R34 Gtt Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement

[Chris32]

So having to do this twice in a week, i figured the second time around I'll take some decent pictures for anyone else who wants to give it a go.

First time was with a second hand bearing from a wrecker, which wasn't much better than the old one. Although it 'felt' ok when it was off the car, once the wheel was on and you could get some weight / leverage on the bearing, it had plenty of play.

I sourced a new replacement from CBC Bearings here in Adelaide - (08)82617122

Part Number - NJ246AKIT - $114.58 + GST. This is a R34 specific bearing, with the tab for the handbrake as per the pictures.

You'll need access to a bearing press to push out the old hub and press it onto the new bearing. The locating pin for the handbrake bolt will alos need to be punched out and installed in the new bearing

1) Crack the wheel nuts and jack the car up safely, using axle stands. You'll need to apply quite a bit of force to undo some of the bolts, so you don't want the car coming down off the jack onto you. If you can't manage this, I'd stop reading now and take it to a mechanic!

2) Remove rear wheel and slide under the car for some added insurance if it all goes pear shaped.

3) Remove the brake caliper - 2 x 17mm bolts. Support the brake caliper so it doens't hang from the brake line. See pic for location of bolts.

4) Remove the brake rotor. If it doesn't budge, make sure your handbrake is not on, as this will hold the rotor on. It should come off easily, but might need a light nudge with a rubber mallet. You'll be left looking at the handbrake assembly and the hub as per pic.

5) Remove the handbrake assembly. Take plenty of pictures showing the orientation and location of all the springs. Get undernreath and take some more pictures, as its a pain the frist time you put it back together. You can see the retainer springs in the picture, unclip these and it all will fall apart and come off.

6) Remove the split pin from the driveshaft and undo the big nut. I think its 32mm. Mine was very loose, leading to the bearing failure the first time around. Push the driveshaft back into the hub - this allows you to access the 4 19mm bolts located at the back of the bearing which hold it to the suspension.

7) Undo the 4 19mm bolts located at the rear of the bearing. You might need to push the driveshaft back while locating the socket. These suckers are pretty tight, so be careful not to smash your knuckles when the let go!

8) Undo the large nut behind the bit that the handrake springs clip onto. I think its 24mm. This one is also plenty tight.

9) The bearing should now slide off the driveshaft and leave you looking at the driveshaft and where it all locates.

10) The old hub needs to be pressed out of the old bearing and pressed into the new bearing. A trip to my favourite workshop with a bottle of JD's saw this complete in around 15 mintues.

11) Slide on the new bearing to the driveshaft, and locate in the correct position. Locate the large handbrake bolt and then locate the 4 bolts in the back, do them up finger tight to make sure its all located correctly, then tighten.

Assembly is basically the reverse of pulling it apart. Remember to tighten that big nut up on the driveshaft, as that pulls the bearing toghether and keeps them happy!

Any questions, ask away

Chris

[skylinepower]

thanks alot for this DIY..this is also a good chance for me to change to longer Nismo hub studs!! great work

i'll be printing this out haha

[azathoth]

Thanks for this, will help heaps when I do mine.

[flavzz]

Great write up mate!

[R31GXE3.0]

Fantastic guide! Just thought I would mention though as I have been following your guide to do my rear bearings today, the axle nuts are 36mm, handy to know before you get it to that stage, especially if it's your only car and you don't own a 36mm socket, and I believe the nut that holds that handbrake assembly pin is 27mm, not positive but most socket sets have both. I also found I had to undo the bolts holding the drive shafts to the diff and move the whole shafts to get enough clearance to safely undo the bearing/hub bolts without risking rounding the heads, different height sockets perhaps. So far in my experience, the axle nuts have been the tightest, yet easier to undo than the nuts on the handbrake pins, not as much access to those, at least not when lying down with the car on stands.

I personally am going to be attempting to find torque values in the workshop manual for as much of this as i can as thats the way I like to do things. For anyone else that cares, the axle nut is torqued to between 206 - 274Nm, caliper mounting bolts I assume to be the same as the fronts being 152 - 154Nm (manual only lists fronts), drive shafts I am not quite sure which I have or what the differences are yet, something else for me to discover but for shafts T82CT82F the torques are 35 - 44Nm and for shafts Z100D90F the torques are 64 - 78Nm. If it helps, the tailshaft to diff flange bolts are torqued 55 - 64Nm, so i guess if your axle shafts have larger bolts than those, use the Z100 specs, if smaller, the T82CT ones. The torques for the handbrake pin nut and the bearing bolts dont appear to be listed in the workshop manual so i guess i will just rely on standard torque settings that i can find for those, but i cant do that until i get the thread sizes of them..

Cheers, Kent

[zacboy]

can anyone tell me if the r34 GT rear wheel bearing is the same as the GTT's??