A life of vice
I had a wheel bearing go on my car once. So rather than put it in to the garage to be fixed, I thought I'd save money by asking my mate with a well equipped workshop if I could do it there with his help. He agreed.

So anyway, off came the hub carrier, and we bashed out the old bearing and cleaned up the hub ready to accept the new bearing. Not having a proper press, we decided to use his bench vice to press the new bearing in. All was well for the first few mm, then it got stiff (stop sniggering at the back) so we decided to apply a bit more leverage.

Two metal tubes over the ends of the vice handles later (with one of us pulling each end) and we were in business. The plan was entirely successful until the screw sheared on the vice. Of course a vice is designed to withstand the force a normal human can apply using the supplied handle, not two of us going full tilt with levers.

Anyway, we got the bearing in eventually by use of brute force, and refitted the hub to the car. The test drive then showed the ABS was no longer working. So I thought we'd damaged the sensor when we removed it.

Cost of a new sensor? £150. Bugger.

Got one from a scrapped car for £20. Fine. But it didn't help. And why? Because we'd fitted the wrong fecking bearing, that's why. It was supposed to have the ABS sensor ring on it, and the new one didn't.

So I drove it without ABS until the next MoT, when I had to have another new bearing fitted.

I now tend to trust this sort of job to the professionals. They may not make any better a job, but if they make an arse of it, at least I don't have to pay!

Wheel bearing - £30
New vice - £300
ABS Sensor - £20
New bearing - another £100 fitted.
Learning by experience - priceless.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 31 Oct 2007, 13:45, Reply)