Nova front wheel bearings

It's just not the same since you're expecting it.

I did them a while back on a Mk2 Astra, and I guess they're probably quite similar, so here goes.

Easy enough bar the bit where unless you've got the patience of a saint (IMHO), you'll need a hydraulic press to press the old bearings out and the new ones in. But apart from that it's dead easy unbolting and bolting, as follows:

1. Before jacking the car up, make sure the handbrake's on, take the hub caps off (and I mean hub caps, not wheel trims), and with a decent breaker bar and your own bodyweight, loosen the big driveshaft nut (about 30mm) on each side. Then jack up one side and remove the wheel (obviously repeat all this for the other side).
2. Get a Sealey lever-style steering balljoint (track rod end) remover from a motor factor for about 12 quid. Some people say that you can just shock them out by whacking them on the side, but I'm some sort of wimp and never had any luck with that, and this tool made it an absolute piece of piss. So undo the track rod end securing nut, and pop out that balljoint - you'll wind the tool in for ages and ages and it'll come out with a massive-ish bang.
3. Separate the bottom balljoint - there'll be a pinch-bolt which you might need to somehow wedge a ring spanner in place there, and use a ratchet+socket arm to work against it, but it's not that difficult. Then keep whacking the thing with a hammer until it loosens, and use a scaffold pole or similar (combined with your weight, to lower it down and then move the suspension strut out of the way.
4. Remove the driveshaft nut, and with the front strut's new found freedom, swing it outwards so as to remove the driveshaft from the hub.
5. Undo the supporting bolts at the top of the strut (get to them from under the bonnet), and carefully remove the strut.

Do this for both sides, then take them to a friendly local garage who have a hydraulic press, on a quiet day. Ask them how much to press out the old bearings and press in new ones (for both sides) - I'd have said about £20-30 absolute tops is fair - if they say a drink, give 'em 20 quid. That way they can see you're not taking the piss, and might do you the odd favour in the future.

Basically for each one they'll press out the hub (which will take with it the inner race of the bearing), then remove the two circlips (heavy duty circlip pliers, not the cheap s**te ones you'll get from Halfords), and press the main bearing out. Then they'll put one circlip back in so the bearing's got something to seat onto, and press the new bearing in, and put the other circlip back in. Then they'll remove the inner race that's stuck to the hub, probably by welding a small bit of scrap metal to it and using a puller to get it off, followed by pressing the hub into the middle of the newly in place bearing.

Then to put them back in, it's dead simple - just do the reverse of removal. Take note that re-inserting the bottom balljoint is easy as there's a groove in the bit that goes in vertically, where the pinch bolt goes in, so you can't get it wrong. When putting the track rod end back in, give it a good hard whack at the top to get it in properly, otherwise when you try and tighten the nut the whole balljoint will just spin around with the nut. And make sure you put the driveshaft back in *before* putting the balljoints back in. The balljoint nuts don't have to be super-tight, but the driveshaft nut (aka hub nut) does. Normally something like 240Nm, which means tightening it up with the wheel back on, and the handbrake on, using breaker bar + scaffold pole + bodyweight, and 2.7 metric KiloGrunts.

Job done. Should take less than an hour to take apart, plus similar time again to put it back together, plus going to the garage to get them pressed out.

I have done Cavalier front hub bearings and Tigra rears by careful heat soaking in the oven and even more careful use of a drift to remove/fit the outer races.

Ian

Or a strong vice & a really big hammer & drift works. Cut the oldrace once with an angle grinder & it makes a nicely sized spacer to drift the new one back in.