Changing a Chevy Silverado's 1500 HD wheel bearing/hub.

Saturday I had a chance to change the hub on my friends Silverado. He failed safety inspection for his drivers side wheel bearing. It's a 4 wheel drive so the only way to change the wheel bearing is to change the whole hub. It's not a bad job to do but does require a big torque wrench a good breaker bar and a impact gun helps. Start off by jacking up the truck and supporting it with jack stands. Then remove the wheel. There is a dust cover that you need to remove to gain access to the spindle nut. I have already removed it in this picture. Here is where an impact gun comes in handy. It's takes a 36mm socket. I haven't had much trouble getting these off with an impact gun.

 Loosen the nut and remove it along with the washer. This is a 1 time use nut and they are only available at the dealer so if you are going to do this job on a Sunday, make sure you pick up the nut beforehand.

 now you need to remove the caliper and the caliper bracket. the hardest part of this job was removing the caliper bracket bolts. They take the most torque out of all the bolts that are removed for this job and they have thread locker installed on them from the factory.

 Here are the 2 bolts for the caliper brackets. You can see the yellow thread locker on them from the factory. I had to use my biggest breaker bar with a 2 foot cheater bar to get these loosened. They are in an area that is impossible to get an impact gun into. You can see my breaker bar and cheater in the picture.

 Now remove the 2 little retaining rings shown in the picture that are on the studs if yours are still there. Chances are that if your rotor has been changed they are probably not there.

Now you can remove the clips that hold the wheel speed sensor harness in place. There are 4 of them. The new hub should have all new clips so if they break, that's OK. The plug is on top of the frame rail. You can get it through the wheel well but I found it easier to unplug it from the engine compartment side.

 If you look closely, you can see the plug down on the frame.

 After the harness is unplugged and unhooked, move it out of your way.

 It's time to remove your rotor. You can spend time beating on it trying to get it freed up from years of rust buildup, or you can just find 2 bolts that thread into the holes that GM put into the rotors and make your life easier. It pops them right off.

The hub is ready to come off now. Remove the 4 bolts in the back side of the hub and then you can remove the hub. It takes a little persuasion but it's not too bad to get off.

 Make sure you can push the axle back and forth before removing the hub to make sure it's loose. You also need to protect the boots so they are not damaged while you are removing and installing the hub.

 The backing plate will come off with the hub. Just make sure you put it back on when you install the new hub.

 Here is the backing plate.

 On 1500 HD's to 3500 silverado's there is an o ring on the hub housing. You can inspect it and make sure it's ok or you can just replace it like I did. Pick one up when your at the dealer getting the nut.

Here are the 3 parts you will need to change the hub. The hub itself, a new spindle nut, and the o ring.

 I prefer moog parts so that's what I installed.

 Clean up the bore of the hub and install the o ring with some lubricant. Vaseline will work.

 Everything is ready to put the hub back on.

 Don't forget the backing plate!

Install the hub with the 4 bolts. Torque them to 133 foot lbs. make sure the axle lines up when you install the hub.

 Install the caliper bracket with some loctite on the bolts.

 Here is one of the caliper bracket bolts. These 2 bolts get torqued to a whopping 221 foot lbs. for the 1500 HD up to the 3500's

 Re-install the calipers. These 2 caliper bolts are torqued to 80 foot lbs. make sure you lube them up with caliper grease. It will help the calipers to move back and forth when braking.

 I removed the bracket for the caliper hose so if you did also, make sure you re-install it now.

Just about done now.

 I temporarily installed the wheel so I could torque the spindle nut. It gets torqued to 177 Foot lbs. Make sure you torque this nut. If you don't you can have your wheel bearing fail prematurely.

 Make sure your speed sensor harness is run correctly and plugged in and then you are ready to re-install your dust cap.

 Install your wheel, torque it to 140 foot lbs. and your set to go. Take it for a test spin and make sure your speed sensor is working and your done.