What is involved and how hard is it to replace the rear wheel bearings on a '86(early offset with aluminum swing arms)? The last few races of the year I got a bad vibration when turning once the car was hot or late in a race. Sometimes the front of the car would just stop turning for a fraction of a second so I'm thinking wheel bearings. I've never changed them and don't know if or when they ever were changed so now's the time and I figured I should do the rears as well.

Also, does anybody have any other idea's as to what might cause the vibration? Braking is fine, no vibration, just turning. I might change tie rod ends as well although they seem tight. I'm thinking of changing the steering rack as well. Instead of looping off the power lines, I took it apart and removed the seals and filled it with grease. Works great but I'm not sure that's the best thing to do and I "borrowed" another rack from a friend that I can clean up and put in.

I changed tires and wheels, checked for loose bolts(did find that the bolts from the struts to the spindles were loose but didn't make a difference), tightened the wheel bearings to no avail. Those changes did help some but didn't cure it. I played back the in car video and the whole car shook bad enough that the camera picked it up as well as the noise.

I'm starting my winter work on the car today and would appreciate any help or ideas anybody has.

Thanks
Ron

Jack the car up, and see if there is any play, or grinding when you turn/shake the rear wheel. You need special tool to change the rear bearings, as they are torqued to 350 ft. lbs. There are some good threads on Pelican & Rennlist on doing this.

Front wheel bearings are easy.

Rears are a lot more work as you'll need to remove the trailing arms and press the bearings out and back in. I put the new bearings in dry ice for a couple of hours before dropping them in and that makes it much easier on installation.

You should be able to tell if there is a "grinding" feel to the bearings or any play to see if they need replacement. Normally you can hear a bad wheel bearing while driving. It sounds like a deep metallic rubbing sound while driving. When the fronts go, sometimes they only make noise turning one way or another.