My mechanic neighbour always gave me grief for not adding grease when pressing things together. Any reason why you do not?

Ray, the supply house sent you the wrong snap rings. They shouldn't fight back that bard.

That's what 20k lbs of weight right there?

Who ever fitted those tyres needs a foot in the backside. They surely would have noticed the play in that bearing but let it go.

Any one want to move that power point from behind the press!

Uh, I am not an electrician or code inspector but… what the heck is that plug and electrical cord and hole in the wall behind the hydraulic press?!😀

Presume the front left versus rear left wheel bearing was a transfer of information issue somewhere along the line, guessing the tire guy did report the issue to the customer and that's what started the process, that bearing must have been noisy for quite some time.

Good video mare….but remember how you had trouble getting the old snap ring out…..maybe the bearing could have pushed further in to be well clear of the snap ring groove….you adapted well…….and even gave us some laughs…..thx my friend

Ford submitted specs for tire companies to bid on, and the price point Ford set scared off Goodyear, IIRC. Firestone met the price point by going with a cheap tire design and about to be submitted to a challenging situation. (Fun fact: the Bronco II before it had its own rollover problems and the Explorer was supposed to be progress because it had a few inches more of wheelbase, which does help with that.

It was the dawn of American consumers screaming, “I don’t know what center of gravity means but I wanna be up in the air in a trucky thing for fashion’s sake!” People weren’t rolling their Caprice Classics or Dodge Darts in the 70’s when their tires blew, and I’m sure there were some low rent and neglected tires in those days, too. Center of gravity, people.

American’s refusal to check their tire pressure with a gauge, because it’s so hard to kneel or some damned reason I could never figure out. More carpet, roof, and glass, that era of SUV carried more weight on the rear tires than a similar pickup truck. Add full passenger load and cargo on a long trip on an interstate on a hot day and, well, in theory, the customers are supposed to (after reading the glovebox manual that they didn’t throw out, right?) add air pressure to the tires for such situations.

Ford and Firestone did screw up, but it always irked me how much the consumers’ role in all this was just ignored. Big mean corporations! Now everybody drives around in slightly less tippy SUV’s but with stability control and tire pressure sensors, so that’s nice. But CG is still CG, you silly geese.

Your sense of humor is priceless! Where I'd be cussing, you just Crack me up! But you reminded me of working at a tire shop in Jersey in 1979 or 80 just out of H.S. ( I was road service, fixing flats on 18 wheelers!) Firestone had defective tires called the Firestone 500. The rubber separated from the metal belts ( Michelin the best) 2 passenger tires separated the exact same way and the tread zig zaged a photographer from Time magazine (rag) was there and did a story on the defects! So my hands were in time magazine!

I agree with the last guy yes could like to see it all but job comes first. And snap rings have not been a friend to me too.

Wheel upright gravity?

The Firestone 500 was their first radial. During the initial training period employees were on hourly wage. After the end of training on the new radials they went to piece work. This resulted in incomplete curing on some of the tires. When they heated up they could come apart. I saw a picture of a CHP cruiser near Mojave with three blowouts and the vehicle remained upright . Firestone tried every excuse in the book. This is where we got the caution about not cross-rotating radials. Meanwhile Michelin stated in their 1984 handbook that there were no restrictions on rotating their tires barring any vehicle manufacturer's cautions.

I have done several of these and I thoroughly clean the snap ring location with brake clean and wire brush, I use a little heat on the hub to enlarge slightly, the old bearing bearing pushes out easily. I use a 6" Machinist Vise, while easily pushing the bearing and hub out I put the New hub and New bearing in the freezer or some dry ice or just a fresh cold gel pack. A little freeze action gives maybe 1 – 2 thousands shrinkage and a little oil or grease on the outside of the bearing and Hub spindle allow for a REAL EASY INSTALL. No Big Press needed. A 6" vice will do an admiral job! use a big socket or 2" pipe to push out old bearing and hub assembly. Clean out snap ring groove REALLY WELL. Compress snap ring and start far end away from snap ring pliers and install ring first tilting snap ring into the groove and using a screwdriver push in snap ring down and into the groove while releasing the tension on the snap ring pliers. PRESTO!

What kind of penetrating oil do you use?

I've never set a tire under 35 psi and never will.

I did an oops when I drove with a broken steering gear in my Pontiac Grand Am. It either broke while towing it (i.e. roped to a truck in front of me, as the car was dead) to the dealership or at the dealership. Oh, and the battery exploded a few seconds after the mechanic put it on the charger, luckily he was about 15 feet away when it went bang. Though the shop guys did admit a change of pants may have been necessary, as it sounded like a shotgun going off.

Suffice to say, that car was sold shortly thereafter. In fairness, it was a good car, considering it had nearly 300k miles.

If I can hear it on camera it must be deafening to you.

I am amazed that like working with that snap ring there wasn’t one swear word. Actually in all your videos you are the consummate professional. 🙂

Went smoother than the last hub I had to remove off an “Exploder”. The torch put its work in that day lol.

😧😳

Didn't see anyone else mention the "Rotation" direction of that front tire was wrong.
Those type of tire have a right and left… the "V" of the tread should always point in the direction of travel.
Great tires though! Just rotate them from front to back.

That Ray love watching u