How do you change the rear wheel bearing in a 1998 dodge colt?

Answer 1

Loosen the wheel lugnuts. Using a flat head screw driver or other suitable tool, pry off the cap at the center of the wheel to expose the axle nut. Loosen the axle nut (this may take some serious leverage or a pneumatic wrench). Jack the car up and place chocks. Remove the wheel. Remove the axle nut. Remove the brake drum (be sure the parking brake is not engaged or it won't come off). As you remove the drum the outer wheel bearing will come with it since after the axle nut is removed, there is nothing holding it in place. Take the brake drum to a work bench. With a flat head screw driver, pry out the oil seal (plastic ring) from the inner wheel bearing side. Discard the used oil seal. The inner bearing will slide right out. You now have to remove the inner and outer races that are jammed into the center hole of the brake drum. If you look in the hole you will see the two races are separated by a ring and you will notice that the ring between the two races has a gap in it. You place the head of a flat head swrew driver or chisel in the gap and bang one race out one end of the hole. Flip the drum over and bang the other one out the other end. Here's the hard part, you need to bang two new races in and you will need a brass drift to do it. A brass drift is just a brass stick. You need a stick made of brass because it is softer then the races and therefore as you bang the races in the brass gets chipped but the races are not damaged. Start with the outer bearing race. Set it in place (i.e in the center hole of the drum) and use the brass drift and hammer to get it down into the hole and into place. You are trying to get the race squeezed into the hole uniformly and not on an angle. After it is just slightly seated bang it in using the brass drift on the race and hammering the other end of the drift. Bang it down, moving around the circular race so that it goes down uniformly and not at an angle. Eventually you will have banged it all the way down until it is sitting flush on that ring in the center of the hole, just as was the race you removed. Flip the drum over and bang another race into the inner wheel bearing side. When the inner wheel bearing race is in place apply some bearing grease to the inner bearing race. Make sure you are using WHEEL BEARING grease, regular grease will not do the job. Pack the new bearing with WHEEL BEARING grease (check YouTube -- there are videos on how to pack a bearing with grease). Install a new oil seal. I have had success with a block of wood that is bigger than the oil seal - place the seal in on the hole, cover with the block of wood and bag the wood with a rubber mallet, therby forcing the seal into place. Flip the drum over, apply WHEEL BEARING grease to the outer race, pack the outer race with WHEEL BEARING grease, slip it in place. Put drum with new bearings back on the axle, apply axle nut (we'll tighten it later). Put the wheel on, lower the car, tighten the axle nut to at least 150 pounds, fill the cap with grease and put the cap back over the axle nut, tighten lug nuts.

To do this job you need a brass drift (try sears online), wheel bearing grease (Mitsubishi recommends lithium-based wheel bearing grease) an oil seal (buy extras, you will go through two or three before you get this right, believe me, and you can always return the unused ones) and wheel bearings. The bearings that NAPA says you need for this car do not fit. I found that the one's that Advance Autoparts sells for this car do fit. The inner and outer bearings are the same size, so you need two identical bearings with races (the bearings are sold with the races) for each wheel.