WHEEL BEARING TOOLS

Not sure if special tools are needed but I have just had the front bearings done on my 230 GES.

Could not believe how many bearings, seals, gaskets etc where needed - 24 parts- about £400. The time booked time for the job is 11 hours but it actually took 6. The drawing of the front hub assembly looks quite complex. Try Western Mercedes Coldstream for parts they are helpfull.

I am sure the actual bearings could have been bought more cheaply but I believe the gaskets/seals have to come from MB so I got the lot from MB and they all fitted  - no time wasted with the wrong part from a motor factor.

Good luck and yes the car drives much much better.

They are standard bearings from a Bearing stockist.. but if you do it properly with good grease, regreasing drive swivels, changing seals on hub swivel and all the little bits.. it is a fair but not overly complex job.

For hub nuts - there are two types of nuts.. I just bought the closest size from Halfrauds and then angle grindered it to size.. not nice but only about £7 odd.

Best links I have are

http://www.clubgwagen.com/gtech.php?pageTitle=tech%20article&sid=item&ti...
http://www.4x4abc.com/G-Class/pinion.seal/pinion.html front axle prop/pinion seal replacement

..and a few notes cribbed from over the last few years;

On a G that’s done over 100.000 or more you would expect that the front wheel bearings would have been at least repacked with grease and adjusted if not replaced – mine had and receipts for the work. You don’t want to feel any play in the wheels when you have the wheel off the ground. If you run on worn wheel bearings you can wreck the hub and CV joint which is very expensive. Don’t worry about it unduly it’s just something to be aware of when purchasing a G. ErnestTBass

Grease for front hubs
Rocol Saphire Aqua 2 = 380g @£9.99 = 1 per hub = waterproof, corrosion resistant, all bearings, light brown
Rocol Saphire Hi-Load 2 = 380g @ £11.04 = moly all bearings, blue/black
These are grease gun cartridges
Front axle inner wheel bearing = tapered roller bearing inch series 41x68x18.3 dims; buy in two parts FAG KLM300849 inner/balls KLM300811 outer/cone (FAG have stopped making them). Timken original are LM300849+LM300811. Cost £32.09 each (supplied as one part) from BSL Brammer 10/2007 Did not replace outer bearing as they were fine so no part numbers

Wheel Bearing Grease - Mercedes "Green Grease" $9.75
FUCHS Renolit LX-PEP 2 grease that is the equivalent of the Mercedes-Benz "Green Grease", part number A 002 989 00 51 10. Mercedes-Benz specifies this grease for wheel bearings and hub units on all of their vehicles. The grease carries MB Approval 265.1
Front axle bearings
460s front are 4T-LM 300849 Inner wheel bearing 4T-LM 503349A Outer Wheel bearing and 4T-LM 11949 King-pin. (from NTN) In NTN the wheel bearings have one extra roller which the tec guy at NTN I spoke to claimed improves life and in the 4T range and gives 1.4x fatigue life over standard SKF types. LM503349 is available in the ET range and that has 1.9x increase in fatigue life.

The difference between LM 503349A and LM593349 is the radius that mates to the hub: the former is 3.5 mm and the later is 2.3mm. Later hubs require the A but you can use them on early hubs too just not the other way round
Ernest T Blaus

Front axle parts list http://4x4abc.com/G-Class/bearings460list.html

“ I replaced far too many front wheel bearings on my 1984 280GE until I was shown the right way to do them, and it's not by the recommendations of the factory workshop manual. With everything well greased, assemble the hub to the axle stub and tighten the inner nut to hand tight only using the claw wrench without the breaker bar. Do this while rotating the hub, and I found that I get better results if the wheel is mounted to the hub. Go hand tight only on that inner nut. Then turn that inner nut back 1/8 turn, place the star lock washer on the stub and tighten and torque the outer nut to spec. (200 Nm?) Tap the grease/dust cap back into place, and your good to go”. DUTCH BenzWorld G Class Host