Don't try this at home? Front Output Bearing

[98 HOO]

'04 Disco II - 86k miles
Developed a slight front end vibe - checked around and found the front tranfer case output had some noticable play, so I tried this today to replace the front output bearing:

http://discoweb.org/tcasebearing/index.htm

It didn't go well, and I don't think I would recommend it to others - unless it was just my bad luck. Everything was fine till it came time to pull the bearing. I used two brake spring hooks (pictured) to pull on the bearing as hard as I could - legs braced on the rear trailing arms pushing/pulling till I broke one of the hooks. Woudln't Budge. 6 auto parts stores, home depot, and a tractor repair shop - nobody had a slide hammer or bearing puller that would grab the bearing with the output shaft in it. The second picture shows what I finally did - Drilled through the bearing carrier in a couple spots and attached some long screws to the bearing and to a plate attached to a slide hammer. It ended up pulling the whole shaft, still attached to the bearing. All-in-all, 9 hours. Worst part is it didn't even fix them problem.

Has anyone come up with a good way to pull this bearing? If not, I would definately not recommend this.

What is my next possible source of the play in the front output?

Thanks.

 

[DiscoS2]

Job was pretty easy for me. IIRC, when I did mine, I attached a slide hammer to the shaft and the shaft knocked out the bearing. Or... the more I think about it, maybe I pulled the shaft through the bearing and then was able to access the inner race to pull the bearing. I dunno...
Maybe someone else can post to verify if this is plausible.

I do remember for reassembly, I first pressed the bearing onto the shaft and then drove the shaft/bearing combo in with a PVC pipe.

 

[98 HOO]

Good point - I didn't know that the shaft was going to come/could come out with the bearing. Would be easier to just attach the slide hammer to the spindle and pull the whole assembly and seperate the two after. I was afraid a I had broken something when the spindle came out with the bearing.....

Another note on this - seal part number has been updated to FTC4939

I still have noticable play (1mm laterally) at the front output flange - is it a concern? If so, what needs to be replaced next?
Thanks

 

[desertdude]

I have to agree, I tried to do this on my D1 after seeing the post in the tech section here aswell in the end I just admited defeat and put everything thing back.

Fortunately/unfortunately soon after that I had to replace my TC so the issue was addressed. Looks like the bearing pressed in and does not budge no matter what. My friend helping me swore it looks like its suppose to come out from the rear after opening up the Tcase. But I kept insisting that it can pop out from the front.

Still got a spare bearing if anybody needs one

 

[sven]

Ive posted this a few years ago:

Pull flange, remove old seal, remove circlip, reinstall flange (without circlip) , then use slidehammer to remove shaft along with bearing. Reinstall new bearing with a hub nut tool and hammer.

That tech article should be deleted or edited....there is no way you can pull that bearing with toothpicks.

 

[98 HOO]

That would have been the perfect way to do it - probably would have saved me six hours of cursing.....
I agree, the tech article needs to be edited - your directions above with the updated seal part number would save some folks a lot of trouble.