My arm hurts. My tendinitis is flaring up. I got the hub and bearing race out with a slide hammer kinda easy enough. The remaining bearing isn't moving. Rented the tool kit from O'Reilly. Greased it up. No go. The kit looks kinda abused for that matter. I'm not sure it was ever going to work. I've got the bearing soaking in PB Blaster and plan on renting a different bearing removal kit tomorrow. Any ideas folks? I don't want to remove the axle and take it to a machine shop because then I've gotta do an alignment. Thanks for any and all advice!

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Yeah, but I'm trying to be like this guy. Civic and CR-V suspensions are very similar. The rental kit I tried to use was pretty beat to shi*, so I'm gonna try another tomorrow. It's important to grease the hell out of it. It's funny, all the kit instructions say don't use impact tools. All the videos show someone using an impact tool, even the ones from the manufacturers.

I think I found the main problem. The first kit used a thrust bearing which was binding up on the pressure plate. This new kit just uses washers and none of the fittings appear to be deformed. Will give it a go when it stops raining.

Guess what gets counterfeited even more than spark plugs? Bearings. NSK is OEM for Honda and I got a bearing straight from Amazon (not a 3rd party). It looks legit anyway. I heard Napa bearings are SKF (another good brand) and bought one, but SKF bought out Peel and it's actually a Peel bearing. Those aren't so good.

I just know this is not a job I want to have to do over. I already replaced the CV axle because the outer boot was busted. Turns out the bearing was bad too. Now which came first? The bad axle or the bad bearing?

That makes sense. My only symptom was what felt like brake pulsing. I've had CV Axles fail and the only symptom was vibration on acceleration or a clicking noise, but there was none of that. I finally noticed grease on the rim during an oil change, but I'd driven on it quite a bit with the pulsing during braking. The grinding and humming of a bad bearing eventually followed. I wish it would have started humming sooner. There is no mistaking what that is.

Yeah, I've done that too. I hope you installed non-Chinese bearings. My TPI bearings (Taiwan) are still holding up after 4 years in my 12 year old LG washer. How did your spider arm look? I probably should have replaced mine while I was at it.

Weather has not been cooperating, but I've got the bearing out. The new tool kit and a second breaker bar did the trick. I'm certain that thrust bearing digging into the pressure plate was the problem with that first one. It was stuck bad when I took it all apart to go back to the store. I'm sure a washer between the 2 would have worked.

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The new bearing pressed in pretty smoothly once I got it good and centered. I put a film of PB Blaster inside the axle and left the bearing in my freezer overnight. It was a hell of a lot easier than getting it out.

Now to get the inner race off the hub.

I read that if you simply scribe an X into the race and then smack it with a chisel, it will crack and fall off. Mine would not. I finally got it to crack doing what I usually do and scribing a deep diagonal completely across the race and then smacking that a few times. It was a pain though and I put a few marks on the hub. I used a round file to gently clean up the marks and it pressed right in nice and straight. Next time I'll use a brass chisel.

If you folks ever rent one of these kits, check the main bolt for galling. When you use it grease the hell out of it or you will gall it. When pressing the new bearing in, you can't really see your progress, so when the sound it makes changes as you are cranking it in, stop. If you inspect the back and it still isn't quite flush, put the old bearing up to the new bearing and give it a couple light smacks with a dead blow hammer. That's what worked for me.

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Guess who bought a bad used CV axle? I have 2 good re-builders nearby, Constant Velocity of Ocala and Raxles. CV is moving buildings and closed until 9/15. Raxles doesn't rebuild this particular axle. I ain't paying ~$600 for a new OEM and aftermarket are junk. I got one that was damaged in shipping (pinhole leak) but feels like it is good. Gonna try repairing the boot with 3M 5200. I've read of good, long-lasting repairs with it on off-road forums. This stuff isn't cheap either.

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New (to me) repaired axle is in and working perfectly. The first axle I installed had some light rattle on the inner joint when it was flexed back and forth. It shouldn't make any sound inside the boot. If you hear any rattle inside the boot, that's a bad axle. A lesson learned for me.

And if the salvage yard tells you the part has a certain amount of miles, but when you get there the tag on the part shows 0 miles. That's salvage yard speak for unknown miles. Don't buy the part even if you've driven 2 flipping hours.

Oh they lasted a few days. That was my first rejected Amazon review. I described in detail the difference between a genuine NSK bearing and what Amazon sold me. Do you see what's wrong in this picture?

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I’ve bought plenty of car parts from Amazon that worked just fine.

As for the box, 2 issues. All the bearing info is printed on a label and not the box. They used scotch tape to seal the box. NSK uses security tape with a red NSK logo printed on the tape.