Hello everyone,
After one of my front wheel bearing completely broke down, I decided to replace all of them as precaution.

I am now starting to do the rear one. However, after following the excellent XJ40 tutorial from Don on Jag Lovers, I am not able to remove the axle (access to the screws is very limited and they seem pretty tight). I guess I can do it with the axle still on.

I'm trying to remove the center hub nut and of course it is so tight (with the initial high torque at >300nm) that my rear wheels are spinning and I'm not able to remove it. What is your suggestion? shall I put back the wheel without the caps + car down to start removing this nut? Or shall I put back the handbrake (is it enough)?

Thanks!

 

My suggestion would be "If it ain't broke..... don't fix it"
This isnt the easiest job in the world, as you are discovering, and there is scope to screw it up. Rear wheel bearings are generally long lived, and not prone to sudden failure.

 

Haha, it's a wise suggestion! I think I will follow it.
It's just that the front left one broke suddenly on the highway (the car was not much used by previous owner) and it was slightly scary (though I didn't lose the wheel...). Surprisingly, I couldn't hear any noise.

In your view, the rear one are not under pressure than the front one? I understand the front one can be problematic on this model.

 

I don't know if the rear bearings are a DIY thing considering the Jaguar dealership turned me away when I needed to replace them.

 

They are not that hard but you need to put all the spacers/shims back in the same places after getting new seals and bearings.

People leave the small shim stuck on one of the bearings and then ruin the new bearings by installing the spacer without the shim.

The shim gets lost in the grease unless you know to look for it!!!

 

If you do it, buy the nuts that you are having trouble removing. Those are NOT reusable!

 

I got a set of new nuts. For now, I took a "break" and leave it this way until I really need to change it.

 

Decent impact gun (Makita etc.) will get the nut off. As another person said on the replies, you must not reuse the nut - just .... don't (it could end in disaster). The nuts are expensive. For this reason do other jobs at the same time. I now need to do my fulcrum bearings meaning realistically hub back off again only a year after doing the wheel bearings meaning wasted money on new hub nuts. Refitting the hub nuts requires technically a ridiculous amount of torque. I even bought a massive torque wrench for the job and it was physically impossible to reach this torque - tight as you can with whatever you have!!!

Obviously you'll know front wheel bearings - whilst a similar job to actually remove and install them - there is zero torque on the hub nut, literally hand-tight with a split put and castellated retainer.

 

you can take the hub/axle combo off even on the most rusted car. just get an 11/16 socket and use the ebrake

 

Thks for the advices,
I actually got the set of nuts. But for now, I will save until I really have to change something there.