RE: Alfetta rear axle bearings

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

> Obviously the factory's thought was, "Should the rear axle bearings go
> out, crush, buy new car."

It's not that bad.  Really.  And it's much easier with the special tools.

Worst time I ever had was with a friends Verde, 11 hours on the lift, mainly
due to the fact that we didn't have a spare retaining ring and spent eight
or so of those hours trying to get the existing one out of the car, and then
spares out of the 2-3 dedion axles I had lying around the loft.  Not
realizing that the retaining rings are reverse threaded on the drivers side
of the car, we broke 3 (yes three!) half inch breaker bars in the process.
I had fun returning two of them, broken Craftsmans, the next day.

Anyhow, while you can do this job without the factory tools, they make the
job much easier.  And if your car has lived it's live in southern CA, then
things might not be frozen up as much as they tend to get here in the salt
belt.

There are two types of retaining rings, Alfetta style and Milano style (I've
seen both on the GTV6, don't know if they switched during the run or if all
of them came with one or the other).

The Alfetta style is *much* better.  Always order a new one of those.  The
special tool on the Milano style tends to push the retaining ring into the
threads, while the special tool for the Alfetta style retaining ring tends
to put all the force into rotating it one way or another (plus it would be
easier to deal with the Alfetta style ring using just a hammer and a
screwdriver).

If you can't loosen the one you have right away, don't hesitate to take a
die grinder to it and then replace it with a new one (use never seize in the
threads).

The bearing itself is pressed in and out.

With a tail wind, no snags, and all the proper tools, this job can be done
easily in less than a couple of hours.  Make sure you have a spare retaining
ring (Alfetta style) so if you hit any snags you can destroy what's in there
without having to worry about how you're going to hold it all together.

HTH,

bs

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