I attempted to change the front wheel bearings in my dodge b2500 1995 van. its a 318 v8
the bearings looked ok, on account of unable to remove races I did not want to change just the bearings. I just repacked the bearings with grease/ changed the grease seal and pinion nut.
question is what is the best way to remove the races? the inner and outer! the shaft is tapered in a manner that just pressing out with a press would not work. a brass punch maybe. second question that I have is how far to install the new races into the front wheel hub? the old races do not seem to be bottomed out but just pressed in maybe half as far as they look like they could go. distance matters? anyway
thanks for any help. confused in PA

 

I just use a punch and come at the race from the backside of it. When installing the new one, there is a lip that the race bottoms out on.

 

Alloro is correct -- here is a bit more info on how to do it.

After removing the rotor pull the grease seal, discard the old bearings and then clean all of the axle grease from inside the hub with an old rag. I always punch the outside (small) race first. Looking into the hub from the rear you will see small indents in the hub where the back mating surface of the front race will be visible. Place your punch in these indents alternating back and forth and tap the race out. Reverse procedure for the back side. Wipe out the inside of the hub again when the races are gone.

You probably do not have a race installation tool so best to find a large socket that matches exactly with the flat surface on front of the race and tap the new ones back into place. Make sure you begin slowly so the races do not go in crooked and then ensure they go evenly all the way in.

Alternatively, when you buy replacement rotors from a place like Autozone the races are pre-installed, so you can discard the races that are included with your new roller bearing kits and just pack the hub, pack the bearings, install the grease seal and put everything back together.

 

In '08 I installed duralast rotors. Since they had new races, I did not use the races which came with my new bearings.

Several years later, but not many miles, The bearings were loose. I inspected them and found odd wear patterns.

Basically the races tapered differently than the bearings and all the pressure was on one side of the bearing and race.

Also one of the duralast races was spinning within the rotor.

I installed new races, and new bearings in these rotors, and now I find that I have no more adjustment. I've run out of threads, and need about 1/8 more turn to get all the slop out of the wheel.


Also these Duralast rotors seem to be machined too deeply for the races. the bearings are too close together in the rotor, which puts more stress on the bearings.

So my recommendation is not to use the included races with the new rotors but punch them out and use the races provided with the bearings.


I'll be replacing mine, just for this reason, the actual braking surfaces are still in excellent condition, and they won't be duralast.

 

Could be an isolated incident. I have over 50K miles on a set of those rotors with the pre-installed races and new bearings with regular wheel bearing grease and everything is still cool.

 

or installer error!

 

I've never had issues with the many other wheel bearings I've installed.
It is not rocket science.

All I can say is I installed USA made Timken bearings on Duralast rotors and the races which came installed on them, and they were noisy within 10 K miles with high quality grease and proper torque on the nut after seating the bearings.

So easy to pop out the old races and install the new which came with the bearings, why take the chance..
I never will again.