2003 silverado 2500 hd rear outer wheel bearing
 

hey guys. i assumed i could just press out the outer rear wheel bearing from the hub but it has a retaining ring which is very heavy duty and extremely hard to get out. Once again my repair manual has strayed away from what i actually have on my truck as it says to just press it out making no mention of a retaining ring. I guess my question is do i need a special tool to get this out, as none of the retaing ring pliers or needle nose pliers that i have will compress this ring, or is the entire hub meant to be replaced as an assembly. The only hub assembly i can find is for a quadrasteer which i don't have but have already bought the inner and outer bearings that are supposedly meant for my truck. Thanks for any help as i am getting desperate to get this thing back on the road. I have attached a pic.

Just about to do the rear bearings and seal
 

Mox,
Just wondering how everything turned out? Do you have any recommendations on these rear bearings and seals? I can't find a write up anywhere. I have a wheel seal leaking and I figure while I'm back there that I'll change out the bearings as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I did mine recently and it was a mission to get that ring out, but I finally did with some regular snap ring pliers. I had to PB blast it and slowly work it loose by compressing - releasing - compressing - releasing. I purchased a new ring from the dealer because I managed to tweak the original one a little getting it out. Putting it back together you have to put the bearing first, press in the race past the groove that the snap ring sits in, install the snap ring, and then press the bearing/race from the front to rest against the ring.

Hey bud,
Everything seemed to work out for me ok so far. The problem i had getting the retaining ring out was that the bearing was loaded against the ring. Just carefully tap the bearing back a little away from the ring and it comes right out with some needle nose pliers. I went to autozone and borrowed a bearing press kit to get the bearings out and they came out and went back in real well. Use an arbor press to press them in if you have access to one so they go in flat otherwise be very careful to pound evenly around the bearing and go slowely. I used a drift to pound the outer bearing race in which was a little tricky but just go slow. There was alot of confusion with my truck (full floating axle) about whether to pack the bearings since the beaings get lubricated with diff fluid. A few dealers told me to pack them and my service manual did as well but ultimately with some common sence and advice from a good mechanic i determined that the grease would just contaminate the oil and if you fill your rear differential up the oil will draw to the bearings with the spinning of the axle and create a reservoir to lube the bearings. I would definately recommend replacing the inner oils seal and the outer oil gasket (again... assuming you have a full floating axle). The instruction sheet for the SKF oil seal said that i had to get a special press tool to install the seal or i would damage the seal. I looked around for one but could not find one and ultimately just carefully pounded it on. Two things that threw me... needing a special tool to pound on an oil seal and not packing bearings. I ALWAYS pack bearings and it just didn't feel right not doing it and i never looked at installing an oil seal to be rocket science. So far so good with me but i hope someone can correct me if they see any problems. Let me know if you have any other questions, i'de be happy to help out.

I attached a section view of my bearing hub that i drew if this helps you at all.