Mike,
$10 each for parts and labor would be a good deal.
Unless they are using bearings from Taiwan or China.
** If someone else does the job, make sure they greased the new bearings,
installed the circlips and that the yokes pivot nice and smooth without ANY
binding.
They're not hard to do assuming you can get under the car and have a big
vise or hydraulic press.
Mark both front and rear drive shaft flanges and the transmission output and
differential input flanges so you re-assemble everything as it was when you
took it apart. If the nuts aren't all self-locking, install the correct new
ones.
Removing old bearings, clean everything up first and be careful not to
deform the roundness of the bearing housing by pounding or clamping.
On each yoke you need to remove all circlips and displace the spider and a
bearing to one side so you can grab the bearing shell with a vise-grip
pliers and pull it out of the yoke. A socket works ok as a bearing
driver.Then repeat the process in the opposite direction for the other
bearing shell.
Inspect the bearing housings for metal burrs and out-of-round. You probably
won't even be able to get a new bearing into a damaged bearing housing. On
the other hand, correct fit is tight (maybe 0.002" interference) and you
need to know ahead of time that the housing is ok so you don't break up a
new bearing while trying to install it.
Inspect the new bearings for defects and sufficient grease. Inspect the new
yokes for burrs, cracks or bad bearing surfaces.
If you try to install new bearings by pounding them in you will without a
doubt knock some of the needle bearings out of position in one of the
bearing shells and will not be able to seat the second bearing shell in far
enough to get the circlip installed.
Even using a hydraulic press, you need to support the yoke so the bearing
housing is aligned squarely for bearing installation and be sure the needle
bearings have enough grease so they don't fall out in the process.
None of this is really tricky but you need to be observant along the way.
Go back to ** and see if the guy did the job rightl. ;-)
-- Jack
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