With the arm and spring plate installed, I set about trying to get the bearings installed.
Any work with hand-greased bearings is a messy affair. I tried my best to do everything with gloves, and then never letting the greased bearings touch anything other than a clean paper towel.
The inner bearing went it with some difficulty. I used an old bearing to get it in but had difficulty then when that bearing became stuck.
From the outer hole I had to force them both out.
I managed to find a 1/2″ socket that seemed just right enough to pound it it.
Of course, that left the circlip, the bane of my existence, to go in.
I would like to think if I had quality circlip pliers that such things would be easier but I suspect that for me, there would still be drama. I just hate these damn things so much.
A bit more grease and the grease seal and inner spacer were installed.
I scraped up the paint. I wonder what this would have been like if I’d powder coated it all. Would it have scraped up too?
I had hoped to have this all wrapped up with the stub axle in but the outer bearing is being problematic.
It is not going in easy at all, and has gone in a bit odd at the top which means I may have to pull it, risking destroying it. (I don’t have extras.)
Other than the mallet/hammer method, there’s no way I’ve seen to really do these on the car. Bentley shows it all with the trailing arm off and using a hydraulic press.
After several hours of twisting my back and being on the concrete, I had to call it a day.
I’ll start on this again tomorrow morning.
I’d really like to have the disk brakes installed by tomorrow,