just got back from the dealership.

apparently when I asked them how much it would cost to press the bearing on to the hub, they thought I asked them how much it cost to purchase a used Nissan Versa.

 

question about the seal. did you replace the seal?

how is the seal attached to the drive shaft? does it snap into place?

when you say re-grease where the axle touches the hub, what do you mean and why did you have to do that?

 

okay...got my bearing pressed on to the hub by a friend of mine who had a press



you can see that the bearing has a top and a bottom. it will not line up to the bolt holes if you install it the wrong way. Here you can see the marking indicating top of the bearing.



At this point I tried installing the hub/bearing assembly on to the axle and drive shaft and realized I did not have the appropriate knowledge or tools to do so. When I removed the assembly, I was able to get access to the bolts by first removing the hub and than the bearing. Obviously when you go to install it, the bearing and hub are one assembly and I had no access to the bolts to properly get to them and torque them to spec.

 

i did what others here have done and removed the drive shaft from the differential. There are 6 nuts that you need to loosen. You will need a 14 mm socket as well as a 14 mm open ended wrench (wrench for when you re-assemble). At first it looks like you do not have access to the bolts, but by rotating the drive shaft as you loosen each bolt, you get access to all of them.

i do not have a picture, but the 6 nuts bolt the drive shaft to the differential and are pretty obvious when you see them.

You will also have to remove the bolt (17 mm) that attaches the rear lower link to the axle. You have to use a jack to jack up the rear lower link to give the suspension some slack so you can get the bolt out. This gives you room to wiggle the drive shaft out.

Picture of the area:



Picture of drive shaft removed:



With the drive shaft removed, I hammered out the old metal seal and placed the new one on. The seal gets tightened as you tighten the axle nut, so for now, just place it on by hand

seal removed:


new seal placed on:

 

What seal?

I wanted the axle to be cleaned and newly greased in combination with the new hub, to prevent the infamous "rear axle click".

 

No, I didn't replace the seal on the drive axle. I didn't know Nissan sold that separate.

 

install the bearing/hub assembly and tighten the four bolts to 56-69 ft-lb.



NOTE: you'll also need to remove the bolt that that holds the e-brake cable (no need to remove the cable itself). you can see it in the above picture in black. this will allow you to wiggle it out of the way to get better access to tighten the 6 nuts on the drive shaft.

 

You removed all of that? I was able to slide the right, rear axle and bend it around. Pretty tight fit.

 

I didn't remove the caliper cable bolt either.

 

Did it bang on the exhaust when trying to snake it out?

 

install the drive shaft. it's kinda tricky to do this because my exhaust got in the way. I didn't want to have to remove the exhaust, so I improvised and just wiggled it to get it on. the owner's manual says, "do not apply an excessive angle to the drive shaft joint".

oh wells.

tighten the six nuts on the drive shaft to 47-58 ft-lb.
place the axle nut and hand tighten. place your rotor back on and pull the e-brake. now tighten the axle nut to 152-202 ft-lb.




put back cotter pin, put back rotor and caliper and wheel and test drive

The noise that was there before is not there anymore, so to me is was $200 well spent. If anyone goes through this install and finds a better way to do things, than please continue to add to this thread.

 

My broken bearing caused a LOUD wind tunnel type noise behind me.

 

If you were able to get it out without removing the lower link, than that may be another option for other members. This is why I like the input from others who have done this, because there are always different ways to do things.

It was only one bolt to get the rear lower link off and I've removed it before to install my coilovers, so it was no biggie.

 

I also used a boxed end 19mm wrench to loosen one or two of the four bolts holding the bearing in place. Using a breaker bar I couldn't get enough movement with other components in the way. Using a hammer to bang on the wrench or breaker bar can help with removing tough bolts/nuts.

 

done!!!!