Discovery Front Wheel Bearing Replacement

[Joey]

Not my info, and I don't recall where I got this:

This is job was fairly straightforward and was performed without the use of the "Green Bible" or Disco workshop manual. (however, I have performed the same on my 109). If you have any mechanical abilities you should be able to do this replacement process. It took me approximately 3 hrs from beginning to end and testing.
Tools needed: Large Flathead screwdriver, Hammer, 17 mm socket, 13mm 12pt socket, "cheater bar", 2 Timken Wheel bearings (rover dealership) , 1 can of high temp wheel bearing grease, 1 rubber hub gasket (rover dealership), wire brush (for cleaning loctite from bolts), and loctite.
The total cost was $77 for everything. The dealership charges 2.5 hrs for labor plus parts so I figure that I saved myself about $175 plus I learned a good bit about my truck and generally felt good about Myself! :-)
Please feel free to e-mail me ([email protected]) if you have any questions about the process or need any clarification on the process below. I meant to take pictures, but got halfway through and realized I had forgotten.
Step 1) Loose wheel lug nuts
Step 2) Jack up correct side of the truck. Using a floor jack here is best instead of the bottle jack since you can just lock the floor jack in place. Also use a jack stand to support the Disco's weight.
Step 3) Remove road wheel (and use as a chair for the next 3 hrs )
Step 4) Remove brake Caliper. This is done by removing the two bolts (one at the top and the other at the bottom end of the caliper) These bolts are a 13mm and require a 12 pt socket. These bolts are loctited in so you will need to use some sort of "cheater" bar or impacr wrench to loosen them. I used a piece of 1 inch aluminum conduit about 8 inches long to slide over my socket wrench. These are a B*tch to get off so be patient! Once the caliper is removed you will need to raise it up just enough to clear the rotor, but not too high otherwise you will bend the metal brake line going to the caliper. I zip tied mine to the top of the wheel well. The brake line had enough play in it to hang nicely out of the way. (During this step you could remove your brake pads, but I chose to leave them in the caliper and had no problems on the re-install. But it's your choice) Don't forget to clean the caliper bolt threads with a wire bruch and use loctite on the re-install.
Step 4) Remove the rubber cover over the axle stub end and remove the lock ring and washers under it as well. Make sure that you keep these together for the re-install.
Step 5) Once the rubber cover and lock ring, etc, have been removed you will remove the 6 bolts to the hub cover. These are a 17mm regular socket. These will also be a pain to remove as they are loctited on as well. You will need to clean the bolts with a wire brush to remove the loctite before re-loctiting them and re-installing.
Step 6) Now you will be to the hub nuts and washers. It is best to use a hub nut tool, but I used a pair of 2 ½ inch Channel Locks and had no problems with the removal or install. In all there are two bolts and 2 lock rings that will need to be removed in order to pull the rotor off the axle. Make sure that you keep them in the correct order for re-install.
Step 7) Once the locknuts and rings have been removed you should be able to pull the rotor and bearings right off of the axle. A little elbow grease may be required here but it should slide off fairly easily. Once the rotor and innards are removed you will see the bearings (inner and outer). The inner bearing also has a rubber hub seal that will need to be removed before you are able to access the rear bearing. This seal must be replaced with a new one. Anyway, you will probably tear the old one removing it like I did The tough part of the install from here is the bearings race removals and re-install of the new races. Pay attention to how the rings are installed so that when you get ready to put the new rings in you will install them in the correct direction.
Step 8) The Rover wheel bearings are not sized so it does not matter which you install where (outer or inner). After the bearing has been removed, you will need to tap out the bearing ring (race, ring, cup, cone or whatever you choose to call it! :-) ) This will be fairly tough since they are a tight fit but I was able to get them out with the use of a large flat-blade screwdriver and ball pen hammer. A medium sized punch or drift pin works well if you have the right one. Just take your time and don't be afraid the give a heavy hit. There is a small lip in the back of each ring that allows you to get a screwdriver tip on to help in hammering the ring out. Keep these rings as you will need them for the re-install of the new bearing rings.
Step 9) Now you will need to install the new bearing rings. This can be accomplished by using the old rings as a hammering surface to install the new bearing rings. Place the new bearing rings squarely in place and use the old ring to hammer the new ring into place. Be sure that the ring seats properly into the rotor and is hammered completely into place. You will see how far the ring needs to be hammered in and if it you have seated it properly. (in other words it can only be hammered in so far. Make sure that it's in there all the way and seated correctly) Then you will need to hammer out the old ring, that you used as a guide, to use again for the back bearing ring. Then repeat the process on the back bearing making sure tat it is seated correctly and hammer in completely.
Step 10) Now you are ready to grease and install the new bearings. You can get High Temp bearing grease from any auto parts place for about $2.00. This will be more that you will ever need in lifetime but it's the smallest container that they had. Make sure that you completely coat and pack grease into the new bearings before re-installing them. This is VERY important as it will help the life of bearings. If your in doubt about how much grease to put in , then you probably need more grease! Anyway, insert the bearings, remembering the re-install of your rear rubber hub gasket on the rear bearing.
Then just reverse the teardown process to put everything back together remembering to install the inner rubber hub seal to hold the inner bearing, clean and loctite the caliper bolts and 6 hub cover bolts before re-installing.