818Rasmus E Modified

[Rasmus]

Thanks Bill.

Pressing a new bearing in to a 2006 WRX (or equivalent) front knuckle
Note: Bearing goes in from the back side.
Note: I believe new bearings come with a cool little plastic ring on the inside to keep every thing together. Don't remove it until it's time to press the hub in.

1. Lightly grease, with the exact same grease in the bearing, the outside of the outer race and the machined surface the race will be pressed into. By light, I mean get your finger a little dab of grease on it and use only that dab to cover each part. Most of this will get scraped out in the next few steps. But it makes it so much easier than pressing it in dry.
2. Lightly set the bearing assembly race into the knuckle and check with a ruler that it's sitting square in the machined bore.
3. Lightly Load the press on the outer race by use an appropriately wide bearing driver disc (72mm) up a bit and recheck for square. This step is do-you-want-to-buy-another-bearing important.
4. Press the bearing in to the knuckle by pressing on the outer race. I used a 72mm bearing press disc that came in my bearing press kit. Be sure you do this square. The first two pumps on the press are where you'll know if the bearings going in square or if your buying another new bearing set.
5. With my bearing driver set I had to stop short of bottoming out the bearing because the 72mm bearing press disc is just about the right size to get stuck in the bore if you pressed it in there. So for the last little bit where the outer race has been driven past the bore lip but is still not bottomed out I switched to a smaller bearing driver and pressed on the bearings inner race to fully seat.
6. No need to go 20-tons on seating the race fully down. Just one pump past when you feel it hit bottom and you're good.
7. Install snap ring. I like to make sure the tongs of the snap ring are up. Just because I'd like to think there's less chance for the snap ring groove to collect debris or water when the lower portion of it is filled by snap ring. Probably just being overly cautious.
8. Install outer shaft seal into the knuckle. It's the one without the extra lip. Install it correctly orientated. Think, "The cup catches the grease, keeping it inside".
9. Lightly grease the hub's machined surface just like the above step 1.
10. Remove the cool little plastic ring that held the bearing together up to this point. Be mindful the inner races, roller bearing, and cages are just sitting in there with only the surface tension of the grease holding them in. They can fall out. And the first thing they find when they fall is that pile of metal shavings you missed sweeping up.
11. Press bearing (with knuckle surrounding it) onto the hub. Now to press this on, you're going to press on the inner race of the bearing set from back side with probably the same smaller bearing driver disc you used in steps 5 and 6. Do not set the hub on the wheel studs to press the knuckle on. The wheel studs can easily dislodge and get you pressing crooked. Hub needs to be supported by it's flange. If you can't get this. You could try locking all five studs to the hub with junky open ended lug nuts. I, personally, don't have those but hey you might. Though pressing square is important here it's harder to mess up compared to step 4.
12. Stop pressing when the hub has no more play in the bearing. You'll have to keep unloading the press to check. We're not looking to fully seat the hub into the bearing on this step just get it close enough.
13. Install inner shaft seal into the knuckle. It'll seem like there's a gap between the inner portion of the inner shaft seal and the face of the inner bearing race. That's normal.
14. Install axle into hub. Tighten down to 162 ft-lb. Yes, one hundred sixty two. This fully seats the bearing.
15. Post cool pictures of what you did on the internet.
16. Have Bills Waters ask you how you did it.
17. Type a step-by-step list up for Bill Waters.