Help! Stuck mid hub assembly removal on an 06 prius

Good afternoon,
I've had some awful noise coming from the front drivers side of my car. Determining the likly cause to be the wheel bearing, I decided to tackle replacing the hub assembly as a lovely weekend project. Things were going along ok - Removed brake caliper, removed the axle nut (that wasn't fun), removed the rotor (rather persisntantly stuck on, but it gave in the end), and then came removing the hub assembly itself. Had a rented hub puller, put it on, started tightening it down and tapping on the hub as I went. It was getting pretty tight on there (was starting to worry about the safty of the cv shaft), and then as I tapped on the hub one last time, the hub and hub puller popped off the car... I was elated, until I realized rather than pulling the entire hub assembly out, it had actually separted the inner track of the bearing from the outer track, leaving the wheel bearing and flange behind inside the stearing knuckle.

So, here I sit, with half my hub assembly on the ground and the other half still in the car.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get the rest of the hub assembly out, now that there is nothing to really pull on? I've tapped around on it for a couple hours, and soaked it in enough penetrating oil to make the car flamable, but no give. I've even tried putting the hub bolts back in through the back and tapping on them with a hammer to no avail (probably going to have to replace the bolts now, but one problem at a time).

Any suggestions would be appreciated, as I'm currently just sitting here starring at the hub assembly in disgrace.

Thans

 

That was my next thought as well, though I was really hoping to avoid removing the knuckle if possible... about 150k

 

Sorry for the delay posting, it was a rather long weekend. I was able to get the steering knuckle off - it was actually considerably easier than taking the knuckle off my last vehicle which is why I was hesitant to do it. I was finally able to drive it out with a 2" trailer hitch and a 4lb drilling hammer. I'll get the number off the back of the bearing tonight and post it.

Before taking the knuckle off I had also tried a 5lb slide hammer for about an hour. I also notched the hub assembly near the knuckle and tried driving in a chisel.

Now I just have to figure out how to get the ABS, VSC, Brake and warning light off that I managed to turn on by being briliant enough to push on the brakes while the caliper was off... but at least its all back together and no more howling from the front end!

 

Thanks. I actually found that thread this morning and tried it. Unfortunately the error lights came right back on. I think the actual cause was that I didn't line the hole in the dust cover up correctly with the ABS speed sensor

I'm assuming there is no way to move that dust cover now that it's all back together without first losening the axel nut? The first time around I ended up cutting out the 'locked' portion of the axle nut to get it off (after breaking a punch and a chisel...) and buying a new axle nut. Though i guess now that I think about it i probably could have tried to have a different section of the axle nut line up with the groove to 're-lock' when i was done...

 

Thanks Britprius. Seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions on whether unlocking the stake is necissary or not... Lots of people saying 'never loosen the nut without unlocking the stake or you could damage your threads..' but one has to wonder if anyone has actually damaged their threads this way, or if they are simply repeating the same warning others have propagated...

 

So, I was able to get the axle nut back off, adjusted the dust cover so the hole lined up with the abs hole in the steering knuckle, and put it all back together (without staking the axle nut yet, just in case), back into diagnostic mode to clear the error codes... and they came right back... Is there any secret to lining the sensor and the dust shield up correctly? Does it have to be just right, pushed back into the hub far enough, anything particular i could be missing? Or is just something else now...?

The error codes I'm getting are -
(!) - 69
ABS - 42
VSC - 45

As always, any help is greatly appre

 

I had also promissed someone a part # off the bearing - 3DACFD3SDB-2D

 

Thanks Patrick. I didn't open any lines, at least not that I'm aware of, and I haven't seen any signs of leaking fluid. Though I did have to compress the brakes to get them back on the rotor when I was done...

It seems unlikely that an actuator would just happen to go bad while I'm replacing the hub. I'll certainly call around to the toyota dealers in my area, but the last time I had a check engine light they wanted over $100 just to do a diagnostic...

 

Pulled the caliper back off and inspected the actuator - no leaking there either. I had someone press on the brakes while I tried to move the caliper on the rotor and it's definitely clamping down...

Called both toyota dealers in my area and 1 is $115 to do a diagnostic, the other is $125. Any other idea of things I could check while i've still got everything apart??