Replacing the rear wheel bearings

When I took the Amazon for a testdrive  I heard a whoop-whoop-whoop sound coming from the rear axle. The sound is hard to describe but it's a bit like driving over white stripes on the road all the time.
The noise was stronger when I turned right and it was almost gone when I turned left.
Yep...a worn out left wheel bearing. Left because the car puts more weight on the left side when turning right.

I decided to replace the rear wheel bearings on both sides. The name wheel bearing is a bit misleading because the bearing is not somewhere in the wheel but inside the rear axle. When replacing the wheel bearings it's smart to replace the oil seals,gaskets and retainers with the felt seals as well.

Complete set for one side

New Timken rear wheel bearing

I started with the left side because that's the side without the shims. Shims are the thin metal plates (see right on above pic) in various sizes. They are placed between the backing plate and the axle in order to create some play between the axle and the bearings. The shims on the right side determine the play for both sides. If there's not enough play the new bearing will worn out in no time, it can even cause the half shaft to brake. To much play will also ruin the bearings. First I had to remove the drum brake, brake shoes assembly, hand brake cable and brake cylinder. After removing the cylinder from the backing plate I fitted the cylinder back on the brake line in order to stop the leaking of more brake fluid.
Now you have to remove the 4 nuts holding the retainer with felt seal, the two gaskets and the thick metal plate between the gaskets and of course the big black brake backing plate..

brake backing plate with old gasket, retainer with felt seal and metal plate with other gasket

Now you can remove the left side half shaft. Well...it's not that easy, according to the Haynes manual you need a special tool to press it out. The outer race is pressed in the hollow axle and will give you a hard time.

Half shaft with rear wheel bearing Volvo 122S

But as always there's a nice little trick to get this thing out. I put back on the drum brake and gave the big nut a couple of turns. Now get under the car and hammer (not too hard) on a piece of wood held against the drum. Do this on the left, right, top en bottom side of the drum and after a while it will come loose. You can use the drum as a nice handle to pull the half shaft out of the axle housing.

Drum used as a "special tool"  to get the half shaft out of the axle housing

Half shaft coming out of the rear axle housing of the Volvo 122S

Removing the woodruff

Inner and outer half of the rear wheel race still on the half shaft

Remove the half shaft wood ruff and carefully tap off the inner half of the wheel bearing.

Half shaft with inner and outer race of the wheel bearing 

When I took a closer look at the outer race of the old wheel bearing I could see why it made such a noise; half of the inside was damaged. There was almost no grease left  in the bearing.

Another thing was that the outer race was from Bower (USA) and the inner race of the wheel bearing was from SKF (Sweden). Apparently they can be combined because I found the same on the right side and that bearing was still in good order.

Old Bower outer race of the wheel bearing

Old SKF inner race of the wheel bearing

Next thing to do is removing the oil seal inside the hollow axle. And again you need a special tool... This time I used a water pump plier. You'll damage the old oil seal but that doesn't matter as long as you don't damage the inside of the rear axle housing, so be care full again.

Old oil seal inside the rear axle Volvo 122S

Taking out the old oil seal

Old oil seal rear axle removed Volvo Amazon

Parts of the old oil seal and also the new oil seal

I used a 36mm socket and a bit of thin oil to tap the new oil seal back in place. (Before installing the new oil seal make sure everything inside the outer axle housing is really clean). Now carefully tap the new inner wheel bearing on the half shaft and slide it back in the axle. be careful not to damage the new oil seal and the diff. Fill the bearing with lithium grease or some other high temp resistant grease and carefully put back the new outer bearing. Carefully because it's a bit difficult to get it nice and even in the hollow axle. I pushed the first mm in and used the old retainer plate and the 4 nuts to drive it in evenly till it was almost flush with the axle.

36 mm socket to tap in the new oil seal

New oil seal rear axle back in place

Castrol Wheel bearing grease

Inner rear wheel race back in place and filled with grease

Outer race half way in Spicer 3010 axle housing

Using the retainer to press the outer wheel bearing back in place

Rear wheel bearing back in place Volvo 122S

As we can only adjust the play on the right hand side that's all for the left side for now. I fitted back on the brake backing plate, brake cylinder and hand brake cable mounting and moved on to the right side.

After removing all the brake parts I could take off the brake backing plate and have a look at the shims between the backing plate and the end of the axle housing.

Shims on the right side of the Spicer rear axle

When the new wheel bearing was back in place I installed the same shims and a really thin third shim.
Then I tried to measure the play of the half shaft with a dial indicator. According to the manual it should be between 0.07 and 0.20 mm. Well, I tried but I couldn't get an accurate reading because the end of the shaft isn't that smooth so even with the slightest turn you get an incorrect reading on your dial indicator.

Measuring the rear axle play with a dial indicator

I couldn't feel any play so I decided to leave it like the first set up and after fitting back all the brake parts , wheels and bleeding the brakes I took the Amazon for a test drive... All good.