Front wheel hubs

[Rowdy Dalton]

It's over. We gave it all away for saving a dollar while the federal government has put us 35 trillion in debt. I don't know why we even need to pay taxes when they don't account for what they spend.
It's over. Stick a fork in it. We are gliding into insolvency.

Exactly. But, you didn't mention how our politicians are also making millions, by making back door policies that help those foreign companies, that then helps to ruin our economy, and that puts our own companies out of business. It's all nauseating.

 

[bighammer]

Get yourself a puller, they can be tough to remove (especially with salt exposure) and a bunch of pounding/prying can damage other components. In my opinion, you can use the power steering, but then you might as well replace your ball joints at the same time.

 

[bcbender]

Power Steering popped mine right out, I did soak in PB for a day or so prior to pulling tho

 

[BigPapa]

Here’s a thread from 2022:

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/hub-removal-tool.272965/

 

[bighammer]

Power Steering popped mine right out, I did soak in PB for a day or so prior to pulling tho

It popped mine out too, but a few weeks later I was having to replace ball joints. It puts an incredible amount of lateral pressure on them. (especially in in rust belt areas)

 

[Yo Hoot]

It popped mine out too, but a few weeks later I was having to replace ball joints. It puts an incredible amount of lateral pressure on them. (especially in in rust belt areas)

How old were the ball joints. This is the first I heard of damaging ball joints.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

It popped mine out too, but a few weeks later I was having to replace ball joints. It puts an incredible amount of lateral pressure on them. (especially in in rust belt areas)

I would think a bad wheel bearing might mask a bad ball joint when checking for movement.

 

[Deathrowdave]

I tossed unit bearings , to free spin , well well worth the investment

 

[Yo Hoot]

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Finally got the hubs replaced. At first, my cousin who's a heavy equipment mechanic, was going to do the job for me but then had second thoughts. Had some family issues pop up, and spent a week in North Dakota visiting my grandson. In early November I took the truck for emissions testing and asked the shop for a quote to do the job with my parts. Gave me a price of $900 to do the hubs (I went with the SKF's) and front axle shaft u-joints. Decided to go with it since doing it on the ground in my driveway without the proper tools was a hoop I didn't want to jump through.

Dropped the truck off last week and they called me mid-afternoon to tell me they couldn't remove the axle nuts due to them be cross-threaded and would need to cut the axles at the yokes to remove the hubs. They suggested I get a pair of aftermarket axles and replace everything. They found an aftermarket set that listed for $500 on sale for 35% off so I said go for it. Took about 4 days to get over Thanksgiving weekend and they did the work this past Wednesday. A couple hours extra labor to deal with cutting and removing the axles pushed the final price to $1140 (all labor at $155/hr! ). All in with the parts was right around $1800. More than I wanted to spend but now I have 2 new axle shafts and 2 new hubs, and didn't have to struggle to do it myself. Will also need to replace the front rotors soon but I'm going to wait until after the holidays. It was also the first time in 47 years of driving and owning vehicles that I paid for a repair on one. I've done 99% of everything myself and had help doing the rest, but at 63 I need to know and respect my limitations. As it turns out, I probably wouldn't have been able to deal with the axle removal.

Mechanic told me the hubs came out fairly easy using the steering trick to push them out. He told me the hardest part of the job was removing the rotors because they were rusted on pretty good. They torch cut the outer shafts to remove the hubs and pull the axles.

At 170K the old girl is really showing her New England age. I have another area of frame rot and the rear wheel wells have rotted bad. The inner side of both rockers are just about gone as well. Engine and transmission seem fine and mechanically the truck appears to still be road worthy. With retirement looming in the next 2 years I decided to just do the minimum needed to get me through the next 2 winters (to plow my driveway) since we'll likely be relocating to South Carolina when I retire.

It's really a shame how fast these things go bad. Between COVID and increased diesel prices for most of '21 and '22 the truck has sat at lot since 2020. I've only put a little over 4000 miles on her in the last 3-1/2 years.

 

[Yo Hoot]

I'm 65. I just redid my front end including hubs ball joints, rotors, calipers, brake lines and a new front driveshaft.
Wasn't that difficult but I do have a two post lift. I've got a rebuilt transfer case on the way. It's vibrating at high speeds. I noticed the front driveshaft at the transfer case had some radial play in the transfer case. I hear if you wait too long you could be in for transfer case carnage.
Also put new tires on it.
Even though I did all the labor, after the cost of the transfer case I'm in it about $5300. Tires alone were $1900. T case 2k.
I bought this 04 truck new. No car payments for probably 14 years. Paid 39k. Dropped a valve seat about 4 years ago at 175k miles. Total rebuild with goodies was 15k. I paid for the complete job. Not something I wanted to tackle.
I've probably put 30k into this truck but a lot was aftermarket improvements and power upgrades including Goerend trans, turbo, F1 injectors, cam to remove egr overlap.
She dynos 600hp, 1200tq everytime
When I look at all these ranchers down here in Texas, the got 100k trucks with ridiculous emissions crap on them. My 04 had no emissions crap except for the cam.. from the factory.
I too lived in salt the roads country in SE PA. The truck plowed every year. Rockers are gone as well as the wheel wells but I always took care of the frame by cleaning and spraying rust converter paint on suspected spots.
I figure here in East Texas the rust won't progress much.
Currently at 206k miles.

 

[Ozymandias]

Shaft and hub comes out as a unit, no need to separate them on the vehicle.
The bore in the knuckle is big enough to feed the u-joint through it.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Shaft and hub comes out as a unit, no need to separate them on the vehicle.
The bore in the knuckle is big enough to feed the u-joint through it.

He said something about not being able to get the hub to loosen so he cut the axle to not have to fight it as well as the rusted hub.

 

[bighammer]

I would think a bad wheel bearing might mask a bad ball joint when checking for movement.

Everything was tight and the truck rode fine, I just had a bound up U joint that I could feel on sharper turns. Within weeks of replacing it, I had a vibration and had play in the lower joint on that side. Your power steering becomes a sort of hydraulic press and its fulcrum is your poor overworked ball joint.

It works, and lots of guys swear by it, but personally, I think it's a lazy shortcut that will end/shorten the life of your ball joints.

 

[Ozymandias]

The force of hitting a pothole at 60mph is way more force then your steering can produce.
The point is common sense using the steering as WB press.

Did you know that full force steering against a sidewalk edge hundreds of time is a factory test routine for the PS that it has to endure and survive without damage?