Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

A guide to changing the Front Wheel Bearings.
If you have read the guide to Changing Your KingPin Bearings then this will be
familiar to you. Off-roading is hard on the front axle and the wheel bearings
seem to be prone to wearing.
So what are the symptoms of worn wheel bearings:
1. Steering Shimmy
2. Oil/Grease leaking from Swivel Joint
3. Vertical and Horizontal play in the front wheel (with the car jacked up
grip the wheel left and right and rock it, there will be movement of
they are worn)
4. Grating/grinding as you rotate a jacked up wheel
This job has the reputation of being difficult, I must have been very lucky as it
was easier than I had been warned you may not be so lucky. So how do you
change them.
PLEASE NOTE YOU WILL NEED A SPECIAL TOOL TO REMOVE THE HUB NUT
First of all secure the car, release the wheel nuts and jack up the car and
remove the road wheel. This then reveals the brake caliper, this is the
passenger side (nearside) caliper (UK).

Using a 12mm spanner, release the front caliper bolt (the left is the front of
the car in this picture) and loosen the same bolt on the rear of the caliper.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

The caliper then opens up using the rear bolt as a hinge.

The pads are retained by small spring clips, a simple pull on the pads
(horizontally away from the disk) should remove them (or gently prise out the
pads with a small screwdriver - do not remove the spring clips)

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

The caliper is held on with two bolts at the rear (see below). Release the bolts
and tie the caliper to the spring to keep it out of the way.

Now the front brake disc can be removed. If you are lucky it will simply pull
off but if you have problems then there are two M8 holes in the disk hub.
Simply run two bolts into these holes and the disk will push off the hub. The
picture below shows a bolt being used to push the disk off the hub.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

My disk appeared to be ok on the visible side but the rear showed some bad
wear so I will change them as part of this job.

Now the Freewheeling Hub needs to be removed. Suzuki have used Torx bolts
to secure these so you will require an E10 socket to remove the bolts.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

With the hub removed the driveshaft is exposed. The driveshaft is retained
with a circlip so use a pair of circlip pliers to remove it. Behind the circlip is a
rectangular washer that should also be removed. Note that I have also
marked with white paint the orientation of the freewheeling hub, this is not
strictly needed.

Now for the special tool. The hub is held on by a special round nut that
requires a special tool to release it. The outside of the nut is a smooth
polished ring which is part of the vacuum seal so it must not be damaged
otherwise you will need a new nut.

In the centre of the nut, the edge is bent over into a slot to help secure it, the
slot can be seen in the above photo in the 2 oclock position, use a blade to
bend the edge back into line.
The picture below shows the special tool.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

Make sure that the tool and the nut are completely clean as the tool will not
fit. Make sure the tool is inserted into the nut correctly, you are really going
to have to swing on the nut to release it. I had to use a long breaker bar AND
a piece of scaffold tube.
With the nut removed the hub should be removeable, it might need a pull
with a slide hammer, mine just pulled off by hand.
The bearing is held in by a seal and a circlip.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

Prise out the seal and use a pair of long nose pliers to undo the clrclip.

Now comes the first bit that is supposed to be difficult. Suzuki say that the
bearing needs to be removed using a press. I decided to have a go myself.
Using an old piece of bearing and a steel pin I hammered out the bearing and
it only took two or three swift blows.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

The picture above shows the steel pin resting on the bearing before being hit.
Note the use of the brake disk to provide a holder for the hub allowing the
bearing to be driven out of the bottom.
I forgot to take pictures of the new bearing before it was inserted. It is a very
large and impressive bearing. I got mine from my local autofactors as a
complete kit part number VKBA3969. The kit comes with the bearing, oil
seal and circlip. Again, Suzuki says the new bearing needs to be pressed into
place. I decided to try a bit of school boy physics. I coated the bearing in
Copper Grease and then put it in the deep freeze overnight.
The hub was placed in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. So with an ice
cold bearing and a very hot hub I put the bearing in the hub, placed the old
bearing ring and the steel pin on top and tapped the bearing straight into
place. It took two gentle hits!. Again note the use of the brake disk to hold
the hub.
ALLOW THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY TO COOL BEFORE TOUCHING OR TURNING
THE BEARING ASSEMBLY.

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Guide to Changing the Front Wheel Bearings

Once it is cooled put grease into the ends of the bearing.
Then insert the new circlip and the oil seal. I found that the oil seal pressed in
ok by hand once coated in Copper Grease. The oil seal has a protruding lip,
this must be to the outside of the joint.
Grease the inside of the bearing and slide the hub back onto the driveshaft.
Grease the hub nut and tighten the nut using the special tool, torque it to
220NM or 160ft lbs ie. really tight!.
Use a punch to bend the inner lip of the nut to lock it in place.
Refit the hub thrust washer and circlip to the driveshaft.
Refit the Freewheeling hub, the bolts should be torqued to 35ft/lbs
Fit the disk and fit the caliper (Caliper bolts 61ft/lbs), disk pads and bolt the
caliper down in position (Caliper pin bolt 16/ft/lbs)
Re-fit the wheel and lower the vehicle.
Re-fit the wheel and lower the vehicle.

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