Replaced a front hub yesterday

[sheepish]

Well, I replaced one of the front hubs on my 52 plate Vectra C yesterday and all in all it went quite well, so I thought I'd share my experience...

Having searched the posts on this forum the main problems people were having seemed to be removing the hub nut and getting the hub off the drive shaft splines.

...the hub nut came off with no problem, I just use a 2ft breaker bar (and 32mm deep socket...) and it didn't even take my full body weight to move it!

Getting the hub off the drive shaft took a bit more effort. It was well and truly on, so i put a piece of wood across the hub resting on the end of the shaft, then put two G clamps on the wood, with the other end of the clamps on the back of the steering knuckle. Once I'd tightened up the clamps to the point of starting to bend the wood (I was using a 1 inch thick scarp of hardwood) I just gently tapped the wood at the point over the drive shaft end and off it came.

After that I counldn't get the hub out of the steering knuckle, so I took the whole knucke, off the car, turned it upside down resting on some pieces of wood and knocked it out from the back. It was pretty corroded into the knuckle, so I ended up spending a good half hour cleaning the knuckle pefore putting the new one in.

While I was at it () I also replaced both wishbones, droplinks and track rod ends, so all in all turned into a long day...

Hope this helps anyone thinking about changing a hub.

[Jezzy]

Getting the hub off the drive shaft took a bit more effort. It was well and truly on, so i put a piece of wood across the hub resting on the end of the shaft, then put two G clamps on the wood, with the other end of the clamps on the back of the steering knuckle. Once I'd tightened up the clamps to the point of starting to bend the wood (I was using a 1 inch thick scarp of hardwood) I just gently tapped the wood at the point over the drive shaft end and off it came.

Can you draw a diagram for us, as that section is a bit confusing.

[plasma]

easy to picture.. drive shaft and nut where it comes through the hub just sits a bit proud of the hub. so he put a bit of wood across it so as not to hit the drive shafe and nut directly

[sheepish]

Hopefully this rubbish picture should help.

It's in cross section looking from above (the rest of the car would be on the left) and shows the drive shaft, in black, sticking out of the hub (as Plasma mentioned), the wood rests on it and the G clamps hook onto the back of the steering knuckle.

Tighten the clamps, give it a tap, drive shaft comes out.

[Jezzy]

Thanks for the diagram, makes it a lot clearer.

[Pete B]

This is a good description.

I am now, at present, writing up my detailed 'How To' for the front hub bearing replacement I did over Easter. I will be referring to and linking back to this description as a possible alternative means of freeing the hub from the shaft to the method I used and describe in the 'How To'.

It should all be ready sometime tomorrow to upload for assessment by the moderators, then hopefully be released for all to see.