Bearing re-pack help.

[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.

[MSHardeman]

More to the saga....but good news this time.

Right after I called Merlin to get the hub nuts shipped to me, I went out and bought an impact driver. Tried it on the goofy little screws and NO LUCK. The impact driver only stripped them out more.

After a little cussing (OK, A LOT of cussing) and some tool throwing I grabbed the screw extractor and chucked it into my drill fully intending to just drill the heads off of the screws and just wait for the nuts to come in from Merlin. As I was drilling the first screw out (keep in mind that the extractor drills with the drill in reverse) the drill bit part of the extractor must have grabbed the screw enough and it backed right out!! WTF!? Must have been a fluke...NOPE, same thing on the second screw...and the third...and the...you get the idea. This same process even worked on the headless screw. Well-I'll-be-darn!

So, now is all right with the world and I have completely torn down the driver side and I am waiting for everything to dry off after degreasing and washing it so I can put it all back together.

I'm still going to let the hub nuts come as I'm sure it's always good to have a couple lying around.

Thanks to everyone for the input. First round in Moab is on me.

I just love our little "family".

Mark

[Joe Isuzu]

glad there's a happy ending for you on this Mark! I can totally empathize with you about the cursing and tool throwing! My knuckles are pretty scuffed up from working on the car this weekend, I've been telling people at work I've started my own neighbourhood "Fight Club"

[Ldub]

More to the saga....but good news this time.

Right after I called Merlin to get the hub nuts shipped to me, I went out and bought an impact driver. Tried it on the goofy little screws and NO LUCK. The impact driver only stripped them out more.

After a little cussing (OK, A LOT of cussing) and some tool throwing I grabbed the screw extractor and chucked it into my drill fully intending to just drill the heads off of the screws and just wait for the nuts to come in from Merlin. As I was drilling the first screw out (keep in mind that the extractor drills with the drill in reverse) the drill bit part of the extractor must have grabbed the screw enough and it backed right out!! WTF!? Must have been a fluke...NOPE, same thing on the second screw...and the third...and the...you get the idea. This same process even worked on the headless screw. Well-I'll-be-darn!

So, now is all right with the world and I have completely torn down the driver side and I am waiting for everything to dry off after degreasing and washing it so I can put it all back together.

I'm still going to let the hub nuts come as I'm sure it's always good to have a couple lying around.

Thanks to everyone for the input. First round in Moab is on me.

I just love our little "family".

Mark

If it comes down to the wire, consult you're local hardware dood...I replaced all the little (soft) hub screws with stainless, that were readily available from my local Ace Hardware.

[johnnyapollo]

Those small screws are also available in the screw bin at Home Depot. They can right out for me during the rotor replacement, but I bought some extras anyway just in case they were needed.

-- John