Dynatrac Free spin bearing Failure>>>

[JCockerill]

Freespin kit with dynaloc installed on truck a little under a year ago and has roughly around 10000 miles on the setup. recently noticed growling noise coming from left front. jacked up front confirmed noise and felt slop in wheel.



as soon as i took of the outer hub cover it looked like the inside of the hub was sitting on the bottom of the ocean. . All rusted, grease turned mud, bearings shot. all parts rusted. hub was loose and inner seal was shot. also looked like water got in through outer cap. what a mess. I have worked on 4x4 plow trucks for years and this is not my first 4x4 hub I've worked on by any means. I even followed install instructions to the letter. tourquing bearing nuts, and lock nut was tight with tab engaged. It seems like water contaminated hub and cause bearing failure to me.



I'm just posting to see if this has happend to anyone else? I live in the northeast and the truck was in a lot of snow this winter. . never offroad. . i just can't belive the cost and quality of this kit this is what happend. . the other side appears to be fine, but i will be tearing it down for inspection and re-pack of bearings. I used amsoil water-resistant bearing grease too...



I have a call into dynatrac, but no answer yet. . i turn more wrenches than miles on this truck lately... it's been very discouraging...

 

[steved]

Do your lockouts sit tight to the hubs?



I almost had the same problem, but found it before the bearings completely failed. I eventually added a second internally lock ring to seat the dog gear further into the hub boby, and that in turn provides enough space to pull the lockout in further and seal correcly.

 

[ENafziger]

I've got about 16,000 miles on mine, including 10,300 miles grossing over 20,000 lbs on a trip to Alaska. I've had to tighten my wheel bearings 3 times, but they seem to be seated in well now.

--Eric

 

[steved]

I never had to tighten mine... but I put over 100k on them before I figured out there was a problem! I've got a new stub shaft sitting at the house to install because a failed spindle seal cause the stub shaft to rust.

What I found is that the lockout will seat tightly to the dog gear (big aluminum sprag) and the sprag isn't spaced far enough into the hub body... this causes the lockout to be "loose" from the hub, and creates a place for water intrusion. I found this while out in Washington in 08, and didn't have the place to fix it... I simply cleaned things up the best I could and added grease to the hub. I order two of the large internal lock rings and added one to each side to push the dog gear further into the hub, thereby forcing the lockout to seat (and seal) against the hub and not the dog gear.

FWIW, I turned the outer bearing golden brown from lack of grease... and although I have new bearings behind the seat just in case, I've put another 50k+ on that bearing.

If you can grab your lockouts and wiggle them fairly easily, it would be in your best interest to pull the lockouts and at least take a look at things inside the hub. I have had zero problems (other than the failed spindle seal) since installing the second locking ring.

 

[JCockerill]

thanks, this makes sense. . i will ask for two more outer lock rings. and add them. .

 

[EDankievitch]

Make sure that the lock out asy was indexed correctly I found that if it's not it will not seat all the way