Steve Carroll found himself in a difficult situation.

The manager of Carroll’s Service Center in West Trenton, New Jersey, was pressing a wheel bearing out of the suspension knuckle of a Ford Explorer. He had the knuckle assembly clamped down, and the bearing wasn’t even budging. He’d already put a lot of force into it, with no progress.

“We eventually cleared out the shop,” he said. “All the other customer cars, all the other staff, anything that could get injured or damaged. I was using a six-foot bar to crank the press and positioned myself behind the post of my closest lift for protection. I knew if that thing let go, there was no telling where the parts might end up.”

Fortunately, the only casualty was the base of the shop’s 25-ton press, which is now permanently deformed from the force applied to it.

That job ended up requiring a new knuckle, which the dealer didn’t have on hand. Carroll was able to find a used knuckle – luckily in better condition – in a local salvage yard to complete the job but wondered whether he’d ever bother doing this repair the same way again.

In Hamilton, New Jersey, not far down the road, Paul Ward shared Carroll’s frustration. Ward was actually taking in work from other local shops that weren’t equipped to handle the toughest jobs. Wheel bearings had sort of become his specialty, not because he likes the work, but simply because he owns a 25-ton hydraulic press.

“We knew there had to be a better way,” said Ward, owner of Paul Ward’s Auto Service. “Other shops were bringing us bearings to press out, and we were losing time on almost every one of them. What should have taken about two hours to complete was taking three or four with all the corrosion.”

To make matters worse, Ward said it wasn’t uncommon to finally free a bearing only to find the hub had become damaged in the process.

“This used to mean calling the dealer to see if they have a hub in stock, followed by calling the customer to tell them their bill just got bigger,” he said.

Even using all new parts doesn’t always guarantee a smooth reassembly. On at least one occasion, the shop pressed a new bearing onto the hub, only to discover the wheel studs hadn’t been installed, effectively doubling the work time.

Dorman’s Ideation Team heard these troubles and many others from shops in our network, and that led directly to our lines of pre-pressed hubs and pre-pressed, complete knuckle assemblies, a.k.a. loaded knuckles. By providing everything necessary, ready for installation right out of the box, they take the worst surprises out of these jobs.

“Pre-pressed hubs have changed our business,” Ward said. “Now we know how long a bearing job will take. No more surprises for us – or for our customers.”

And when time is money, these pre-pressed assemblies can save shops a tremendous amount of both.

“There used to be a 50/50 chance of a wheel bearing repair being a one-day job,” Carroll said. “Loaded knuckles save us so much time, and we don’t have to clear the shop just to do a bearing.