New Bearing: New Lease on Life!

[4-Door Flunky]

Woo hoo! After reading all the threads lately about changing wheel bearings, I finally did it!
This was a new one for me. I got the hub off easily. I was surprised at how easily the ball joints separated. About 5 seconds of pounding and clink! They were apart.
I got a shop in Santa Fe to press the bearings out. They guy was Andy, at Superior Automotive. He even hot-tanked the assemblies while he pressed in the new bearing.
He did give me some shit about the bearing I bought. It was a Timcken, from Autozone for $52. He said, "Get TRW."
He warned me the other side would probably go soon.
While I was under there, I decided to do belts, since my battery light came on. Turned out the bolt holding the tension on the alternator belt had broke off.
I went to Autozone with my receipt and got a brand new alternator (lifetime warranty), although I had to bitch for a while to get the free replacement.
I already had the axle out, but I discovered it really is easy to just take off the alternator mounting bracket. Alternator plopped right out.
My car is so quiet and so smooth now! I can't believe I didn't do this six months ago! I swear, it's been causing me low-level tension all this time, and I didn't even know it!
Thanks for the threads!
Flunky

[BLU CIVIC]

CONGRATS ON UR QUITE RIDE

for some reason the noise from my wheel area went away....kinda good and bad at the same time....just gotta get rid of some noises

throw-out bearing
cv joints
and change alt. belt

[Civic Jim]

wot is a throw out bearing, is it wot we call a thrust bearing , which u usually change when u change the clutch????

the noise goes when u push in the clutch ???

[4-Door Flunky]

Yes, Jim, I think a throwout bearing is the same as a thrust bearing. The three things you change when doing a clutch are the clutch, pressure plate, and throwout/thrust bearing.
Flunky