I've read the manual and trawled the archive, but I'm still not suite sure how I go about repacking (or replacing) the front hub bearings on my '95 LS. Right now, I'm in need of an alignment but the shop rightly pointed out that I should get rid of the play before they did anything.

As I'm looking at the hub, I can see the dust cap and 2 rings of bolts. Is it a simple case of going after the front row and removing the retaining ring on the axle? back row would appear to hold the rotor to the hub, correct?

Do I have to pull the autolocking hub apart to get to the bearings or will the lock come off as 1 unit? From what I can gather, there is a lock down nut hidden under there that I should be able to use to remove the play but it needs a special tool?

Any insight (pics??) as to how the hubs come apart would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

Your '95 should be Active-Trac, with no auto-hub really, but the CV is splined to the outer drive ring that's bolted to the Wheel Bearing hub. The rotor bolts to the back of that. You unbolt the outer drive ring after removing the dust cap and a retaining ring if I remember right, then slide it off the splined shaft of the CV.
Then, you're looking inside the'hub', and if it's like my '92, you have 2 phillips screws holding the wheel bearing adjustment lock ring to the inside of the hub. You remove/unscrew those two #3 phillips head screws[a smaller #2 tip usually strips them out] and tighten or loosen the nut assembly to set your wheel bearing clearance. You may have to move and rotate the 'holed' ring around till 2 holes line with the threads of the hub so you can install the 2 locking phillips screws again, but don't be tempted to loosen the nut in order to get both screws reinstalled <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" />- You'll just end up with too much freeplay again with your bearings.
If you've go the whole hub off, and you haven't repacked the wheel bearings in awhile, now is the time to do so. I replace my wheel bearings on every second set of front rotors that I change out cause they're so cheap from NAPA. I only use the Mitsu factory hub seals since I never have water or mud issues with them from off-roading or wading through water. Hope this helps you out.

On my 96 MonteroSR, I just need to change my Rotors. If I reassemble everything as I took it off, do I still need to do anything special as I put it back together???? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/barf.gif" alt="" />