I was told that I had two loose rear wheel bearings .... can someone tell me how much work to replace them and if I need any special tools, loaners from autoparts store etc?

 

Who told you that the bearings were "loose"? Friend, guy at the alignments shop, car repair shop? If the person who told you that is going to make money from the repair of said bearings, get another opinion. If it was someone at an alignment place--and they don't do repair work, look into it for sure. Others on the forum can tell you the simple procedure for checking them. You only need to jack up each rear wheel. To change the bearings, you need special tools and some experience at doing them. If you really need to replace them, take it to a reputable Corvette repair place/mechanic.

 

I took it to get four wheel alignment ..... I wasn't going to have them do it as they wanted an arm, leg and my first born ...... but I have always been intrigued with the bearings and have never done them myself....

I have done a lot and want to keep getting "smarter" about this car, so if it is something that can be done right, the first time, by a rookie, then I am all for LEARNING it.

 

Replacing the rear wheel bearings really isn't a job for a rookie, there are tight tolerances that need to be met and you need a decent size press. I'm pretty mechanically inclined, but I opted to have someone do mine for me. Considering how much of a pain it is to remove the trailing arms (required to replace the bearings), I figured it was better to do it right the first time rather than having to deal with it again in another few years.

I've got some pictures on my website that may give some additional info. Scroll to the bottom half of the page.
http://www.corvette-restoration.com/trailing_arms.htm

 

Here is a post on the subject by GTR1999. Read it before you decide to move on.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...earing+rebuild

 

I just finished this job 2 weeks ago. I had the help of a friend who has a 64 coupe and just did his own last fall, so I was a little more sure of getting it done right. Plus, he's an airplane machinist and mechanic by trade. Believe me, I sell bearings for a living(over 21 years!) and I was not about to tackle this job myself. It is definately not a job for the amateur weekend mechanic. Otherwise, you'll end up with either a bunch of parts on your garage floor scratching your head, or a bearing the was hammered back in (ouch!)because you just got too frustrated and wanted to get it back together, in which case it will soon fail and you'll be back to square one.
We removed the spindle with a slide hammer puller, that was the easy part. The inner rollers fell right out. Remember that if you think you have a bad bearing! He had built a special tool which not only allowed reassembly without removing the trailing arm, but pulled the spindle back together with the help of a port-a-pack pump.
If not for him, I would have sent the T/A's to Gary(GTR1999), who I also sought advice through the process and he gave me great tips.
My advice...
1)Determine if the problem IS the bearings.
2)If it is and you don't have the tools or experience, make sure the person who does the job has done it before or does vette work professionally.
3)It costs a lot less to do it right the first time.
Good Luck!

 

(ps Maine vette, if your takin a drive up the coast, a meet and greet is in order, your helping me restore my vette)

 

It would be very unusual to have both rear bearings bad at the same time.
Alignment shops usually check for loose wheels, which is a good thing, however on a vette rear, you cannot check the rear bearings by grabbing the wheel at the 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock positions.
If you do, you will be checking the end play of the stub axles in the rear housing. Some alignment shops that are not familiar with a vette rear setup will not know this.
Stub axle end play can be .030 to .130 end play, depending on wear.

You need to check the rear bearing play by grasping the wheel at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions and check for play.

Barry

 

Remove your arms and either send them to Van Steel and have yours rebuilt or exchange them.