rear wheel bearing & abs issue, also Hi, I'm new here !

[shodanx]

Hi,

my dad gave me his '94 lumina apv 3.1 80'000 KMs ago
I don't like buying new parts nor haggling at the junk yard so I bought 5 more of these van for parts (they are dirt cheap here, I got all of them for 1200$ and they all work ! that's crazy)

so they've been sitting in the yard for the better part of a year now, luckily my yard doesn't look like a junk yard thanks to the plastic bodywork they all look as good as new !

my dad's van has taken quite a beating by now
the power steering hoses have long leaked all of their fluid (some 20'000KM ago, after having the hose replaced twice already)
the ABS is shot since I don't know when probably since 1995
rear wiper doesn't work
there's a big hole under the accelerator pedal,
the windshield is cracked
the remade exhaust is leaking a lot at all the joints
CEL comes on after 5 minutes or so of driving so probably a bad O2 sensor, AC has been disabled
the wiper have lots of backlash and they work intermitently
carpet is ruined from carying sooo much junk including a v8 that leaked lots of black oil everywhere
front door handles often stop working, I figured out how to put the rod back in place, I didn't bother putting the door trim back since it happenned 3 times this summer, I will try Scottls's fix for that
CD player doesn't play CDs, but that's ok because I don't have any CDs anymore radio still works great
I removed the passenger seat to carry 12 foot long things easily also the passenger seat incline adjustment wheel was broken
the fan under the dash's wiring harness is toast but the fan still works, it just need a poke with the snow broom once in a while
engine's leaking oil from everywhere, at least the front and rear main seal are shot, also when I put new oil in while the engine is running, it just start making this thick white smoke coming out of the exhaust
engine temperature sensor isn't giving a reading in the dash
the paint is sort of flaking off on the roof and other leading edges
sometimes the transmission can't decide what speed it wants to be in when I get around 60/70 KM/h it sort of jumps back and forth between gears, anyway that's what it feels like
and finally there is "something" wrong in the direction, not sure what but I changed all the tie rod ends/ball joints/shock/springs/top plate/spring seats and it's still pulls to the right hard, which makes the no-power steering a lot worse


so I'm putting my dad's van in the yard and I'll work on it later ! I took the best other van I had, a blue '95 and I have to make it good enough to pass inspection (I'm in quebec, I was negligent and didn't plate it for a year so it needs to pass inspection)

on this one the only things I could find are that the exhaust has a massive hole in the muffler, the abs isn't working (abs light turns on when I turn the key) and the engine runs very rough and very rich (bad MAF ? I'll change the oil & spark plugs and see if that helps)

so trying the fix the abs I undid all the wheels (I'm lucky enough to have a big garage with a lift, that is sweet !) then disconnected all the abs sensors connector with a DMM I read the resistance, 1.086 kOhm on both front abs sensors, rear right shows 2.216 kOhm, rear left is infinite so sensor or wire is broken

apparently you have to take everything off to get to the sensors argg
so I took out the drum, brake shoes, then undid the 4 bolts holding the bearings, disconnected the brake line and the backplate came off with the brake cylinder still attached,

the bearing won't come off the backplate I'm not sure why, can it be removed ?

so now I see the abs sensor and it's just loose in the cavity behind the bearing, it had a small metal plate that is part of the sensor that was holding it in place but it's gone from the rust, apparently the back of the sensor was exposed to the elements

worse than that, with the sensor no longer in place, it was apparently protecting the bearing from the environment, so now the bearing is all rusted and so is the abs toothed encoder wheel, the bearing feels crunchy when I turn it, I think it's ruined

I'd like to know is it possible to replace just the bearing for the bearing housing ? I don't see any way to undo the abs wheel and wheel hub from the bearing and bearing housing, is it just one big unit that I have to replace altogether ? also I bet they are all like that so all the bearing in all the vans I have outside are probably shot and/or contaminated by rust and dust

I'll wait until tomorrow when the parts stores are open for the bearing...

now the exhaust, I couldn't figure out of to take it off the car in one piece, so I cut it in half with a sawzall, I'll have to make a flange for it because I don't see how I could put it back in one piece, one of the vans was a 1st generation transport so the downpipe isn't the same, I took it off the van and I'll use it's still good muffler to fix the '95's exhaust

wow that was long, I hope I didn't bore anyone to death !

[shodanx]

PICTURES !!!
http://shodan.imgur.com/mcanique_auto_divers

that's the bearing front

the sensor, badly rusted and loose in the cavity behing the bearing (cavity had two holes and no rubber booth or anything preventing crap from getting to the abs sensor)

and the rear of the bearing, showing abs encoder wheel and lots of rust

[LMP]

Same bearing issue with my .93. That was 3 or 4 years ago. Removing this rear bearing was rather hard....

[shodanx]

you bet, first I tried hitting the back of the big plate with a big soft hammer.
that didn't work, after I tried all the pry bars I had and the biggest one started bending, finally I used a 6 foot long piece of 1" thick shaft and it finally came off

I still haven't managed to take off the handbrake cable which looks bad, there is a sleeve on the cable with 3 clips that you need to push in to remove from the back plate but I can't compress all of them hard enough at the same time to undo it, what a PITA !

also I noticed that all 4 rubber brake hoses exhibit signs of cracking

I also would bet that the power steering hose is in bad shape too

do you know if it's possible to replace just the actual bearing, or do I need an entire bearing assembly ? there doesn't appear to be a nut holding the wheel hub and abs encoder wheel in place.. but there has to be a way to take out just the wheel hub, how else can you change the wheel studs ?!