 

[mkronmal]

Odd, perhaps you have an abundance of caked mud covering things...