I am getting ready to give this a whirl this weekend and want to make sure I have done all of my homework before I start. Just a few questions:

1. Assuming the bearing comes out of the knuckle without separating from the hub, will the bearing go back into the knuckle with both surfaces cleaned up, a little grease and some persuasion using a mallet/sledge and 2x4?

2. Assuming the bearing separates from the hub and gets stuck in the knuckle, what is the best method to work it out? Air hammer/chisel with some PB blaster? Bearing puller? Seems like this might be a good way to work the bearing out of the knuckle http://www.remanbrakes.com/pdfs/hond...torremoval.pdf

3. If I decide to replace the bearing and have it pressed on at a local shop all I would need to bring is the bearing, hub and rotor correct?

4. On a shop quote I got to perform this job they had down qty 2 of INNER AXLE SEAL, pn 710159. I looked into this and found manufacturers of either Timken or National Oil Seal. Is this part necessary when doing this job? If so where does it go? I see no mention of replacing this in any write-up I can find online regarding changing the rotors on this M/Y accord.

Any other tips you guys might have from experience would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

I just took my 97 Accord to my friends garage to have brake pads installed. He mentioned rotors and said he has never been able to get the ball bearing out by itself. If I were you I wouldn't even attempt it because you are going to have to replace that whole bearing enclosure.

 

Axle nut was the biggest PITA to get off. 4 hrs with a 500 ft lb impact wrench wouldn't get it off. Tried heating it, no luck. 24" breaker bar with 5' extension wouldn't work (broke the breaker bar). Drove it down to the local mechanic and he broke them free for $10.

Got it all apart successfully and noticed that the bearings had some play in them so I figured I would replace the bearings while I had it all apart. Had the old bearings pressed off and new ones pressed on. Car is back together and running smooth.

After the axle nut came off it was a total of 1 hr to get everything apart and separated. Took about 45 min to get it all back together and torqued down.

I would strongly recommend buying new ball joint boots if you are going to do this work as the ball joint fork ruined a couple of mine. I ordered all new upper, lower and tie-rod end ball joint boots for $20 delivered on Amazon.com.

 

Glad everything went good after you got the axle nuts off

For future reference, you can rent a ball joint separator fairly cheap (the screw type) instead of using the pickle fork. It's almost impossible to use a pickle fork without tearing the boots.

 

You can also shock the ball joints, tie rod ends or similar loose with a hammer. You just hit the area that surrounds the threaded part of the joint. With a ball joint it is either the control arm or steering knuckle depending on which contains the joint.

 

Yea, I tried wrapping on the joints with a hammer with no luck. Wasn't sure how hard I should be banging on the tie rod end so I gave up that method.

Either way the boots needed to be replaced anyway (dried and cracking) so its not that big of a deal.

 

Never hit the ball socket of the joint but the suspension component that surround them.

 

I've had better luck with a small 3-jaw gear puller.

You don't hammer on the balljoint, but you hammer on the knuckle, around where the balljoint stud goes through.