01 Transit FWD

The message from Grimly Curmudgeon contains these words:

Why the dealer? Many garages have presses - just take the hub and the bearings to 'em and give 'em a tenner.

Sounds about right, most front wheel drive cars have the bearings replaced like that. Any garage should be able to do it for you. Autodata repair time is 0.9 of an hour, so cant be that bad of a job to do.

To be blunt, they are a right b*****d to do. All transit 2000s use the same wheel bearing, and it is now a sealed unit.

Chances are if you take it to a ford dealer they'll replace the bearing and the hub, as the time it takes to remove the bearing fromr the hub can take a while, and sometimes won't budge at all. At work I made an adapter to get the hub into the press, and even then with a 20tonne press, you've got to get the press upto full pressure, then heat what you can see of the inner race, until it eventually goes with a bang. That'll get the bearing outer off, and one of the bearing inners. You've then got to get the hub into a vice, and heat the remaining bearing inner to a cherry red, get it broken away from it's seat with a hammer chisel, so you can then get a bearing puller behind it. Once the bearing puller is on, you've then normally got to keep the bearing glowing red until you've got it pulled quite a bit off the hub.

The other approach is to cut the bearing off with an angle grinder, which is time consuming, and you run the risk off damaging the hub.

Forgot to mention, regardless of how you change the bearing, you've got to take the brake disk of the hub.

If you want instructions on how to get the hub off the van, just ask.

If anybody can do them in that time, they're a miracle worker. The only time I've done them that quick, is if I've fitted a new hub to a reasonably new van (ie. no rusted bolts, and the bearing actually comes out the hub carrier with little effort). I know that at work, we book at least 1.5hours for doing a wheel bearing alone, or an extra 0.5 on top of changing the brake discs per wheel bearing.

It's one of these jobs which is maybe straight forward with a brand new van, but given a year or more of use, it's turns into a nightmare job.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Guy King saying something like:

I phoned around after I posted this and a local guy with press will do it for notalot. Main dealer was making out it was necessary to have special puller and press attachment. Usual bollocks, it looks like.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "SimonJ" saying something like:

Actually, looking at the bearing carrier as supplied by Ford, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find I don't need a press at all. It's held onto the hub by 5 radial setscrews, although it might actually be pressed in place first. I'll find out when I strip it on Sunday.

If I was to set about replacing the actual bearings, I'd need a press for sure, but this carrier+bearing assembly seems as if it might be an easy replacement.

I've already bought the new carrier, but I may as well keep the old one and prepare it with new bearings in readiness for the next time.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Moray Cuthill" saying something like:

Yep. Picked one up today.

That's pretty much what the workshop guy at the Ford dealer told me; I was thinking it wouldn't be do-able without a press and heat. Hence why I was seriously considering taking the whole assembly to their workshop.

Actually, it all sounds horribly similar to some of the most bastard awkward bike wheel and headstock bearings I've done.

Ah, yep, makes sense. I haven't yet had a close look, so I'm unsure how it's held together.

Yes, please. Might help to avoid much swearing on Sunday, or even tomorrow.

First off remove the driveshaft nut (under the centre wheel cap), before you jack it up (it's a tight bugger and gets retorqued to 350Nm). Jack the van up, and remove the wheel. Unbolt the brake caliper and carrier (either as one unit, or seperately), and tie the caliper up onto the spring. Now with the wheel removed, you'll see a ring of 5 bolts that hold the disc on, with holes inbetween. Turn the hub until the holes line up with the bolts that hold the bearing onto the hub carrier. You'll need a long Torx bit to fit these (think it's a 50 or 55, but check it with the new bolts that come with the new bearing). Always make sure the torx bit is right in, by tapping it with a hammer, before you try slackening them, as you don't want to round them. The bolts shouldn't be that tight. Next thing is to check the driveshaft is going to come out, as chances are it'll be rusted in slightly. If it doesn't move with a copper hammer, or normal hammer and soft drift, you'll need a two or three legged puller to get it moving. All you need to do at this point is get it moving Now to remove the hub, you'll be able to hammer a chisel inbetween the bottom of the hub carrier and the brake disc (do it as near to the centre of the disk as possible, to avoid the braking surface), and also between the disc and the rear of the hub carrier where the track rod end bolts on (again do it as near the centre as possible). With those two sides off the bearing starting to come out of the hub carrier, you should be able to manually pull/wobble the bearing out of the hub carrier. If not, while pulling that side of the disk by hand, gently give the disk a couple taps with the hammer. Off course, if you're also changing the brake discs, you can just hit the brake disc until the bearing comes out. Once the bearing is clear of the hub carrier, you'll need to finish getting the driveshaft out the hub. Now remove the 5 bolts that hold the disk to the hub, and with the bearing lugs lined up with the gaps in the disk, find a nice hard level surface (concrete floor is good), lift the hub up about 6 inches with the brake disc facing down, and drop it. Repeat and/or increase height until the disk comes off. Again, if you're replacing the disk, you can use a hammer for assistance.

And then you'll be left with just the hub and bearing.

Once you get the bearing changed, reassembly is straight forward, but you want to clean all rust from the hub carrier, and apply plenty copper grease to make removal easier should it ever have to come back off.

If you need any more help, just ask. There's not many things I've not done to transit vans.

These newsgroups really are great, aren't they!

I was impressed !

Pity the only thing you can offer for a reply like that is a virtual pint !

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Moray Cuthill" saying something like:

Printed out and saved for ref.

Many thanks. Very useful - in fact, before I even start I'd better make sure I've got a long Torx - be a bugger if I start it and get stuck for lack of the proper tool.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Moray Cuthill" saying something like:

Got it off Sunday and refitted today. I had to give the hub assy to a local bloke with a 10ton press, there was no way I'd get it off without one. As it happened he had to gas axe the old one off before fitting the new one, it was that tight. He only charged me for an hour, so not bad at that.

Why the f*ck do Ford do this? It used to be that Ford (and other makers) designed things to be serviced/repaired in the backwoods with minimal tools.

Anyway, the stripdown was relatively straightforward (1hour) and the rebuild was a doddle (30mins).

Thanks for your help.

Now for the headlamp unit with the stripped adjuster; but it's bucketing down, so that can wait until tomorrow.

Glad to hear you got it done. The gas axe is usually a requirement at some point during the removal process!

All about minimizing weight, reducing number of parts (basically cheaper to make and assemble). Manufacturer's aren't too bothered, as once it's outside warranty, it's not there problem.

No problem.

That's an easy enough job. Only gotcha is when changing the levelling motor. When removing it, the motor is a bayonet fit into the headlamp body, then the adjuster is a ball and socket affair. To get the ball out, you got to manipulate the motor rod with the ball sideways (away from the edge of the headlamp). The motor doesn't just pull straight out, as I discovered after breaking the first one I done (due to the design, it's not easy to see how the motor is attached inside the headlamp).

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Moray Cuthill" saying something like:

The self levelling side of things is ok; it was the L-R adjuster that stripped. I couldn't get the front off the unit without breaking it (certainly feels like it's glued on), so I cut the end shroud off the adjuster and pressed the end of the threaded plastic bar in while I turned the adjuster nut. Even that wasn't quite enough, so I ended up packing the innermost pair of securing bolts with a couple of washers each to bring the beam to where it should be.

Shocking!!! It works though ;-)