1992 Bonneville has mis-matched front wheel bearing hubs???

[sierra77]

My dad asked me to help him change a front wheel hub on his 1992 Bonneville SE (non super charged 3.8L) this past weekend. First we discovered that the part that Napa sold him was wrong. It didn't have the access holes in the lug flange to allow the mounting bolts to be reached. We took a drive to AutoZone and got another part. Looked right, however we knew that the car didn't have ABS, and this part was equipped with the ABS sensor. The guy told us that was the only part shown in his computer for that car and that we could just cut the wire off when we installed it??? really? We removed the driver's side hub and discovered it was not bad, however, we discovered it was not at all like the part we bought. The new part (Blue in right picture) would not have fit in the hole. We used a caliper and discovered that the diameter of the new part was too large. We photographed the hub, re-installed it and moved to the passenger side. When we got that one out, we discovered that this was the bad one, not the driver's side, however we discovered it was slightly different than the driver's side too! I have attached the photos. As you can see, the one on the passenger side (right photo) doesn't have the gear teeth like the one on the driver's side (left Photo). Also, on the passenger side, in the housing that the hub bolts into, there was a small black rectangular plastic plug, but it didn't go to anything. This was NOT on the Driver's side hub frame. The best we can guess is that at one point in time, before dad or the previous owner (one of dad's friends) owned the car, one of the A-Frames or whatever you call it, was most likely damaged and was replaced with one from an older similar vehicle? However, I can't find a hub bearing anywhere on RockAuto or any other parts websites for any older model years that looks like either of the ones that are currently in the car. We are confused. Can anyone shed any light on this?

[gmtech1]

What looks like happened is that the sensor for the bearing in the picture on the left got stuck in the knuckle when it was removed.

I agree that there was some suspension work done at one time. You may need to bring in the one you are replacing and see if they have a different year hub that matches yours.

[Tech II]

When these bearing first came out, there were two types....one with ABS, one without.......then later on, GM started using ABS wheel bearings in cars that didn't have ABS......Thus you only make one bearing, instead of two.....

Like GMTech1 stated, the other half of the bearing(1st picture) is stuck in the knuckle......

You removed the driver's side hub, and discovered it was not bad.....how in the world did you determine that? Then you put it back in?

The blue part looks like the part that was stuck in the knuckle on the other side.....

I know only one fool proof way of determining if a bearing is bad(making noise).....you raise the front of the vehicle securely, so BOTH wheels are off the ground....apply ebrake......have someone behind the wheel.....start car and put vehicle in drive......do not touch accelerator pedal......wheels spin by themselves.....go under the car safely, and using a mechanic's stethescope, place it on the knuckle near the bearing........what I do is reach over with a rag/glove, and hold the opposite wheel, this makes the wheel that I am listening to, spin faster......then I do the same for the opposite side.......the loud side gets the bearing.......

Some guys just jack up a wheel and if there is any movement in the bearing condemn it.......jack the other side up, and there is none......they just replace the bearing with movement.......however, the noise could have been made by the bearing that had no movement......see it all the time.....

[sierra77]

Perhaps I wasn't completely clear on the sequence of events. When we took the first one out, we felt no resistance at all, and since we obviously confused by the look of the new bearing and didn't realize that the other portion of the hub was still stuck in the knuckle, we stuck it back in, not knowing necessarily that it was bad. However, when we removed the other side, we realized that it was most definitely the bad one. It had several spots where it was catching very badly when we rotated it.
We feel sort of foolish now. The Haynes manual that we were referencing didn't mention anything about the inside portion possibly coming off when removing it. I watched a youtube video for a similar vehicle last night and the guy stated that in high winter salt areas this tends to happen, right before he knocked the seal portion out of the yoke with an air chisel. And of course, up on the IA/MN line, they have a lot of salt. Probably should have watched that first.
So I guess we need to do more research next time.
Thanks for the posts, guys.

[maxwedge]

All part of a DYER's learning curve.