The Vette Barn - SKF Race wheel bearing upgrade for front

My front wheel bearing hub was starting to whine, sounded like a pinion gear going bad. I lifted the front of the corvette and wiggled the tire from the 3 and 9 o’clock position then again at the 12 and 6 o’clock position, no problem with being loose.

When I spin the wheel it would sound a little rough, nothing major it but didn’t sound good. One other thing I noticed, when I quickly spun the tire, the right side wheel would stop spinning much more quickly than the left side wheel spin test.

Bottom line, the bearings where starting to show signs of premature failure at 27,000 miles.

I decided to upgrade to SKF Racing Hubs that I ordered from Pfadt. Also, ordered the SKF Upright Bolt Replacement bolts since I didn’t want to reuse the original bolts.

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Remove wheel, then disconnect the wheel speed sensor connector.

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Remove the brake caliper, bracket and rotor. Good time to remove the wheel sensor connector from the bracket.

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Loosen the lower ball joint stud. The right thing to do next would to use a J-42188 tool to remove the ball joint, but instead I smacked it with a hammer to loosen it. As you can see I left the nut on to take the hammer hit and it would only drop a little. Once the ball joint was loose I could remove the nut and move to the next step.

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Remove the three Upright Bolts and the hub assembly is out.

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Picture of the SKF Racing Hub on the left and original GM hub on the right. Remove the white plastic that the connector is in, it isn’t needed. Each hub needs three new SKF Upright Bolt Replacement bolts, the kit includes the three bolts. For two hubs I needed two SKF Upright Bolt Replacement bolt kits.

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Clean the steering knuckle before installing the wheel sensor bracket and hub assembly.

Install the new hub assembly with the three new SKF Upright Bolts, they came with some type of locktite but I added more blue loctite to ensure a good thread seal. The hub is something I don’t want to become loose anytime soon. By the way, I use blue loctite on nearly every bolt, works great.

Torque the SKF Upright Bolts to 96 ft lbs.

Install the lower control arm ball stud, torque to 20 ft lbs, then turn an additional 180 degrees.

Install the wheel sensor connector to the wheel sensor bracket.

Good time to reconnect the wheel sensor cable/connector.

Install caliper bracket (129 ft lbs). Clean the caliper and brake pads then put on some new fresh brake lube. Also, good time to remove the slide pins to clean and relube. Loosen the brake fluid reservoir then use a C clamp to push the brake caliber pistons back in a little.

Ready for the tire to be installed. Repeat for the other side.

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Took it out for a test ride, the whine is gone and the front end feels tighter.