92 G30 Rear Wheel Bearings

[M2116x6]

My 1992 G30 is in need of rear wheel bearings. I can hear them and also found a little play in them with the van jacked up, by placing a steel bar under the wheel and lifting.

Are these replaceable without special tools? I do not have a press.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by M2116x6

My 1992 G30 is in need of rear wheel bearings. I can hear them and also found a little play in them with the van jacked up, by placing a steel bar under the wheel and lifting.

Are these replaceable without special tools? I do not have a press.

There is 4-5 different rear ends for it.
With full floating axel or other?
Dual wheels or single wheel?
First step is remove hub cap and see if axel bolts to hub from outside end.
Is that your case?
If so you will need to pull axel and then remove wheels and wheel hub.
You will find the wheel bearings in the hub on that type.
You may need a good proper sise hub nut tool to remove hub.
Then to remove and install bearings a good punch an big hammer and sometimes a big snap ring pliers.
Also a bearing erase driver and seal driver to install bearings and seal.
I use old bearing erase to drive new ones in most of the time.

What kind of noise do you have and at what speeds and pull or coast load?
How much play do you have in bearing?

[M2116x6]

I see that I have the 9.5" ring gear version of the rear. It's a single wheel van. I need to fix this today as I have a need for it tomorrow for a moving project a distance from home.

There is a bad bearing sound which follows the road speed. At first I mistook this as the sound of the new rear tires. Now, the right rear sounds like the wheel or drum is loose while driving. No fluid is leaking from the seals however there is up and down play on the wheel. I pulled the right drum last night to check to see if I also need brakes before going to NAPA.

With the 9.5" rear, I'm assuming I need to release a C clip in the differential. Will try to rent or borrow a slide hammer. I'm guessing this will be needed to remove the bearing.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by M2116x6

I see that I have the 9.5" ring gear version of the rear. It's a single wheel van. I need to fix this today as I have a need for it tomorrow for a moving project a distance from home.

There is a bad bearing sound which follows the road speed. At first I mistook this as the sound of the new rear tires. Now, the right rear sounds like the wheel or drum is loose while driving. No fluid is leaking from the seals however there is up and down play on the wheel. I pulled the right drum last night to check to see if I also need brakes before going to NAPA.

With the 9.5" rear, I'm assuming I need to release a C clip in the differential. Will try to rent or borrow a slide hammer. I'm guessing this will be needed to remove the bearing.

If the axel is not bolted onto hub on outside end then you will need to remove inspection plate and remove spider gear pin and small gears.
Then you can push axel in and remove C clip and then pull out axel.
At this point and before you go after parts check the bearing erase on axel.
The axel shaft bearing race itself may be bad.
Needing a axel shaft replacement and bearing replacement both.
Or a axel saver bearing can save replacing axel in most cases if they make one for that rear end.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[M2116x6]

I dug into this job today. In the past I have done wheel bearings on full floaters but never a semi-floater so this was new to me. The bearings came out easy with a slide hammer. The axle surface was not bad and the clearance with the new bearing seemed fine. The excess play is gone and the seal leak is fixed. Everything with the bearing and seal job went great.

The problem I encountered was during reassembly. One of the spider gears was missing the shim. It was the gear in the lower position. This was definetly missing and not lost by myself. During the repair work, I made sure not to turn the axles and knock the gears or shims out. There was some metal particles on the magnet which I cleaned off prior to refilling with new oil.

The gear missing the shim looks fine. The side gears show a little wear but nothing excessive. The other spider gear with the shim is pitted and worn bad. I'm no differential expert but it looks like the one spider gear is doing the work of both and taking a beating. I've put about 25k miles on this van since I bought it from a school district. It was a former school bus. One bearing seal was newer looking so I think that they had the differential apart to replace the seal for an inspection and forgot the shim. These shims are large and thick which makes it hard to loose.

I reassembled everything as it was but will have to get into the differential repair soon.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by M2116x6

I dug into this job today. In the past I have done wheel bearings on full floaters but never a semi-floater so this was new to me. The bearings came out easy with a slide hammer. The axle surface was not bad and the clearance with the new bearing seemed fine. The excess play is gone and the seal leak is fixed. Everything with the bearing and seal job went great.

The problem I encountered was during reassembly. One of the spider gears was missing the shim. It was the gear in the lower position. This was definetly missing and not lost by myself. During the repair work, I made sure not to turn the axles and knock the gears or shims out. There was some metal particles on the magnet which I cleaned off prior to refilling with new oil.

The gear missing the shim looks fine. The side gears show a little wear but nothing excessive. The other spider gear with the shim is pitted and worn bad. I'm no differential expert but it looks like the one spider gear is doing the work of both and taking a beating. I've put about 25k miles on this van since I bought it from a school district. It was a former school bus. One bearing seal was newer looking so I think that they had the differential apart to replace the seal for an inspection and forgot the shim. These shims are large and thick which makes it hard to loose.

I reassembled everything as it was but will have to get into the differential repair soon.

Is the noise gone?

On spider gears you may need a spider gear set and also pin.
Dealer or aftermarket.
A lot of rear end/transmission parts places have them in aftermrket.

[M2116x6]

The rolling sound is gone with the new bearings. Something else is rattling underneath the rear which I haven't located yet.

Are the spider gears shimmed to a specific clearance at all? I will order them soon.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by M2116x6

The rolling sound is gone with the new bearings. Something else is rattling underneath the rear which I haven't located yet.

Are the spider gears shimmed to a specific clearance at all? I will order them soon.

No shiming on them.
They only turn on a turn or wheel spin.