So I finally got around to replacing my passenger side front hub that's been on the way downhill for the last few months. Figured it'd be a few hours tops....

First thing I find out is that my 4wd decided to stop engaging, so my plan to lock it in to 4x4 and leave the driver side tire on the ground to lock the axle went right out the window.

Then I spent a few hours driving all over town to track down a 36mm socket for the axle nut. Finally found one just to discover that my axle nut is smaller than 36mm. Because of the sloppy fit, I lost all usefulness with my impact wrench. So out comes my 6 foot cheater bar. Then I had to rig up a way to lock the axle while taking off the nut. Quite a feat of redneck engineering.

Then I couldn't get the axle to break free from the hub. Ran down to Advance Auto to borrow a hub puller. Got that home just to find out it only went up to a 4.5" bolt pattern. So had to run back to Advance Auto and swap it out for a gear puller. More redneck engineering followed and I finally managed to break the hub free from the axle.

Next came breaking the hub free from the steering knuckle. Took a ton of effort with my air chisel, but it finally freed up. Of course the chisel managed to mangle my brake dust shield. Beat that sucker back in to shape and finally managed to put everything back together. Rides like a dream.

Now, of course I have to troubleshoot the 4x4....

 

welcome to my world...

 

What were some of the symptoms of your hub going bad? My pass hub sounds like a caliper sticking on occasion, slight rubbing, bearing seems ok, not loose, but almost sounds like the inner bearing is rubbing, its my understanding there is a bearing in the axle shaft on the pass side? Sound only goes away at about 5mph, its intermittant. And yes, i feel your pain due to the lack of easiness in anything nowadays.

 

I had the usual symptoms for a bad bearing. Had a cyclical rubbing/whining sound that sped up as the truck went faster. Got worse when I turned left. Didn't have any noticeable play in the bearing when I spun the tire.

Got the old one off and I could feel how bad it was when I spun it by hand.

 

I have this issue everytime I work on something at the shop-minus the tool issue. I have plenty of tools on site.

 

Many repairs go this way so do not feel alone! I have been lucky on my K5 so far. Everything has gone exactly to plan with no real major hiccups.

I did, however, meet a very disturbing problem while replacing my in wall A/C unit this weekend..! I cannot stand hack jobs! I had to frame in the hole in the wall since the previous owner just cut a hole and mounted the air conditioner with LOTS of liquid nails!!

 

Atleast you know the meaning of everything you just said!

 

Next time leave the brake caliper and rotor on. Take a large screwdriver and slip it into one of the slots of the rotor in the opening of the caliper. Proceed to remove axle nut. Did this many times on my FWD car.

 

i know what you mean. It took me 8 hours to replace a ball joint last weekend. Something i though would only take an hour or two

 

Your hammer must have been too small!!! What were you replacing the balljoint on? Were they factory balljoints or bolted in? It took me about 15 hours altogether a few weeks back to replace all my balljoints, tie rods, pitman & idler arms, and the upper control arm bushings. Not a great time I am sure many can do it a lot faster but it was in my back yard and the first time doing them, so I was happy with the money I saved - versus the time it took!