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Acty Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement

Discussion in 'Honda Acty' started by vtg, Jun 10, 2010.

  1. vtg

    vtg Member

    A couple months ago, my Acty developed a clunking/crunching sort of noise which seemed to be coming from the area around the right rear wheel. The noise was especially evident while turning or any time I went from forward to reverse (or vice-versa). I had a few mechanic buddies listen to it and they all figured it had to be a bad CV joint. So $450.00 later, I managed to get a used rear axle (an exhoribitant figure, if you ask me).

    Yesterday morning, I decided I should finally get around to replacing the axle. Not sure if any of you Acty owners have ever removed a rear axle, but if you have, you'll know it's not a whole bunch of fun. When I finally got the axle out, I noticed that the outermost wheel bearing seemed to have a stiff spot and that it got stiffer and noisier if I applied any sideways pressure to the bearing while spinning it by hand.

    I did replace the axle shaft, however I rather doubt there was anything wrong with my outboard CV joint because it feels very smooth when I rotate the joint in all directions. I'm convinced that the cause of the noise was entirely the bad wheel bearing.

    I replaced both bearings in the RH wheel carrier and it was a bit of a pain in the butt type of job. If anyone wants me to write up a step by step description of the job, let me know and I'll try to write some sort of an article. I should have taken a bunch of pics along the way, but I was in a bit of a rush to just get it over with. My Honda Acty service manual has absolutely no information about replacing the rear wheel bearings, so this was a bit of a learning experience for me.

    I called the place that sold me my Acty and was told they had the bearings and they were only $125.00 for a set of 2 (enough for one wheel). That sounded rather crazy, but at least I was comfortable dismantling it knowing the parts were only an hour away. But after I got the bearings out, I discovered they were a common 6206 bearing. I happened to have some cheapie (made in Romania) 6206 bearings on hand that had a price tag of $7.00 each on them. But I sorta doubted the durability of them, so I went to the local New Holland dealership and bought a couple made in USA NSK bearings from them for $18.00 each.

    The original bearings were open (no integral seals) whereas the New Holland bearings had the rubber seals built into them. I considered janking the seals, but decided to leave them in place since the bearing housing does not have any provisions for greasing the bearings anyways.

    There are seals in the housing, outboard of both the bearings and I was a bit worried about damaging them while removing the old bearings because my selling dealer did not have any seals on hand and did not know how soon they could get them in. Fortunately, I was able to get the seals out without damaging them in any way and I was able to reuse them. But being as the bearings I installed had their own seals, it may not have been all that critical if I had slightly damaged the lips of the outer seals.

    In any case, my truck is back together and I took it for a little test run tonight and there are no longer any weird noises coming from the back end. In fact, this is the quietest the powertrain has ever been in my truck, so I think that bearing had some issues since the day I bought the truck. And I'm darn sure there is nothing at all wrong with my original axle shaft, but I guess it'll be handy to have as a spare.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2010
  2. fupabox

    fupabox Well-Known Member

    Good write up and great info..you should post the bearing part #s in the acty reference section for others to find in the future...good work:)
     
  3. vtg

    vtg Member

    Thanks fupabox. I've posted the bearing part numbers in the reference section
     
  4. boggy

    boggy New Member

    we have a 91 sambar and are replacing the passenger rear wheel bearing. do you know if we have to pull the axle to do this? we have the drum off now and i'm not sure how we will get the bearings out, the first seal is off. thanks if anyone can help!
     
  5. vtg

    vtg Member

    I've never had a close look at a Sambar so I can't say for certain how to go about it. But on my Honda, the rear axel had to be removed in order to replace the bearings. And I would think the Sambar would involve a similar procedure. The axels are fairly easy to remove on the Honda, but you need to drain and replace the tranny oil any time you yank an axel.
     
  6. boggy

    boggy New Member

    cool thanks for the reply vtg! sounds like a project for this weekend.
     
  7. MattGiroday

    MattGiroday New Member

    I have a 1989 Honda Acty street (660cc). Do you know if the same wheel bearing part would work for my van? I can't find a rear wheel bearing that fits my HH1, and if i could pick one up cheaper like you found that would be great.

    Thanks,

    Matt
     
  8. vtg

    vtg Member

    Not sure if the 1989 would be the same as the 1992 but I would not be surprised if it's the same bearing.
     

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