2001 Mercury Cougar

[Gatores]

Has anyone replaced a front wheel bearing on a cougar? I was looking it over and it appears to be a bearing that needs to be pressed in. Any tricks or surprises that I might run into? Also gonna do the front brakes while I am at it. Thanks for any info in advance.

Rick

[Jeremy airjer W]

You will need to remove the knuckle and bring it to a machine shop or a auto shop to have the bearings pressed out and in. Every once and a while I run into one that the drive axle is a real bear to get out of the hub. The strut setup on these is a little tricky also. It is not common but the pinch bolts are nown to break.

Use a punch in the fins of the rotor to lock the rotor on the caliper to help remove and torque the axle nut. Torquing to the proper spec when done is critical!

Once the axle nut is off remove the caliper and rotor. Seperate the outer tie rod from the knuckle. Seperate the lower ball joint from the knuckle. Remove the pinch bolt that holds the strut to the knuckle. Tap the knuckle down of the strut with a hammer. Tapping the knuckle back onto the strut is a little trickier but not impossible.

[Gatores]

Thanks for the info. The proper torque I believe is 210 ft lbs. Can you confirm this for me? Thanks again.

Rick

[Scott K]

Thanks for the info. The proper torque I believe is 210 ft lbs. Can you confirm this for me? Thanks again.

Rick

I show 214ft lbs

[Jeremy airjer W]

214 lb-ft also

[Gatores]

All went reasonably well. The pinch bolt the holds the knuckle to the strut was seized up and broke off so I just took the whole strut out with the knuckle. That way it was easier to get the broken bolt out and didnt have to fight putting it back together. It also was missing the inner snap ring so that was a suprise and had to go find one of them. All in all kind of a fun project. Thanks for the info Airjer and 4WE.

Rick