Rear wheel bearing replacement question

[Frodo]

Originally Posted by onkauai

By the way, I know there are quite a few who have changed a bearing or two. The 32mm nut requires 340 foot pounds of torque! The biggest torque wrench I've found handles only 250 foot-lbls. How do you guys do that without spending a ton of money on a torque wrench suitable for a 40,000 lb fire engine?

In case anyone still wonders how to do this..

When I did mine, I went back to basic physics:

Torque = Force (in lb) X Distance (in feet)

Rearrange the equation and pop in the numbers you know (specified torque and your weight). I weigh about 195 lb, so for me:

Distance = Torque/Force

=340 ft-lb/195 lb
=1.74 ft, or about 21 inches

So I used a breaker bar and used my entire weight applied about 21" out from the nut to tighten it. When using this technique, try to do the final tightening with the breaker bar parallel to the ground, and apply your weight in a straight downward direction.

[Gilles]

after replacing the wheel bearing, do you push the hub until bottoms out?

Or do you have to leave some clearance for the bearing cover bolts?

It's my first time replacing the rear bearings and was going to measure the passenger side before removing it (but honestly, I am not looking forward to do it.. since the driver side was a bear to remove).

Thanks in advance.