Well replaced the U-joints in the XJ a few months ago and had to beat the hub off of the driver's side to get it off.  So I knew it was only a matter of time before the bearing went out.  Lets just say, it went out and so I figured I would do a write up on it.

First step in the replacement, disconnect the negative battery terminal from the battery....    Sorry had to.

Pic of the tire, take off the lug nuts:



It will look like this, you next need to take off the brake:



You will need to remove these two bolts, they are pictured almost all the way out so they could be seen easier.  I think if I remember correctly they are a 13mm:



Put the brake somewhere that it is not hanging by the lines.  This is not good for the lines and can cause more problems down the road.  I put mine on the control arm:



Next take off the rotor:



This is what it should look like now:



Pull the cotter pin in the middle there and take the cap thingy off that it holding on.



This is what it looks like now:



The big nut in the picture above is what comes off next.  The size is 36mm for that nut.  To get it off, it will just spin unless you prevent the shaft from moving.  I just put a pry bar in the u-joint to prevent it from turning.:



Here is what it looks like with the big nut off:



Next you will need to take off the 3 bolts holding the hub on, they are size 13mm.  They will be on the backside of the hub.  Here are two pictured:



And the third one:



Now the fun part, getting the hub off.  If it is like most it will be practically rusted on there.  This is what got me here in the first place, like stated at the beginning of the post.  I beat mine off with a sludge hammer the last time, and screwed up the bearing.  I did some more research and found a different way, and it only takes about 30 seconds, as apposed to 5 min. of sludge hammer action.  Here is a pic of the seam that needs to have a gap in it.  Before pic:



Now to get it off easily.  The 3 bolts holding the hub on, you will want to only loosen the bottom two to leave about a 1/2" gap.  You can see the gap in this picture.  Then take a deep well socket a size or two bigger then the size of the bolt, I used 14mm, and put it on the bolt pictured here:



You take the wheel and turn it until it is wedged up against the other metal parts.  You can see in this pic where the metal is scared from the socket being wedged:



Once it is wedged, turn the XJ on and let the power steering do the work.  It doesn't take much turning of the wheel and it will pop.  I did this to both sides of the hub, you could probably get away with only doing it once though.  Now look at the gap that we have in the seam:



With a screw driver and a few seconds of prying you can walk it write off.  So much easier!!!

Here are a few pics of the new and old parts.  You can see that the old one is ugly. 





You simply put it all back together and you are done.  It took me 1 hr and 5 mins from start to finish. 
If I didn't call something the right thing or did things out of order, oh well, it worked for me.  I hope that this helps some of you out.  The deep well socket is a miracle worker, use it, it is SOOOO much easier then the alternative.

 

-- Edited by aci4369 at 02:33, 2008-08-02