Help! Front Wheel Bearings Vitara?

[jacques]

Please Someone!!
How Do You change the front Main Wheel Bearing On A Vitara?????????? Please Someone Help!!!
Cheers Jacques

[goldy]

Coincidentally I have just changed my front wheel bearings on the Vit.

If you are mechanically minded then it is pretty straight forward. I'll step it through:

Raise the front of the car and put it on chassis stands
Remove the wheel
Unbolt the brake caliper and tie it upout of the way
Unbolt the caliper carrier off the back of the stub axle
Remove the brake disc (might need a bit of a tap to loosen it off the wheel studs)
Make sure the freewheel hubs are in the unlock position and mark the outer cover against the freewheel hub so it will go on the same position when you put it back together)
Remove the outer cover off the freewheel hub
Remove the freewheel hub off the wheel hub
Remove circlip off the stub axle
Remove small washer
Remove the lock washer (there will be a number of small phillips head screws that you need to undo and remove, before you round the heads out, use an impact driver to loosen them, or a steel shafted phillips head screwdriver and a hammer)
The bearing nut can be removed with a pin punch and hammer
Remove the flat washer that sits behind the bearing nut
Remove the wheel hub from the car
The outer side of the tapered roller wheel bearing should now fall out
To get the inner side tapered roller wheel bearing out you'll need to remove the two oil seals from the back of the hub (when you get a bearing kit you'll get two new seals to replace these ones) and remove the large circlip as well
Now the hard part, what's left is the outer race of the bearing. This needs to be pressed out of the hub and the new one pressed in. A friend at work had laid weld down on the face of the bearing and he was able to knock it out that way, but it may be easier for you to take both the hub and the new bearing into a garage or mechanical workshop and get them to do it for you. Up to you.
Reassembly is the reverse of the dissassembly with the following exception.
When you get to putting the bearing nut back on, do it up reasonably tight with the pin punch and hammer. Then put the wheel back on to the wheel studs and put a couple of wheel nuts on. Now spin the wheel a few times. If you can feel a rock in the bearings (by rocking the top and bottom of the tyre) then you'll need to keep tightening the wheel bearing nut. When it's done up, you should be able to spin the wheel and have it stop after a couple of revs. If it freewheels for a while, then it's probably still too loose.
Oh, and put a bit of extra grease in the new bearings before you put them in, not too much just a little bit more than what they come with.

Of course what I have told you is only a guide and I won't be held responsible for your work. If you attempt to change the wheel bearings do so at your own peril.

All the best