~Stingray

Hey Guys,

As mentioned in another thread, my 1980 needs the wheel bearings repacked in the front and replaced in the rear. The rear's I was more ok with doing as they are just replaced. But the mechanic showed me that the castle (spelling) nut on the back of the driver's side looks like someone beat it with a hammer. It looks like the top has been flattening a bit.

Does anyone have experience with replacing these and how much of job it is, without issue? And do you have an opinion of how hard it might be with a nut as described? He said it could cost anywhere from 100-300 just for that side because he is worried that it won't come off easy.

Suggestions? I have no expectations of this job entails so I am trying to figure out if I can do this myself next winter or not.

Thanks.

suprkoop

there are some critical steps to follow to install these correctly if you want them to last. I had a sop do one side for me that failed within a year due to the fact he wasn't aware of the proper adjustment shimming.
I then proceeded to buy a complete upright with the bearings installed, I forget where but I kind of recall the guy being in PA. You could also send out yours to him or other corvette specialty shops and have them done /set and ready to reinstall.
Fronts are just like any other Chevrolet.





you don't want this to happen..

suprkoop

his eb** id is gear412, search for his store

~Stingray

It's funny you mention that. My wheel is doing that, just not as bad; and on the same side. But it is slight, nowhere near the degree your picture shows; which is why I really didn't get to it until now, but you can see the tread wear is different on the tire side-to-side.

I guess I didn't think about asking this until now, but when he said it would be 100-300 to do the job that probably didn't' include the parts.

cagotzmann

First you need to inspect all parts in the rear suspension to determine what all needs to be replaced.

1. Start with the rear wheels off the ground. Check for play buy pushing / pull at 12 / 6 o'clock and 3 / 9 o'clock if you find a lot of play you then need to step 2. If the wheel seems very tight then you may only have an alignment / trailing arm (bushing) problem.

2. The best method to determine where the play is with 1 person. Remove the 1/2 shaft on the bad side. Then do the same as step 1. This will test the play in the rear wheel bearing. This should be very tight in all directions. Then pull / push on the diff side yoke. Yoke diff allowance varies new setup ~ 0.005 but many don't change until ~ 0.025-0.040 end play.

3. Then with the half shaft out of the car move the trailing arm to see how tight the rear tailing arm bushing is.

Most likely you have a problem in all 3 area's.

1. Rear wheel bearing
2. Trailing arm bushing
3. side yoke end play.

calwldlife

if you are just wanting maintenance like the front bearings?
don't do it.
like stated, check them for endplay.

if they are too far out, make shop show you the special tool for
setting endplay.

doing the trail bearings ain't no joke and cost money to do right.

~Stingray

All the suspension needs to be rebuilt, I know this already. Didn't know about the yoke differences though.

I was considering having jobs done that I can't do well at home in a garage with no mechanic experience. Replace bushings and parts, restoring/rebuilding some others I could do, but I wasn't really sure what to do with the bearings. As mentioned before, someone told me they are a real pain and cause major problems if not done right (further supported by the picture in the second post). Plus the damaged castle nut (not sure if I can even get off damaged parts). So I was trying to determine if this was something I could really do on my own. I consider myself an intelligent guy that could probably figure it out, but I draw a line at figuring things out on cars where if I make a mistake I could crash and die. lol.

To give more perspective: the first time someone talked to me about rebuilding the calipers on my corvette, I was felt unsure I should do it since a mistake would mean my car would not stop. Someone showed me in 10 minutes the basics and then I felt I could figure it out in the future. This past fall I rebuilt all the calipers on my mustang, no issues. This seems much more difficult. And as there is no one to even give me the basics I am more cautious before jumping right in. Make sense?

drwet

If you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be doing them. I understand we all have to tackle things for the first time, but it doesn't sound like Corvette rear wheel bearings are a good place for you to start. Most of the rest of the rear suspension you could probably tackle, but the bearings are a major challenge even for experienced mechanics. My advice is to remove the trailing arms and have them rebuilt by someone who does them all the time. (Van Steel comes to mind.) Then you can reinstall them and fix the other issues with your rear suspension at the same time.

GTR1999

If you see the end of the spindle threads are mushroomed over then who ever worked on the arms did not know what they were doing- plain and simple. When I get arms in and see that, kind of common, I know I will find other issues and the bearings will not be correctly setup. I would take them apart and correctly rebuild them, whether that is something you can do I can't say. You will find many places rebuild them from all over the country, some do them good others not so much.

Here are some examples of what I see with arms.