Wheel Hub Rip Off

Anyone out there ever purchased a front wheel hub for a 93 Transport?
I just priced one out and the dealer wants $354.74ea, HOLY CRAP. I replaced the front hubs on my 91 Transport and they only cost $120.00ea. I am told because there is a speed sensor in the new ones that's why they are so much gee $234.00 for a small gear and a magnet this is another GM big ripoff at the parts counter plus to replace the 3 rusty bolts that hold it in they want $6.00ea and we all know what hardware is worth. Anyone know of a more reasonalble place to get some wheel hubs??

you can buy an aftermarket one from Advance or Auto-Zone for around $120. the part number is 513087 (timken or Bca). hope this helps.

Changed one recently ('93 Transport) for $149 C$ - thus about 115US$ +tx., not GM of course. I kept the original bolts, but I bought the Torx 55 bit; 2nd time on left side, never changed the right side. First was on GM garantee.

LMP: where did you get a hub for $140.00??
does it have the speed sensor with it?

Local aftermarket retailer here ...somewhat far from your place (Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada) . Had choice of two , one from national bearing - brand name BCA -at 159C$, and one at $149C$ - I do not found the box, but retailer tells me can be Atlas or Perfecto...And yes, it came with the ABS sensor.(My ABS is dead anyway...)

LMP thanks for the tip know where you are have been there, hope the Sub with the same name makes out OK.

What symptoms caused you to change bearing/hubs?
I wonder, because I have slight vibration at highway speed that is not caused by tires (new) and have had ball joints and tie rod ends replaced. The vibration is causing the front end to wear prematurely, also causing pulsing brakes eventually (now had rotors machined twice). The shop says axles and hubs are OK. I suspect CV joints since there is variation in the vibration around neutral steering (i.e., just off-centre ) and also under power vs. coasting.

There was a insiduous vibration - much like winter tire - that was subtle at first - and stayed like that for LONG - mean, more than a year: and I kept making corrections to toe-in, camber., with no change..: vibration would increase when steering right, decrease to nil when turning slightly left. there was NO apparent angular side play of the bearing - Then, at beginning of summer, started going to cottage - one very steep hill in dirt road - and after 2 or 3 times, the vibration became really more than annoying, rather alarming: jacked the car left wheel and drove the engine in Drive to 30 mph indicated - and since the right wheel was blocked to the ground, the left wheel speed was 60 mph, and even at low speed, and no load, the noise was there. IN fact, I had tried this months before - to no avail .
in my case, it made no difference if the car was under power or coasting: same noise level.
recently, has same problem with son's car - Intrepid '94 - with similar symptoms - severe humming - except it worsened much faster - hub assembly exactly same configuration, almost interchaneable : some angular side play of bearing was evident.

"Changed one recently ('93 Transport) for $149 C$ - thus about 115US$ +tx., not GM of course. I kept the original bolts, but I bought the Torx 55 bit"

I have to replace the right wheel hub/bearing assembly on my 1995 Trans Sport. Just wondering if you seperated the lower ball joint/control arm from the spindle and removed the drive axle, or did you leave all of that in place, rent a hub puller and just pull out the hub assembly ?
I have the GM assembly manual for my Van and they don't refer to seperating the ball joint/control arm and removing the drive axle to get the hub/bearing off. But, my Haynes manual tells you to go through all of the extra steps of loosening the sway bar, swinging it out of the way, seperating the ball joint/control arm and lowering it out of the way, pulling the drive axle and then you can get the spindle/bearing assembly off. How did you get your hub/bearing assembly off ?


AutoZone has the Timkin #513087 hub/bearing assembly for $139 and will sell/rent you the flange axle puller for $20. If you don't muck the puller all up, you can return it when you are done using it and get your $20 back or keep it for when the other side goes bad.

Thanks

No NO. Leave everythng in place. No problem. It is really an easy job. I did not use a puller either , I'm used to leave the nut in place, unscrewed just flush with the shaft end, and then use a hammer with another piece of metal or even wood in between to cushion the blow, and have no problem dislodging the shaft that way witout any harm..but having the puller at hand is more confortable.
Once the shaft starts backing off, you will push it out in steps while at same time extracting the hub assembly.

...Oh yeah....the "funny" thing is that in fact, 2 months later, I did separate the lower ball joint/control arm from the spindle , cause I changed the ball joint.....

OK.. thanks for the quick response. I'll leave the control arm in place and just pull off the hub/bearing assembly using a rented puller. I wonder why the Haynes manual tells you to go through all of that extra work ?

Did my front wheel hubs now that I have found after market parts for $150.00 instead of GM at $380.00.
Removed brake ass'y, remove axle nut 34MM socket, broke two 3/4 breaker bars (but won in the end). Knocked hub out, but when it came out it left the speed sensor cap in the hub housing so knocked the cap out with hamer and bar by hitting it from behind hub only rust and crap holding it in. Cleaned out hub put new bearing hub in and job done. It's easy to tell when the hubs are gone you get a drone sound when on the highway sounds like heavy tread snow tires. Bye the way did have a problem breaking loose the Torx bolts holding in the old hub some of the bolt heads were rusted away and when torque was applied torx tip would back out and not stay in deep enough to break bolt loose so used big "C" clamp from back of hub ass'y to head of breaker bar pressing the torx tip hard into bolt head and each bolt broke loose easy after that and did not strip out the heads. Then put in new bolts.

I use to innundate the nuts with WD40 hours in advance in preparation for the removal....

By the way, leave the wheel on the car and the tire on the ground to unlock the axle nut: do not try to torque that against transmisison components. If you have mag wheels, you might have to remove the wheel first, then knock off the center cap to allow acceessing the axle nut, and reinstall the wheel down to ground contact under full weight of the car. ..and......34mm is 1 5/16", not your ordinary complement of socket.

Thanks for all the tips and tricks on the front wheel bearing/ hub removal. I got as far as taking the wheel off of my car and finding out that it took a huuge 34 mm deep well socket to get off the axle nut. I really didn't feel like purchasing another item for my tool box so I called up my local mechanic and asked how much he would charge to put my already purchased Timken part in my mini-van. He charged me $60 total and had my car in and out of his shop within 1/2 hour. I couldn't believe it. I barely got finished with my cup of coffee and magazine and he was already backing my van out of the bay. After reading some of the above posts I think it was worth it to me just to pay the $60. I did end up having to replace the lower ball joint the next day because it was a knocking.