W123, check the searchable title =)

My car was vibrating at 18-20mpg (and even a little at 38-40) so I diagnosed it to the center bearing carrier. If you do this, just get a new center bearing also (both mine were shot)

Some pointers:

- Took me about 4h beginning to end, having never done it before and burning at least 45 mins surfing up a torque spec (45n-m for the flex disk bolts...) and dealing w/ my mom =). An impact wrrench helps but should not be necessary

- I had 2 new flex disks, this is a great time to replace them

- The center bearing itself looks like a normal bearing, and can be hammer tapped (gently, round and round) onto the driveshaft. a socket greater than 27mm is required if you cant to do it better (recommended, warping bearings isnt good). The >27mm socket should fit around the splines of the driveshaft and if its deepwell, it may allow you to hit the bearing square on all sides.

- The The center bearing itself sits in a rubber doughnut that comes bonded to a metal bracket. The bearing will push in (grease helps) to the rubber part with finger pressure...hard finger pressure.

- Be careful when removing the old center bearing, the book tells you to use gear pullers, which work, but on each side of the bearing there are metal dust caps (?) that will end nicely if the gear puller pulls on them. They both come off and are seperate than the bearing, but if you gack them up they wont seal out dust too well.

- I think teh conventional wisdom is to bolt everything up, but leave the center bearing carrier loose, then spin the shaft a couple times (or go for a short drive, with the bolts in) then re-loosen the center bearing carrier and make sure that its' rubber is as un-stressed as possible.

got to get back to work. Guys, fill in the local wisdom and stuff I've missed.
-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

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[QUOTE=Angel]W123, check the searchable title =)



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(grease helps)
- Be careful when removing the old center bearing, the book tells you to use gear pullers, which work, but on each side of the bearing there are metal dust caps (?) that will end nicely if the gear puller pulls on them. They both come off and are seperate than the bearing, but if you gack them up they wont seal out dust too well.

i wouldnt put grease on new rubber. the rubber will go bad even sooner. as for the bearing. just replace it and dont worry about messing up the dust caps.


good job though!!! i did this about 6months ago on mine. the little dogbone nuts that that the centert bearing carrier bolts to had to be cut/drilled. the bolt heads snapped clean off and i couldnt remove them.

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