Bearing re-pack help.

[MSHardeman]

I am right in the middle of TRYING to repack my front bearing, and I am having a byach of a time getting the three philips head screws out of the retaining ring. I managed to get ONE out, but the other five (two on driver side and all three on passenger side) are IMPOSSIBLE.

I have already started to strip the heads out of them. I went and got a bolt extractor kit, but it just drilled the head off of one of the screws and left the rest of it in the hub. I've destroyed another one trying to use a flat head screw driver to whack it around. No luck! I've used generous amounts of penetrating lube to no avail.

How, in the name of all that's holy, did any of you get these frakin' little screws out?

Looks like I'm going to have to call a mechanic to see if they can extract the screws for me, so it looks like I'll be taking off of work on Monday.

That was a partial vent, but if anyone has any suggestions lets hear them.

Mark

[PK]

Hi - sounds like you needed an impact screw driver set at the begining. Too late now for the ones that are damaged.

An impact screw driver has a tip that fits the slot of the screw, and then you hit the end of the impact area with a hammer.
It vibrates the screw loose, and at the same time applies a twisting motion.
In Australia, about $20 at any good tool shop for a cheap set.

Good luck

PK

[Joe_Black]

Impact driver as above. The right tools are definitely your friend and too inexpensive to not have handy.

[Tone]

Lisa and I just did hers and everytime I do them now, I take a correctly sized phillips head screwdriver, place the tip in the screw, and pop it with a deadblow (or regular) hammer - this sets the tool in the slots and "loosens' the screw. Then pushing hard on the handle of the screw driver it should come right out, even those that you have already stripped - might want to hit those harder.

[MSHardeman]

Tone,

Thanks for the tip, but that is exactly what I did the first time I tried to get the screws out. Even after I had started to strip some of them out, I applied a generous amount of penetrating lube, did the hammer whack, and tried again, but those little sucker aren't going anywhere.

I'm going to try and find an impact hammer in the morning to see if I can get the slightly stripped ones out with that, but the one that is totally stripped and the one that is broken off will either need to be mechanically removed or drilled out and tapped.

As far as I can tell, the retaining ring is screwed to the hub nut, so if worse came to worse I could just drill out the heads on all of the screws and just get some new hub nuts. I'm going to call Merlin in the morning to see if he has any on hand, and if he does if he can overnight them to me. If that ends up being cheaper than paying a mechanic to extract or drill and tap them out I'll do that so I can at least get to the bearing to start the repack and rotor replacement.

I can't believe that 5 tiny little 4mm screws (I actually got one off of the driver side) are stopping me from completing the bearing repack, rotor and brake pad replacement, and stainless steel brake line install.

[tom4bren]

I can't provide any words of wisdom beyond what's already said in terms of getting them out now ... but when you get ready to put her all back together, put some anti-sieze on them puppies so that next time it won't be such a problem.