I was replacing the rotors on a 96 Accord today, and separating the hub from the knuckle so I could get the rotor out was really, really difficult. I spent hours screwing around with a hub puller and banging the rotor so hard it was chipping away.

I've learned a lot from this forum, and I want to contribute back with this.

First, break the 4 14mm bolts loose that are on the front of the hub. Remove the halfshaft from the hub. Take out the 4 12mm bolts from the back of the knuckle. If you cannot get the hub off by beating the rotor with a hammer, or you want to save the rotor to resurface it, you need to remove the knuckle. Don't waste your time with slide-hammers and hub pullers.
Do this by removing the 2 10mm bolts that hold the brake caliper line on the knuckle. Then remove the castle nut on the tie rod, along with the upper and lower ball joints. The knuckle should come right out.

Next, support the whole knuckle/hub/bearing/rotor assembly by the rotor. I'm sure you could use 2 stacks of wooden blocks, I used 2 metal blocks. Now, get a piece of metal that fits on the metal part of the hub that you can see from the back of the knuckle. Put the assembly on the blocks, and put your metal piece on the back of the hub. Now take something really heavy, like a sledge hammer, and give the metal piece one hard WHACK. The hub should come out. Repeat as necessary. Here's a bad illustration, I didn't take pictures along the way.
I hope this helps some of you guys who are having trouble with this.

 

Haha lovely picture, from what it looks/sounds like you're just recreating a "press" like what an actual shop would do, one of the Accord FAQ tutorials the guy uses one for the exact same situation.

 

Matco and I'm sure many others also make a tool for this

 

Yea, I have a hydraulic press at work, it's rated at 6 tons and it wouldn't budge it, I think there's an issue with the press though cause I know I wasn't hitting with 12,000lbs of force.

 

Did a pretty damn good job of drawing. You are the Savant of the Paint program.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gqstatus05 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did a pretty damn good job of drawing. You are the Savant of the Paint program. </TD></TR></TABLE>

x2

 

thank you so much for your post, i was trying to change my girlfriends brakes on her 97 accord and when i took off the tire , i was like, WTF! is this. Started to use the hub puller , then hammering, then prying, and nothing. THEN i did some searching and found your lil tip. and with a couple of good, Wacks. the hub came out.

thanks, without your post i would still be out there trying to get that thing out

 

good tip. atleast a drawing is better then none.

It cost me $45 to have a shop remove it last time, i didnt have the tools to whack it out and time was of the essence.

 

Great idea! I combined this with another idea from the net: Instead of hammering on a metal piece at the center, put the hub mounting bolts back in until the seating plane on the head is about 1/4 inch up from the knuckle. Arrange the assembly as shown with the rotor supported on blocks. Use a 3 pound hammer on each bolt head evenly, the hub will come out fairly easily. No need to hit it really hard, even shock is the ticket.

You are supposed to replace these bolts, so it is no big deal to pound on them.

I used penetrating oil in each screw hole and around the edge of the bearing on the knuckle side, being careful not to let penetrating oil sit on the bearing. As soon as the hub began to move a little I put a lot of penetrating oil in.

Got both hubs off in less than 20 minutes this way, and I could have reused the rotors.

 

Last time i did this I simply wacked the center and it popped right out, although I may have damaged something (not certain).

 

Last night I took the knuckle off my 1990 Accord and couldn't get the hub and bearing separated. Would this technique work for my year?

I was trying to replace my bearing, so I had to remove the hub.

I tried the technique used by EricTheCarGuy at 1 min 44 sec.

Will I have to take this thing into a shop to have them remove the old bearing and press the new one in?

 

The technique they are discussing is simply removing the hub/bearing assembly from the knuckle.
The problem I have always had with the bearings is that the outer race sticks to the hub. There is a minute lip to grab with a bearing puller...


Or you could try cutting through the race and then cracking it off with a cold chisel.

Either way you will still need a press to get the new bearing on.