Preventive Maintenance of the more difficult kind

[MSCH]

I've been prepping the truck for this years use.
diffs, T case, cooling system, belt drive.
Swapping front tires find the left front has some play.
1st thought because it is a Dodge ( Ram I have a hard time saying, it will always be a Dodge to me)
its going to be a ball joint.. but no, its the beginning of a wheel hub failure.
Straightforward enough job, just lucky enough to have this large adjustable 2 jaw puller
otherwise it would have been an exercise in tactical application of a sledgehammer..

 

[Wayne]

Front wheel bearing failures seem to be a common problem on most vehicles. My brother's Dodge (Cummins) trucks seem to need new front bearings at < 100k miles. The mechanic that does the work puts anti-seize on the surfaces of the bearings, because he knows he'll be changing them in a couple years, yeah my brother puts a ton of miles on transporting livestock. The anti-seize makes it so much easier to get the bearings out.

 

[MSCH]

Front wheel bearing failures seem to be a common problem on most vehicles. My brother's Dodge (Cummins) trucks seem to need new front bearings at < 100k miles. The mechanic that does the work puts anti-seize on the surfaces of the bearings, because he knows he'll be changing them in a couple years, yeah my brother puts a ton of miles on transporting livestock. The anti-seize makes it so much easier to get the bearings out.

yeah, this is the first time for this truck... 148xxx miles on it... and I did coat the new installation with anti seize for the exact same reasons..

most everything built this century has sealed bearings.. and for the most part all of them eventually get replaced if you drive it far enough...
I've done the front hub on my 2000 K 3500, several rears on my ford focus, my daughters Nissan ( that sucker only had 50k miles on it) has already had one replaced.

 

[ctechbob]

There was a video, I think from Deboss Garage ages ago that showed what I thought was a pretty neat trick of somehow using the actual steering knuckle to help push the hub out.

There it is.

 

[MSCH]

There was a video, I think from Deboss Garage ages ago that showed what I thought was a pretty neat trick of somehow using the actual steering knuckle to help push the hub out.

There it is.

yeah... I was fairly lucky on this one.. first whack with the hammer and I knew it would budge.. then it was just use the puller and a few whacks with the hammer and I knew I was home free.

 

[dnewton3]

To be specific, these type of bearing sets are referred to as "unit bearings" because the bearing housing holds the race and bearings in as an assembly. It makes for quick install at the factory (just bolt in the ass'y). It makes for quick field repairs also, as long as someone put some anti-seize in there!

They are not as robust or strong as true spindle-bearing systems, but they are "good enough" for most stock applications. What really causes them to fail early is when tires/wheels get oversized in some attempt to macho the truck up a bit.

 

[Wayne]

They are not as robust or strong as true spindle-bearing systems, but they are "good enough" for most stock applications. What really causes them to fail early is when tires/wheels get oversized in some attempt to macho the truck up a bit.

Oh how my brother wishes the front bearings were the more robust spindle bearings, not these cartridge bearings.

Yeah, the macho big tires are hard on them, but the spacers are terribly hard on bearings.

 

[MSCH]

To be specific, these type of bearing sets are referred to as "unit bearings" because the bearing housing holds the race and bearings in as an assembly. It makes for quick install at the factory (just bolt in the ass'y). It makes for quick field repairs also, as long as someone put some anti-seize in there!

They are not as robust or strong as true spindle-bearing systems, but they are "good enough" for most stock applications. What really causes them to fail early is when tires/wheels get oversized in some attempt to macho the truck up a bit.

yeah, basically like the difference between a semi floating rear axle found on 1500 series trucks and light duty 2500 series, compared to the full floater rear axles found on 2500 and higher series trucks all the way thru class 8... I believe the reason the manufacturers use the sealed bearing is one of simplicity of assembly and the idea that since hardly anyone bothers to do maintenance on the old wheel bearings anyway, making it a throw away assembly was simpler and easier since the end results was almost always the same between any type, somebody drove it until it failed and ended up in the trash..