If the Instructions in this thread have that you can use a Punch to drive out from the inside to the outside I would not do that. More than one person has expaned the end of the Hub or damaged the threaded area doing that.
A new Rear Wheel Hub is $300+

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

didn't know this part of the forum existed.. Found an owner on another forum, who had one he was okay with parting with.. I'll be listing it for sale as soon as my car is BACK ON THE ROAD.

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Agnes (the Limo) '84 300SD
Pearl (the Taxi) '81 240D (preparing for the 'afterlife')
Bridgette (baby girl) '82 VW Pickup-- currently getting readied for her rebuilt (overbored) engine.
1 VW 1.6 NA diesel **not installed in vehicle**
Gidget (the bimbo) '87 VW Cabriolet-- the diesel engine it above is eventually going there!

and a BMW Motorcycle. (1998 R1200C)

Did I mention I'm of German Heritage??

I had a thread of my own asking about this job, but I thought I would put some afterthoughts here.

In the end I did not do it myself. I took it to my wrench who works Saturdays and he did it with me watching and assisting (he had not done it before, his experience is more with BMW/VW - he observed this is similar to very old Jettas?). I was glad I did, this is not something I would have liked doing the first time in my driveway. Next time maybe.

In the DIY, he doesn't use a slide hammer to pull the hub. I highly recommend you do. We had a big one and it still gave a hell of a fight.

I was warned about the flange bolt being a bear to get off. You are going to want a hefty and long lever for that. The one we used was about 4.5 ft long and 3/4" thick.

You do need a brass drift and if my experience was any guide, you need to shop well ahead to find one in brass. Maybe it's a Canada thing, but they aren't exactly widely available.

Whunter described this as a difficult DIY. I agree. IF you are comfortable doing your front brakes along with removing and repacking the bearings, and have done that job, you can do this. If you haven't done that job, you are not going to be comfortable with some parts of this.

Hope that helps.

Leave lots of time. We did it in 2.5 hrs with a hoist. In the driveway I would have been 4-5 hours on it, maybe more.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

By what method did you attach the Slde Hammer to the Hub?

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

This was a slide hammer kit with a large bolt-up flange. We just used the same "sacrificial" bolts to bolt down the flange that we used when levering loose the flange nut.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Hi everyone, I just did the rear wheel bearing job myself on a W116 1979 300SD. These have the same rear end as the W123 and W126, but I did run into a variation that someone on benzworld also reported. Here's my writeup with all the particulars of what I did.

I needed:
special socket
replacement bearing kits
brass drift and flat metal file
various steel chisels (a broken off flat one is super helpful!)
1 lb metal hammer
4 lb plastic drift hammer ($10 from HF)
dial indicator ($30 from HF)
bearing separator ($30 from HF)
4 ft breaker bar (most folks will need this, but I didn't - mine was a weird variation)
ratchet strap

First thing I ran into is, some of the cheaper bearing kits that are offered have the incorrect inner seal! Both inner and outer seals should be a solid band of metal with an inner ring of rubber. The incorrect kit has pictured a solid black rubber seal. Avoid! If you ordered this kit and are searching for the right seal, its part number is 007 997 35 47.

Jack up and support car and remove rear tires. I changed my brake hoses since they were crusty so I removed the calipers (19mm) entirely and caught the fluid in jars as it dripped from the steel lines. The rotors come right off without further bolts if you have the ebrake released.

I had to unfasten the rear shocks to drop the trailing arms down a little bit to get the axles out of the hub, otherwise the space is too tight. Even then, it's a tricky circular jockeying motion to get the axle in and out of its hub. I had the small bolt axles, and the kit supplied replacement aluminum washers. Torque axles until they just start to crush. Remove the rear seat back by undoing the bolts at the lower two corners and lifting up and out of slots in the sheet metal of the car body. The shocks are accessed behind round plastic caps in the sheet metal on each side. Support the trailing arm before removing the shock nut, so it doesn't spring downward and fling the nut down into the body of the car behind the fuel tank. If you drop the nut in that little space , you can probably fish it out with a coat hanger through the large round access hole in the sheet metal behind the center seat. I used a wire pull. Stuff a rag in the shock area before undoing the nut.

Unpeen the hub nut from the axle carrying portion of the hub and unscrew using the special socket. The available writeup says you will need a 4 foot breaker bar against the torque. Mine was hand tight with only the punches to keep it in place. That freaked me out. I found someone on benzworld who reported the same thing. With the nut removed, I bolted the rotor back onto the hub backward with the lug bolts, using spacers (I used 3 crowsfeet) to keep the bolts from interfering with the ebrake assembly that I left on. Bang on the rotor with a 4 lb soft deadblow hammer, and turn the rotor a little between each strike. Hit pretty hard, but not gorilla hard. You are tapping the inner bearing off the hub shaft. Better to take your time and not damage stuff. You absolutely do not need to hit the inside of the hub. Catch the hub as it comes out, unbolt the rotor, and put aside. Remove the inner seal by mashing it out with a screw driver. The inner bearing is right behind it. Remove it and inspect your races, replace them if they look icky. I used a brass drift and PATIENCE to remove mine. Use a flat file to keep a crisp edge on the drift between hammering. Don't bother hammering with ratty, mushed up brass - it will only make you mad and get more brass everywhere. It takes lots of well aimed strikes with a sharply filed edge before you even have a fingernail's width of movement. ONLY use brass. It is not possible to aim carefully enough in this tight space with steel. They will come out eventually. Use the old races as a striking surface to hammer in the new ones. Once the new races were in too far to hammer on the old ones, I used a steel chisel that had been broken and ground flat to tap them in the rest of the way. Aim carefully! Clean everything up and be sure to get all the brass bits out of the wheel carrier. Replace with fresh grease when you are ready to install the hub.

Onto the hub. Use a "bearing separator" ($30 from HF) to remove the outer bearing from the hub shaft. The outer bearing will push the crush washer off the spindle. The first side came off SUPER easy. The second side did not. The bearing cage got pinched by the edge of the separator and deformed. No amount readjusting could get the separator completely under the bearing. Eventually the roller cage deformed enough that all the little rollers fell out and I was left with the inner race still on the shaft. With the roller cage out of the way, I used a steel chisel to make enough space that I could get the bearing separator under it. Then put two lug nuts in the hub to press on the bearing separator to push the bearing's inner race off the hub. You'll need spacers, the bolts aren't quite long enough.

Pack the new bearing with grease (I wiped off the outside so it didn't make too much of a mess) and tap it onto the hub. I used the broken-off chisel. Only hit the inner race, don't hit the roller cage! I had an awful time with the crush washers that came new, and had to use a piece of sand paper around my big 27mm socket to make them the tiniest bit bigger on the inside. Otherwise they absolutely would not go onto the hub. I used the old hub nut cage-washer thing and a block of wood as a hammering surface until it was part way on, then finished with gentle taps on a small sharp chisel.

Grease the hub and put into the wheel carrier. I used a ratchet strap to keep the hub secure in the wheel while I tapped the inner bearing on with the broken chisel. When the inner bearing was on far enough that the hub threads were exposed, I measured the tolerance with a dial indicator ($30 from HF) and before the nut was even on the hub, I got zero play. The crush washers were never engaged. This is not what most folks run into, as I understand. If I put the nut on even a little bit tight, the hub was REALLY hard to turn. I ended up tapping the hub back out (a TINY TINY little bit, and I hammered on the rotor mating surface, I didn't bother bolting the rotor back on) until I could juust feel the hub wiggle - about .005 inches of play. Then I used the new hub nut at HAND TIGHTNESS to get it down to the required .001 in. Peened the nut with a punch into the notches on the hub spindle to keep it in place. You can't feel .001 inches with your hands - it's indistinguishable from the squish of your fingers. If you can feel or see the play it's way too much. Buy the dial indicator.

