Nickthegreek

Doing it as soon as the weather warms up a bit

Nickthegreek

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12763681@N06/page1/

Heres the link to the pics I took. Big thanks to N Jay who made my first post into a word document which I can PM to anyone who wants it. I will be making a word document for this too.

Nickthegreek

Ok here's the write up on the procedure:

Tools needed:

-Well made crescent wrench or 18mm box wrench
-15/16 socket
-17mm socket
-18mm sockets
-36mm socket
-9mm deep socket
-Phillips head screw driver
-10mm box wrench
-t27 torx bit
-e10 torx socket
-air tools (I take back when I said air tools are optional. in order to get the new ball joint on you have to have air tools. A breaker bar just won't cut it)
-Socket for the ball joints
-hammer
-bearing extractor/press in set
-drum brake pliers
-snap ring pliers
-jack/jackstands

First jack up on the back of the truck. I removed a sheet metal crossmember that held the exhausts in order for the jack to be able to hit the subframe center. I would not jack up on the differential.

Nickthegreek

Next remove the lugbolts with the 17mm socket



Using the 36mm socket remove the collar nut then press out the drive axle with a two jaw puller

Nickthegreek

Remove the brake. To do this you need one of these types of wrenches because it is a tight fit and you cannot turn the wheel carrier like you can the front steering knuckle

Compress then remove the brake caliper/bracket assembly and hang it

Nickthegreek

Now use the t27 torx bit to remove the screw on the rotor and remove the rotor. There is a drum brake style parking brake on this vehicle. In order to remove it it is similar to any drum style brake. The fasteners on this are nice though because they mate with a phillips head screw driver unlike other cars where you have to press and hope friction will turn it

Nickthegreek

Next pry on one of the brake pads so that you can get some slack in the starwheel and remove it. Once the starwheel is off the brake pads will come right out with a little finagling. You will be left with the brake actuator mechanism which is just a claw that holds the cable. Remove this

Nickthegreek

next is the ebrake cable. there is a plastic grommet holding it in. Using the 9mm deep socket tap it out with a hammer

Nickthegreek

Next are the three linkages. It took me a while to figure out what order to get them out in but I finally figured it out. There are three linkages. One sits toward the front of the vehicle, another sits midway between the first and third, and the last one faces the rear. If you try to take out the middle one first you will get nowhere very quickly which I found out. So I removed the one facing the rear of the vehicle first and that let wheel carrier wobble a bit which then let front facing linkage come out easily, and then finally the middle linkage came out

This is the rear facing linkage which comes out first.



There is a bolt with an 18mm head and 18mm nut. The nut sits in the wheel carrier and there is no room for even a box wrench to fit on it. For this you need either a crescent wrench or a open end wrench I used my new crescent wrench. It didnt strip thank god but I painted the bolt with anti-seize so that would definitely never happen

Nickthegreek

here it is with the bolt off. Now the wheel carrier can wobble a bit and allow you to get the next linkage off. Oh and the abs sensors were so corroded on the rear that I just cut them off and ordered new ones.

Nickthegreek

Next we only want to take the nut off of the bolt for the middle steering linkage. There is a plastic bracket that gets in the way of the front linkage which needs to be taken off. In order to loosen this bolt, hold the head of the bolt still and turn the nut off. The bolt was corroded into the bushing and I didn't want to ruin the bushing.









Just remove the plastic bracket for now

The next linkage is the one that faces the front of the car. This uses the same exact bolt as the rear one does so same tools. I also painted this one with anti-seize afterwards

Nickthegreek

Nickthegreek

After removing the forward linkage now you can tap out the middle linkage. You'll have to wobble the wheel carrier around to get it to come out. Now the wheel carrier should flop down. Remove drive axle completely and push aside. The rear has much more room compared to the front. Using a 15/16 socket remove the ball joint nut. I put the jack under to hold the carrier and put some weight on the joint so it would back out completely.

Nickthegreek

Now as you let the jack down the whole wheel carrier should just come right out. Remove the four bolts that hold the ebrake backing plate with a 10mm box wrench. The backing plate won't come right off as in the front. You have to get the hub off first. Pound the hub out using a hammer and some plates as in the front



Hub and backing plate came right out

Nickthegreek

Now mount the carrier on a bench vise and hammer out the ball joint



Next take out the snap ring from the bearing. The rear on mine came out easy whereas the front needed alot of persuasion. Read my front DIY for details on getting a stuck snap ring loose.

Next pound out the bearing. The rear bearings are exactly the same as the front ones so checkout my front DIY for details on removing them