[sonza68]

My right rear wheel bearing is starting to show early signs of failure (slight noise which goes away when turning left and slightly more play than the left side). I've seen a lot of stuff regarding the fronts, but no mention of the rears. Has anyone replaced a rear one yet? I have the Chiltons manual and the Ford CD, but I'm looking for any tips or tricks to make the job as easy as possible.

 

[HangTime]

Just replaced both of mine two weeks ago. (I'm at 130K miles)

A couple of things...
- You will need to disassemble your rear brakes (calipers and disks)
- My wheel caps were rusted on so I had to destroy them by using a screwdriver to chisel them open (like you would do with a tin can) Try to pry them off if you can. I am planning on replacing them in order to save the threads on the spindle from rusting. ($5 each at dealer)
- I had a slide hammer handy in order to pull one of the hubs off the spindle. They were rusted on pretty bad on mine. One of the hubs was destroyed in the process of pulling.
- Re-used the original nuts. They are compression nuts (same type as on the fron driveshafts) but they came off no problem so I just reused them. You might want to have one handy in case you wreck the old nuts. (They range from $6 to $8 each at the dealer)
- 32mm axle nut socket
- Use the socket to tap the new hub in if required. Don't beat too hard on it though...
- Chiltons suggests torquing them down to 170 lb-ft (if I remember correctly)

Noticeably less noise now when I'm cruising at 40 mph. I used to have some kind of cyclic harmonic grinding going on from back ther that seemed to be speed related.

The new hubs also seems to have improved my "shimmy" under braking condition. Although, I can't say for sure if it was the hub itself that was the problem or the fact that I relubed my rear brake pins in the process of doing the hub.

Good luck with your fix!

 

[sonza68]

Sweet, that's what I was looking for.

 

[Leo]

Hey Great number on Car!

 

[sonza68]

I thought you'd like that. Although I don't think mine's quite as quick as yours.

 

[Leo]

If you want to make yours faster let me know I am selling alot of Cougar race and street parts.