Replace axles, replace calipers (bleed brakes if you removed the hoses), bolt up shocks, replace wheels, replace back seat. Voila!

Any idea of the service interval on these bearings?

I looked in my maintenance guide and they aren't mentioned. Is the philosophy wait till they roar then do races and bearings? I have around 200k on my sd and I'm wondering if I should open them up to pack them. No grinding, just the inclination to over repair my beloved car.

Maybe I should just be happy and keep motoring down the road?

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Sound advice to yourself!



And I'll add.... Worry less, drive more!

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1983 123.133 California
- GreaseCar Veg System

The methods of removing the Hub to get it apart to inspect the bearing usually damages the bearings and that would happen if you removed the Hub just to check.

You can check the end play while you know your bearings are good and check them at a later date to see if the end play is increasing.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I was told at an alignment shop that my bearings had slop, and the guy showed me that the back wheels had about an 1/8 of an inch of visible out-of-plane 'woggle' when jacked up and wiggled by hand. Just try that and see how much slop you get. Mine weren't making noise yet. I've seen bearings fail bad enough to WELD themselves to the hub spindle, so I don't think "wait until they howl" is the safest option.

What size is the brass drift used for knocking out the halfshaft from the hub?

The splined shaft is about 29mm in diameter, so something slightly smaller (or even a lot smaller) than that would do nicely. A hardwood dowel might even work if you have to do only light hammering. Mine were not seized, so I just pushed them out with the handle of a ratchet wrench. Nothing to it.

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

For the seriously difficult ones, I use special tools like:
A. Large three jaw puller.
B. Wheel hub puller.
C. https://www.google.com/search?biw=1280&bih=902&q=hydraulic+three+jaw+puller&oq=hydraulic+three+jaw+puller&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i30k1j0i8i30k1l2.192801.197546.0.203009.9.9.0.0.0.0.153.1219.0j9.9.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.9.1211...0i7i30k1j0i8i7i30k1.7utnZsW8PyU.
D. Other options not available outside major industrial areas.

That said, 99% of the time.
I use a piece of eight inch long 3/4 diameter brass round stock (held in Vise Grip or Channellock) to drive it out.

Any material that will take the pounding, and not injure you or damage the splines or threads is OK.

I have successfully used:
* One inch delrin round stock.
* One inch hard wood dowel.
* One inch bronze round stock.
* One inch copper round stock.
* One inch nylon round stock.

.

__________________
ASE Master Mechanic
asemastermechanic@juno.com

Prototype R&D/testing:
Thermal & Aerodynamic System Engineering (TASE) Senior vehicle instrumentation technician.
Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
Dynamometer.
Heat exchanger durability.
HV-A/C Climate Control.
Vehicle build.
Fleet Durability
Technical Quality Auditor.
Automotive Technical Writer

1985 300SD
1983 300D
1984 190D
2003 Volvo V70
2002 Honda Civic

https://www.boldegoist.com/

Thanks. I need to have the drift on hand before I start

In a pinch you can use a Socket on an Extension if the Axle is not rusted in badly.

Don't use any sort of drift on the inner facing part of the Wheel Hub as the metal is thin there and using a large drift, punch or hammer on it deforms the metal.

Also new Rear Wheel Hubs used to be over $350 each and a used one would be a lot of work to remove at the Junk Yard.

Note that if someone is not up to changing the rear Bearings some have gotten a good used trailing arm and replaced the whole Trailing Arm.
I had to do that when I damaged my Left Rear Trailing arm.


Never had any issues with the bearings on the used Trailing Arm and cannot remember any one else having that issue when they installed a used trailing arm.

In fact the rear bearing seldom go out.


Note give your Trailing Arms a good inspection for holes rusted through them.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel