e30 rear wheel bearing

I have a rear wheel bearing failing on my '91 318is. I normally do my own maintenance but reading the procedure in my Bentley manual makes it sound like I will have to rent a puller to get the axle out, remove the trailing arm from the body to get the old bearing out, and that I would still be at some risk of ruining the new bearing if I don't have a press to do the installation. So I'm looking for guidance from someone who has done this job at home. TIA for any experience out there.

Reply to
Jack
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Did the front on my car a couple of weeks ago and it was a piece of cake. I rented a puller from autozone, and bought a *very* special tool to press the bearing back in. A piece of 1 1/2" (or perhaps 1 1/4") pipe and a hammer. Pulled the old one off with very little more than my fingers for a wrench on the puller, tapped the new one on with my special tool... if the rears are the same, then... but if not, then...

Matt

Reply to
M Warren

Reply to
Psycho

Thanks for the Haynes reference Psycho. I forgot I have a Haynes manual as well and I see it recommends pulling the hub into the bearing inner race using a threaded rod, nuts and washers. This was the part of the job that seemed high risk to me as I thought it required hammering the hub into the inner race (forgot the hub is hollow). So I'll scedule the job for next weekend as I guess I'm still too tight to pay someone $250 labor to work on my car if I think I can do it myself. Thanks again.

Reply to
Jack

Good for you! You can relax about the threaded rod trick. It has been used for many, many years. I think that the first time I saw it described in print was in one of Carroll Smith's books -- maybe "Prepare to Win" -- some years ago.

Ed

Reply to
Ed Beroset

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