You know, it just occurred to me that despite changing 3 or 4 wheel bearings I still don't have a good way to get the screws that hold the brake shield / dust cover in place.

I said general question to indicate this is not urgent, just collecting info for the future.

When I think about it, that was one of the most frustrating part of the job for the front or rear wheels. FWIW I went to a machine shop and they did them. I'd sure like to do it myself.

Now that I'm not in the middle of the job under pressure, I wanted to take the time to ask.

These bolts have a small torx head. They are usually corroded in, and there is little space between the brake shield dust cover and the underside of the hub (thats the issue i ran into, space prevents proper torque from being applied). I couldn't get a bite on them with vice grips either.

I found that maybe one out of 3 or 4 of these bolts could be loosened with a small torx head, the others would strip their torx head before moving.

I wanted to ask and file away any answers . Does any one have a good way to remove these hold down screws with the hub in place?

for those who've not done this yet, I said hub in place because the hub gets pressed out and you need to get the brake shield off and out of the way to support the hub carrier assembly on the press.

thanks, John

 

Mine had pop rivets I replaced them with a nut and bolt.

 

This is all a bit from distant memory but …………….. I managed to get the front ones loose by using a Torx bit like this :



and a small open-ended spanner (wrench ??) to grip it and turn - not enough room for a proper socket wrench. I had to use a fair bit of heat before it would move. You then have to bend it a bit to get the "open end" wide enough to pull through the hub but it is thin steel so can easily be bent back again.

Rear is different, but as the hub is much easier to pull apart - it is designed to be a fairly loose "friction fit" - you can separate the hub from the hub carrier and then have much better access to the Torx bolts.

 

Standard answer is to use one of these, space permitting: impact-screwdriver-set-with-case-37530