No Axle nut? Changing Bearing...
 

Hey all, Wanted to pick the collective brain as I know this is the site to be as Im a super long time lurker and first time poster.

I have a 98 chevy s10 blazer LS RWD. I have had a noise coming from the passenger side front tire area for about a month, after much interweb searching, have determined it to be the hub bearing combo. Found on this site that if I turn left the noise always comes and if I turn right it goes away, if i drive straight it only makes a grinding squeal if i hit a bump in the road. Anyways, all videos on the net say to remove axle nut you need a 35 mm socket... I took my tire off today and low and behold...no nut. just a small metal cap covering a hole where i assume there would be threads that an axle nut would screw into. Is this just a monday morning car that they decided to get out the door before the inspector had his coffee? or is this something normal? as far as I can tell there is no axle at all, just a flatish looking frame that connects the two front tires at the lower ball joints.

On a second note, would a front hub wheel assembly work if there is no axle nut to screw on? And is national a good brand? thanks in advance... im going to look to see how to post pics and upload for all to see,.

The pic of the problem area?

Being a 2wd, you will not find an axle nut. That is only for the 4wd trucks given that they have a drive axle protruding through the bearing assembly. All you have to do is remove the brake caliper bracket, rotor, 3 bolts, and then the bearing assembly.

My hub is this same design and I am trying to repack my bearings, but I am having difficulty getting my rotor off. Are there any tips to removing a rotor that is stuck?

I can see that all the lug bolts on the hub are pinned against one side of the holes in the rotor. I believe this may be what is binding the rotor so tight to the hub. Suggestions on breaking this free?

BFH and pb blaster. It'll come...

Thank you for the suggestion, I did get it off finally by removing the hub with rotor still attached and giving it a wack with a sledge while it was supported on the ground.

The same thing happened to me, The rotor was fused to the hub. I beat it with a sledge, whole can of pb blaster, blowtourch, nothing worked. What I did was like the above reply, took it off with the hub, tho when I looked at it, the whole back side of the rotor was pitted. I just ended up replacing the hub and rotor.
Tho it did not fix the sound coming out of the same wheel??? Now im lost and dont have any idea what it could be.