Wheel Bearing Dust Cover Removal

[RaceProEngineer]

All of our workshop manuals are absolutely NO HELP!

We have spent several hours attempting to loosen and remove a front wheel bearing dust cover from a 1983 911SC. Before using brute force and damaging the dust cover, the locking sleeve, and maybe even the bearing itself, there must be an easier - more ELEGANT - way to do this. Gentlemen???

Ed LoPresti
607-535-4237

PS: If anyone even dares to say, "Just pull it with a pair of pliers, and it will fall right off " . . . well, you get the picture.

[kstylianos]

Use a wide cold chisel and place it in the groove of the dust cover then hit it with a 5 lb. mini sledge hammer. Rotate 180 degrees and repeat, rotate 90 degrees repeat, etc.....

It should start wiggling loose after a few hits.

[jason2guy]

i grab it with these and wobble up and down real hard.
itll come out

[Emission]

My dust caps were in so tight... I swear I could have hug my car from them!

Use brute force. It isn't pretty.

[stealthn]

Ed,

I tried everything too (Just took mine off recently) the best advise, use a punch and hammer on the edge of it (pointing away from the wheel). Give it a whack rotate give it a whack rotate, repeat. It will come, and the dust cover is very hard you won't hurt it.

[Schrup]

I use the ball end of a small ball peen hammer, takes a bit of patience.

[Evans, Marv]

Nothing wrong with it, but I only use the hammer/chisel routine as a very last resort. The last dust covers I took off, I used one of those really big Channel Lock type plyers and a two-pound hammer. I gripped the dust cap with the plyers & gripped the handles as tight as I could as I gave a healthy upward tap on the handles with the hammer. Rotated around the dust cover doing this. You'll see it move very little at first & more toward the end. You might also try to help it along by gently prying in the groove leading to the hex bolt for the nut retainer when the dust cover get up far enough. When I put them back in, I always put anti-sieze of something else on the dust covers. Good luck !!!

[Randy Webb]

ANother little trick is to use a carpentry tool to start it on its way -- these look like a curved, wide and thin chisel blade. They are a type of prybar and are used to separate pieces of wood. About 8" long but now in various sizes. Zeke may know their real name.

[Wil Ferch]

Do a search..

I alsways suggest a 2" muffler clamp which fits the groove on the cap "perfectly"..and use this as a lever-point. Remove/rotate/repeat....works like a champ. No "beating" or cave-man antics involved.

Anyone confirm ??

---Wil

[garibaldi]

If all else fails, take a large nut, weld it to the dustcap, and use a slide hammer to remove them, like the 930 turbo style. Then you wont beat the hell out of the cap.

[89911]

Pry it off with a large crow bar. Get it in the groove of the cap and pry against the end of the studs. Work it around the cap evenly until it comes loose. If you just try to pry in one area only, it won't come out straight and further bind.

[Wil Ferch]

Garibaldi:
Good advice...some "builds"

- why not simply use a cap from a 930? Has the nut already installed and I think it's the same diameter.

- Speaking of which...we tried this in a friend's shop on his Widebody ( 930 style cap)...and we *broke* the slide hammer !!!! Is Porsche nuts in this area? Fer chrissakes...it's a *dust* seal. Must it be bullet-proof ??

--Wil

[juanbenae]

i used duct tape, about 4 wraps around the cap and then took channel locks to it. it was a fight but came off with only the tape getting messed up.

be careful wrenching on the thing too hard while on a jack or stands.

[Wil Ferch]

C'mon...somebody speak up on the 2" muffler clamp...simple/elegant and it works.....


--Wil

[KFC911]

Originally posted by Wil Ferch
C'mon...somebody speak up on the 2" muffler clamp...simple/elegant and it works.....


--Wil

OK, I'll vouch for ya Wil !!! Seriously, I used the muffler clamp (per Wil's suggestion many moons ago), and a combination of many of the techniques described above, and mine were still a royal B!TCH to remove. I don't look forward to it again, but when I do, I'm going to saw a couple of slits in the cover (on the portion that inserts into the hub) as someone else has posted about, in order to make this a bit easier. Good luck!

[garibaldi]

sure ,use the 930 style, I think theyre the same, all i am saying is that if you need to get your current dust cap off, weld the nut on, the 930 style wont do you any good if you cant get the old ones off. Besides, Porsceh resistance welds the nut onto the OEM cap, and I have yanked that one off as well on 930s, so there is nothing like a good penetrating MIG or TIG weld to glue the nut on.

[Wil Ferch]

Note however that we broke the slide hammer ( ! )...not the poor weld on the Turbo cap...this is in the OEM 930 hub assembly where the "depth" of the inserted cap is deeper and has a greater hold ....

On the other points.... correct...no argument ....

--wil

[JeremyD]

Originally posted by Wil Ferch
Do a search..

I alsways suggest a 2" muffler clamp which fits the groove on the cap "perfectly"..and use this as a lever-point. Remove/rotate/repeat....works like a champ. No "beating" or cave-man antics involved.

Anyone confirm ??

---Wil

I tried that on my 87 when I did this and could not get it to budge - almost pulled/pushed the car off the jack stands with the lever action.

I ended up using two claw hammers. Stick the one hammer with the claw under the radius of the cap, hit the head with the other hammer, then rotate and repeat. I thought it would mar the dust cap but it really didn't do anything to it. A little cavemanish - but mine were stuck big time.

[911SCfanatic]

Me too, Wil. I used the C-clamp method successfully after many other methods failed.

[garibaldi]

dont know if yours are just stuck , but besides welding on the nut, the way I get hem off 99% of the time is to take a large punch, a big one, not some rinky dink on, use a bar or rod if you have to, a heavy hammer, dig the end of the punch at the rib in the cap, tip the punch away from you, to the other end is near the rotor, and the punch is oriented almost as if you were going the whack yourself with it, and hammer it, then go 180 and reaeat. Chisels will dig into the mt etal, and there is enough of an egde there to work with a regular punch and do less damage. Otherwise, if you still are having no luck, cut the end of the dust cap off, take a carbide bur, and carefully slit the body down its legth, hit it to break it loose, pull the hub apart, throw out the bearings, install new races brgs and seals, repack them and buy a new cap.