I have a 01 qc/lb 1500 and need to replace the carrier bearing. Everything I read says I need a press to replace it, but looking at the new one, it doesn't look like a press is needed. Also, how does the driveshaft come apart? Does anyone have any tips for when I get under there?
Do you need to replace the carrier bearings or the pinion bearing, since you mentioned the driveshaft? I ask, since the driveshaft connects to the rear yoke - behind the yoke is a seal and then the pinion bearing. Might want to take a look at the service manual to see a graphic layout of the rear end.
I already downloaded and looked at the service manual, and it doesn't say much about it. That was the first place I looked. I guess im just gonna tear it apart and hope for the best.
not sure if you need an idea still or not but you can put pinion bearing and stuff on without a press, what you do is lay the new bearing on a piece of steel plate, and take a torch to the bottom of the steel plate so it starts to transfer heat into the bearing and make it expand just enough that u can drop it on and when it cools off it will be nice and tight like it should be, just dont cool it with water or nothin, let it air cool.
Thread revival as I just did this on a '99 Ram 1500. There's apparently two styles of the rear carrier bearing: one frame is radiused and one is squared off. I had the latter and as I needed the part right away I bought it from O'Reilly for ~$62 as a Precision 6079. There are a lot of options on RA, some as cheap as $13 (not incl shipping) and, honestly, I have to wonder if they're not the exact same thing. Even the "better" options at RA were ~$35 and I would have done that if time allowed.
Anyway, I found buried in my Automotive Puller drawer a larger bearing splitter that actually fit the factory carrier bearing. The splitter has an opening of 3" across closed up and this is a good bit bigger than most kits you'll find in red plastic cases. I put it in my 50T press and it pressed out with moderate protest - then again not much can put up a fight against 50 tons.....
You might just make out I put my press plates too close together and it taco'd the slinger on the d/s. Still, it pounded straight very easily and I saw no need to replace it even though the Precision kit does include both rings (the slinger in front of the carrier bearing and the shield/ring behind the carrier bearing).
Now, when reinstalling a press fit, preparation is the key (I'm a machinist so us types do a fair bit with press fits....). Still, it's nothing common sense doesn't dictate. First, clean up the shaft with some emery paper - I used some 180 grit strips I keep for the lathe. Second, remove any burs both on the male and female parts. The press fit ring in the Precision kit had some bad burs and I made sure to get rid of those (this presses on AFTER you've slid the bearing onto the shaft). Third, lube all surfaces with a thin film of your favorite grease.
I just clamped the shaft to my big welding table as shown (the Strong Hand F-clamps are nice for this as they come with a dual-footed tube attachment, see pic) and cut a piece of 1-1/4" sch40 pipe about 7.5" long; using a basic Vaughn ball pein I was able to fully seat the bearing with no trouble at all.
The Haynes manual says to take your d/s to an "automotive machine shop" to have the bearing replaced......well, I'm not an AUTOMOTIVE machine shop but I am a machine shop so I figured I'll be damned if I can't make it work.....of course any tool junkie with a press can do this.
Finally, (last post I promise) I replaced the OEM bearing not because the bearing itself had failed but the rubber surround was letting go. I give 'em props for a design that probably excels at reducing NVH (at least on paper), but with only a few points of contact in rubber "fingers" it's destined to fail sooner than a solid rubber block. Still, it lasted from 1999 to early 2020 so it's not horrible.
