Well at 145k miles my Fathers 2005 zx3 is starting to show its age. Just had to fix a cracked exhaust manifold and now one of the rear wheel bearing is making a nasty whine. I had the drums off for shoe replacement and noticed one of the rear wheel bearings felt a bit sloppy, ended up putting it back together, didnt have a torque wrench that went to 173ft.lbs so did 150ftlbs plus one grunt.
Well I ordered new drums from a Ford dealer in Florida, said "includes inner bearing." Apparently the drums actually don't have the bearing so back the drums went.
I am thinking about buying two motocraft bearing repair kits then have to get them pressed in, but wanted to see if anyone has any other suggestions. I found part number 8S4Z113B which I think is a drum w/bearings. Any tips or suggestions are appreciated.
Had both go out in my old ZX3 in pretty rapid succession. I replaced them with Timken and never thought about it again. One of them had gotten really hot and welded itself to the drum which cracked when I tried to press it out, so I had to replace that drum but it wasn't bad. Fairly straightforward job.
Ok, thank you for the information, I will order some timken bearings then. Kind of a weird style of bearing with a split shell. I think when I pulled the drums the first time then retorqued the spindle nut I probably killed the bearing dead.
I have the spindle nuts and it looks like there was a design change, the originals have an odd locking mechanism like internal teeth under the nut. I noticed the torque spec changed from 173ftlbs while turning drum to 81ftlbs plus 60degrees. Will have to use new one.
My past learnings about Ford Focus abs tone rings may be useful for your bearing change.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/airbag-light-in-00-ford-focus/117090/page1/
Thanks for the suggestion John, pretty sure this car doesn't have ABS, still kind of surprising for an 05 but this is the beater model.
Bearings are coming, old man Bezos' head kind of looks like a bearing so he had the best price. Will let you know how it goes.
It is usually cheaper to buy drums with bearings than to buy just the bearings.
Don't forget to remove the seal from the old drum and put it on the new. It is the magnetic tone ring for the ABS sensor.
The problem is the drum kits come with junk bearings installed from what I read. Looks like ford quit making the drums with bearings installed, the readily available loaded drum is for a 2008-11 focus, the ford dealer parts counter is generally unhelpful, to hell with it, for $45 bucks plus whatever it costs to get pressed in and out bearing does it. The drums were in decent shape when I changed the shoes.
Ok, just got the car back together after getting new bearings pressed into the old drums. Nasty whine is gone. The best price for the timken bearings 516007 was through amazon about $35 each, was lucky they had one "open box" for 10 bucks. The spindle nuts are about 15 a pop, the old style is one time use.
I was able to pry off and clean the metal seal ring and reuse it. The drum seal still looked good. Everything went well and is a pretty easy job should anyone consider it. Thanks for tips and suggestions.
