Gently pry/pop the inner out. I was in the same boat..it'* questionable prying on the trans cover..but.. if you do it quick and don't dent anything you should be ok.

ok finally got shaft out. running to NAPA for grease boot.

Well bufford is all back together now. Everything is working ok.....except the noise is still there The halfshaft is good and the sway bar linkage is all good, but what I thought was the front left wheel bearing problem, is obviously something else.

Anybody have a clue ? Syptoms:

wirring sound coming from somewhere. It'* not noticable till about 20 -25 mph. And the sound seems to intensify with the speed of the car going up. Also increases when you turn the car to the right. Not noticable when you turn to the left.

How can I trouble shoot this problem ? Is it the other side (passenger) that is the problem ? Is it in the rear ? Is it something else, if so what could it be?

BTW I also had new tires put on yesterday. The noise was there with the old tires, it'* just more noticeable now that the new tires are on.

Long day to find out that the original problem is still there :(

Thanks again fellas.

Don't get discouraged. I've got a clacking noise comming from the right front wheel area. I removed the strut and repacked the strut bearing with grease. The noise is still there. The flip side is that if I ever need to remove one of the struts again, I'll know exactly what to do.

PS. I like the user name Raptor better. Taken from the YF-22 fighter jet I presume.

Thanks for the shout of encouragement Macdrive. Yep you guessed it YF-22. But I had to go with BMWhound, cuz I could afford a BMW. Can't afford the YF-22 ya know. If I could I wouldn't be crying about my 10 year old Bonny :P On a serious note, does anyone have a suggestion on troubleshooting my noise. Thanks

I'd say it could be the passenger side bearing. I know when I had a bad wheel bearing, turning it TOWARDS the bad bearing made it louder, turning AWAY from the bad bearing made it go away, or made it quieter.

So you found the grease cup for the ball joint?

As Bonne94 says, it can very well be the other side bearing. The rule of thumb about which bearing is bad doesn't always apply and I've seen it where you are positive it'* the left bearing, remove and see it'* bad. After putting a new left on, noise remains and you find it was both bearings..

Thanks Boost & Bonnie94. Sounds like the ol' game I used to play 3 card monty. Ah what some good sleep will do for your attitude. I'm sure you guy'* understand what I'm trying to do is figure out which bearing is the problem. Or is it something else ? Power steering ? I've been through a few wheel bearing'* going bad. Had a 87 Tempo that a rear bearing went bad, so I'm pretty confident that it'* a bearing issue. Again, is there anyway I can check this out further ? @ 142.00 a pop for the bearing I want to be as sure as I can. I can live with the wasted time, but I have a real hard time with wasted money...know what I mean? And of course I want Bufford healthy

Can I jack the car up and put it in drive while up on stands and listen to it from outside the car ? Does it require a "load" on the wheel to make the noise ? I've actually thought about laying in my trunk to check the rear bearings. I guess thinking about it, it'* unlikely that the rear bearings are the problem, because of the fact that the sound changes when I move the wheel.

Yes, I did find the grease cup. I called back and the other guy new exactly what we wanted. Helped a lot. I cut it down a little so it would just fit over the bottom part of the ball joint. If I had a power chisel I would have replaced the whole joint, but I had enough on my plate yesterday. Thanks again guys.

I'd suggest against jacking the car and running it on stands to find out which bearing is bad due to the safety issues. However this is how a mechanic buddy (uses lift) sometimes tracks down the tougher issues.

You could put the car on jack stands and have a buddy rock the wheel at the 3/9 and 6/12 o'clock positions while you observe the bearing from the back side of the wheel. I really need a pic to be able to show members where to look, but when my wheel bearing went out, I did this and you could see the portion on the back edge of the bearing moving when rocked and at the same time the lower ball joint or the halfshaft remained in place.