Front Hub Removal 2003 DRW 4X4 ??

[GardnerM]

Ran into trouble late in the day. Have had an intermittent hum that is getting more noticible. So upon careful hrs of inspection (completely disasembled rear dif... , found front driveshaft u joint is a little loose and also the axle ujoint is dry and has some play. We got the spider nut (1 5/8th nut off hub,the four #18 bolts off the back and THOUGHT with some persuasion the assybly would "come to daddy". It won`t budge so do we have to take the rotor off, is there something else holding the frnt hub assybly ? Caliper... is all removed. Maybe it takes a big puller with some tapping ??

 

[rbattelle]

More than likely the front hub is welded to the steering knuckle. It could take more than 25 tons to get it off there.

Some people use the steering to press off the old bearing. I did this instead.

Someone who has tried the steering method can comment on that. Basically you jam a socket in there between the axle tube and each of the screws holding the hub to the knuckle. Then crank the wheel until it's pressed off.

-Ryan

 

[Shadrach]

The hubs are well known to " stick " in from the tight fit and rust over time. Shadrach

 

[GardnerM]

We abruptly aborted mission at 445 in afternoon when it appeared something was about to be destroyed. My helper doesn`t take kindly to stubborn front end components and I suggested we do some searching and find "the trick to this" . About the 4th time we began ringing the back of the rotor with sledge blows ,the towel hit the cement. Ours is DRW so the rotor is bolted to the bearing obviously. So back out 18mm bolts say half inch or 3/4 " then jam it with power sterring huh ? Ill just lob off a peice of bar stock that size and have someone turn wheel . Our nut is 1 5/8ths socket.

 

[GardnerM]

Andres, just reread your post. So come out about a quarter inch then press all four (bearing bolts) alternating ?

 

[wcjp]

I suggest taking the bottom two bolts off the Unit Bearing. The steering method works great. I can pop a frozen unit bearing off in 2-3minutes. I use a solid piece of steel that measures about 2"x5"x1/2".

 

[GardnerM]

Sweet, this is why I the towel gets thrown in around here. Its like, time to quit , I`ll do some searching or post on TDR then tommorow we will hopefully be armed . Thanks everybody ... ... we save thousands by doing it ourselves here, not to mention I don`t trust many with my ole "Clerance". Bad caliper too same side (drivers)also the end U-joint on front shft has play so its goin under the knife too. Hopefully that will stop the intermitting hum kinda thing that has me nuts.

 

[rbattelle]

Everything on the HMMWV is bolted on - the balljoints, hubs, control arms, etc.

That's pretty sweet. Do you have a photo of the ball joint mountings?



-Ryan

 

[rbattelle]

That's nice. Generally speaking I don't like press-fit parts, and if I could figure a way to modify my ball joints so the press is no longer necessary, I would.

-Ryan