wheelbearing replacing and brake replacement

hello,

i would like to know how te replace the wheelbearings on the front (to much free play) and how to replace the brakepads.

on the back i would like to adjust the brakepads to (drumbrakes)

could any body give me any tips (i had a look at the frontwheel, but could not get the central nut-cover of (also distoyed the little square pin-thingy)

thanks for the help

theo

It is fairly straight forward, but you do need a workshop manual at least. A retorque might be enough to sort the problem.

Sometimes the caps can be a bit tricky to shift, big grips and a few taps with a hammer usually shift it. Also try soaking in WD4 overnight.

You don't have to remove the square pin, it comes off with the cap. Its the square recepticle for the speedo cable. If the hole in the cap is a bit rounded replace both from a scrap yard, there should be a circlip holding it, otherwise it can slip in a bit a the cap won't turn it properly.

Before you go any further, if there is no grinding noise but just try it anyway, take off the big bolt and pull out the outer bearing, clean it and check it for pock marks or serious scoring. Do the same with the track in the hub (except don't remove it at this stage). Only the outer bearing ever gets damaged, the inner one is much bigger and pretty bomb proof. If the track is damaged it will have to come out in the procedure below, otherwise a bodge is to put in a new outbearing which works most of the time and doesn't do that much harm other than maybe wasting a good bearing, but at £16 for a full kit its not that bad and saves a hell of a lot of work and knuckle skin. If everything looks ok, regease with race spec grease (I think Castrol BNS is the one) and tighen using the method below.

Once you have the cap off, the big bearing bolt comes off easily. But before the disk/hub comes off, you need to get the caliper and bracket off. Calipers are easiy enough, and if you are too stingey to get the manual I not going to tell you. The caliper bracket has too 17mm bolts, attack these gently with a 6 sided socket and a big bar, soaking the opposite end of the bolt with WD40 overnight, do not try to use hammer and ring spanner. These are held in with a huge torque (80ftlbs), so you need a torque wrench to put them back on.
You'll also need to get 2 small 10mm bolts that hold the bracket to disk protector, these can be rusted in and breakoff, so again lots of WD40 and gentle increase of force otherwise they might break, but not that bad if it does break, try to ensure the disk protector doesn't rattle.

Once the caliper bracket is off, the disk should come off easily. the next bit is to remove the track (if its marked). Wipe away excess grease find a hard surface (concrete or stone) and put the hub studs down. Working from the back of the hub/disk assembly put a straight punch down the hole and feel the edge of the track sticking out from the inner wall and place the punch on it, then give it a good firm wack with a club (heavy) hammer. Track should pop out.

Make sure everything is spotless and offer the new track up to the recess and using a big socket or correct sized solid tube and hammer the new track in. Make sure you do not damage the track surface.

Regrease and put hub/washer and bolt on again. Now tighen up the bolt to the correct torque and undo 90 degrees. err on the side of tight.

Then reassemble the backet with correct torque and caliper, brake pads etc.

The rear brakes have no manual adjustment and if you had bought a manual you would know this. The handbrake adjustment is in the middle of the car above the torque tube. Possibly the self-adjusting mechanism inside the drum has seized, the cylinders are leaking, or the shoes need changed. Again refer to the manual, or just adjust the handbrake.

By the sounds of it you havn't got a workshop manual, and this is the minimum requirement for working on a car and really for posing maintenance questions on forums. We don't mind helping on the finer points of a difficult job but do object when people won't even fork out a tenner for a manual. If you didn't know then fair enough, Halfords can supply them, and cover all 300 series basic and major maintenance.

Thank you for the advice,
i do indeed not have a manual, they are not so easy to comeby here in the netherlands (and cost about 25 pounds or more (price tends to vari from car to car.))

beeing a student, 25 pounds is a bout 40 euros (is that right?) and that is not cheap.
and to buy a new manual for every new car thats a bit to much, thats why i am so happy to have found this forum!!!

thanks for your tips!!

theo

[pettaw]

Yeah OK, but then offset the cost of the manual against the cost of sending it to the garage etc. Also how are you going to get the torque settings etc without a manual. If you're too stingy to buy a new manual then why not try Ebay.

As Tony says its a bit irritating when people ask questions that are more than adequately discussed in the manual. If the manual is unclear and someone else has done the job before and come across all the little bits that were 'conveniently' left out of the manual, then thats what we're here for. Also those niggly things that the manual doesn't let you diagnose.

Andy

£25 is a but pricey, is it in dutch language or something? If you can read English well enough you could nearly get one less than that mail order from the UK probably. But the cheapest way will be to find someone who doesn't need it any more and has moved onto newer cars. They will probably give it to you.

As Andy says we are not going to replace the manual for you. If you can't afford the manual how will you afford petrol, parts etc.

well you guys are right, it just that you try to save money as you go.

but thanks to you all, i replaced the pads in just 40 minutes, including 30 minutes for the first one i did....

now i just need to bleed them. (that is some thing i learned to do verry well with my minis. )

thanks, if somebody has a spare manual.... sitting on a self somewhere... i'm interested...

thanks again!

theo

[srtames]

there are usually plenty of Haynes manuals on Ebay from £3 .
search with volvo 340 keyword

regards, steve

[cbyard]

There's 11 (eleven) of them on ebay .co uk at the moment!

I reckon the postage will be more than the book......

:-)

Chris