Rear Wheel Bearing Removal

With the hub nut removed it is fairly easy to use a puller to remove the drive flange. After this the driveshaft can be removed from the hub carrier. Then the bearing all seals can be pulled out with a pair of mole grips, being careful not to damage the inner surfaces of the rear hub carrier. Once the oil seals are out the tapered roller bearings just drop out.

The harder part is removing the outer bearing races from inside the hub carrier. These bearings are back-to-back and therefore it is not possible to push them out with a press. Neither is it easy to pull them out with a puller - there is not enough surface to get a grip on. Perhaps a blind bearing puller might work, but these are very expensive.

In the end I fashioned a simple soft metal drift from a scrap brass ball valve arm - sourced from a friendly plumber. This improvised drift, teamed up with a normal claw hammer, was used to drive the outer faces from within the hub carrier. After each hit the hub carrier was rotated 90 degrees. This helped ensure the race came out straight and did not get jammed at an angle. The second race was even easier as there was more of its rear surface visible to use the drift on.

Driveshaft Renewal

The driveshafts had previously been removed from the Sierra rear beam and set aside. Soon these will be needed for assembly onto the car. However, first they need to be renewed.

First the internal metal surfaces were masked in tape, i.e. those which go inside the final drive and the rear hub. Then a wire brush attachment in a drill was used to remove all loose rust. After degreasing, a couple of coats of smooth Hammerite were added.

The driveshaft gaiters were most likely the original from when Ford built the Sierra about 20 years ago. It seemed prudent to change these while the driveshafts were off the car. I used a 'slide-a-boot' kit for each. These were bought from eBay and can be used without having to dismantle the drive shaft.

First the old gaiter is removed. The cone is cut down to length and covered in the lubricant provided. The cone is placed over the end of the draftshaft and the gaiter is pulled over the cone on to the driveshaft. The gaiter needs to be pulled inside out beforehand. The gaiter is now pulled the back the right way, grease packed into the CV joint and finally the cable ties used to secure the two ends of the gaiter. The cable ties were used in preference to the metal bands as these were difficult to get tight.

Below the finished driveshaft, painted, gaiters replaced and ready for installation on the car. Same process for the other driveshaft.

The rear hub nut challenge

It seems that people do various amount of renewal of the Sierra rear drive shafts. Some do none, some do a full rebuild, including sandblasting and new bearings and gaters. The gaters on mine definitely need replacing. On top of this I've opted to dismantle the hub carrier and replace the bearings and oil seals. This was not essential, but I would have not have been completely happy if I had ignored them. There was a lot of dirt where the drive shaft enters the hub carrier and I would never have been able to fully clean it. Also, while the bearings did not appear to have any play in them, but they were far from running completely smoothly.

How to get them apart? We'll I tried a 41mm 1/2 inch impact socket with a breaker bar, with the drive shaft mounted in a WorkMate. No joy. Tried the same, but with an air powered impact wrench. Still no joy. Yes, I did remember that one has a reversed thread and copious amounts of WD-40 had already been applied! This is all quite straight forward on the original Sierra as you can apply the car's handbrake and the drive shaft is not going anywhere. Much more difficult off the car.

My next solution was to try holding the drive shaft with a long metal bar with a hole drilled near to one end for one of the wheel studs and using a breaker bar to pull against it. Instant success. With the hub carrier and driveshaft separated it was then a very easy job to remove the bearings and oils seals. The bearings and oil seals were kept for reference and the remainder of the parts cleaned of grease and dirt, ready for rebuilding later.

Rear beam dismantled

Here is the Sierra rear beam as collected from Tiger:


Like everything else the brake drums were very rusty. In fact they were rusted on to the driveshafts. A large hub puller and generous amounts of WD-40 soon changed that. The rest of the dismantling was fairly straight forward and now I have the component parts ready for restoration. The suspension beam and drums will be discarded. All other parts were kept for re-use or reference. That said the majority of the brake components will be replaced for new items.

Here is the final drive, as well as one driveshafts with associated brake assembly: