2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission greasable front hub

[Mhannink]

so yesterday the truck felt funny driving down the road. kind of notchy and all over, not to mention sporadic, as in sometimes it would drive nice and other times it would not.



so today i crawled under the truck and started looking around. i found the left side rotor looked scored, felt it and it felt ok but i could feel some groves. mind you these are cryo slotted rotors from a. r. t. with less the 10k on them. the rotor also seemed to be closer to the knuckle on the left than the right. so i jacked up the truck and checked the wheel bearing. the bearing was tight and i could not feel or see any play at all. long story short i could not find a problem and ended up tearing the whole thing apart.



for the past week or so i have thought about modifying my hubs so that i can grease them. since i had the one side all apart and the other was not difficult i decided to just go ahead and do it.



following the example of mark, from here on tdr i started my mod. i did do things a bit differently though. first i carefully removed the seal that sits against the axle. it is possible to do without severe damage. the seal is in two pieces and mostly steel. i gently bent the out piece up evenly all the way around. then i put my smallest pry bar under it and worked the seal up.



now with the seal out i could see into the bearings. first thing i noticed is the cage on them is plastic. these are timken bearings with plastic cages. anyways i got out a 7/32 (i think) drill bit and started drilling in the same location as mark. i did not have a magnetic bit but stopped freguently to clean out the hole and lube the bit. it seemed to work, even after drilling through i could not see any metal. next i took a 1/4-28 tap applied think heavy grease, and tapped the hole. not all the way, just enough for the zerk. again it did not appear that i dropped any metal in the bearing. next i took a can of break clean and flushed the old grease out (there was not a whole lot in either bearing they where going dry). the method i used was both to spray it in where the seal was, and through the new whole. all the while turning the bearing by hand. then i turned the bearing upside down and made sure i got all the solvent out of it. i also flushed a little more brake clean through the whole while upside down.



with the old grease out and the bearing cleaned. i checked it for smoothness. the bearing did make a little noise while turning but this is normal for a clean bearing.



next i installed the zerk and started greasing. i left the seal out so i could whatch how much grease it took, which was a lot. my method was similar to that of marks. i pumped in 5 to 10 shots of grease and rotated the bearing a number of revolutions. i repeated this untill i had grease coming up between the rollers. then i would rotate the bearing to the areas where the grease looked light and add more. i did this untill the grease was evenly spread all the way around (note: i did feel a sticky spot in the bearing but only after being fully greased).



now i smoothed out the grease on the top to even it out completely, then i installed the old seal. i just tapped it in with a hammer untill it was flush. this is when i pushed grease out the other seal. i do not think this will be a problem, the seal itself is still in postion the grease just pushed around it.



with the new grease the bearing feels tighter than it did when it was new. it was tough to rotate by hand but do-able. it also felt much better with the wheel and tire on when turning by hand so i think weight might help. (note: this is compared one side to the other, one modded one stock. )



now this is where mark and i really differ. mark installed his zerk on the top. looking from inside out it would be above the axle shaft. i installed mine on the front side. from the inside out its in front of the axle shaft. i did this cause it looks easier to grease.



the largest drill bit i have is 1/2" which is not big enough to clear a grease gun fitting. so i went in with a deburring tool and a die grinder and hogged out some more material untill the grease gun could easily slip in and connect to the zerk.



after this was all done i reinstalled everything and took it for a spin. it was only a couple of miles but i did notice a few things.



first the truck feels different. i cant say exactly what but something has changed for the better. it does feel smoother when it rolling, the engine does not seem to work quite as hard when starting off from a dead stop, the steering feels like it turns a bit easier, steering also feels more stable and less sloppy, it also seems a touch quieter. as i said the truck all around does feel different and in a good way. these all could be mental tricks because i was on a test drive, more miles will tell me more.



looking in my records i found that this set of wheel bearings has 80k miles on them. most of that running big tires, and do some decent off roading. i also have been feeling a clunk/bump in the steering wheel on wavy roads. its not a side to side its up and down. i didnt notice this untill earlier this year when i replaced my steering box, shaft, bushing, and added a dss. at first i tought it was something in the steering since i had just worked on it. i checked and rechecked everything for loose parts and couldnt find anything. after doing some research tonight i think that it was actually the front left wheel bearing. there were some posts from others with almost exact symptoms, they replaced their wheel bearings and fixed the problem. so far i think i have cured those problems as wheel with new grease. as i mentioned the bearings were a little dry in my eyes but then again i like lots of lube.



we will see how much life i get out of these. as mentioned there are 80k miles on them currently. my plan is to give each bearing 3 shots of grease at every service (10k miles) i am not worried about the seal blowing out, either it is and is too late, or the seal will let the grease slip past without a problem as seems to be the case. plus three shots from a hand pump gun is not a whole lot every 10k, this is also gonna be added to my ball joint grease routine which is grease it on the ground every service, plus reguardless of when it has been greased last, if the front end is in the air for any reason the ball joints get greased. i will do the same for the wheel bearins, if the tires are in the air they will get greased while rotating before i set her down.



i am hoping that this mod will make this the last set of wheel bearings i buy for this truck. i have absolutely no plans for changing to the dynatrac hubs so this is not just a temp fix. i am curious to see how they will hold up now that they are greased really well.

 

[JMcCoy]

Did I miss something? What tore up your rotor? I'm sure the lack of grease did not destroy your rotor.

 

[SRay]

Nicely done! Mark as well! I have done my own way of greasing the bearings for over 2 years but is more work over time. One of my bearings got noisy, (no idea how many km on them as the truck has 350,000 at the time. They may have been replaced before by the previous owners)



I pulled the unit off (Big job on that! rod behind the bolt and steering power did the trick but was still a major pain in the butt!), drilled a small hole, ( I think 7/32) and pumped the bearing with grease using a grease gun adaptor. I drilled on angle from the bearing face that goes against the steering knuckle to the center on the inside to get in between the bearings.



I would like the grease fitting on the bearing but I've found that I can remove the bearing from the knuckle with nothing more than a small prybar or just my hands only, add grease, clean surface again and put new thick grease around the housing face and re-install. This way if I bust a u-joint for example, it's a 25-30 minute job, then truck is rolling again. No cleaing out rust, etc. Also the hole is covered by the thick grease and knuckle, nothing getting in there.



Also I found that the bearing can only take so much grease, even a little everytime, some comes out the seal from motion and heat expansion and splatters all over the rotors causing them to smoke. This only happened once and I still put some grease in.



I got another 70,000 kms out of the noisy bearing and would've kept going if only I'd had known that the slow turning vibration I felt was the rear end, not the bearing as the bearing felt fine with the grease added in. But I had the Cummins Engine tour coming up in 2 weeks at the time with over 2,300 kms of driving to do, I just changed it. The viberation was still there, and turns out the Dana70 was shot. Dana80 went in and truck was smooth. I now put grease in both new front bearings.



Shawn

 

[Mhannink]

Did I miss something? What tore up your rotor? I'm sure the lack of grease did not destroy your rotor.

no you didnt, i skipped over that detail with the long story short comment. i actually found no signs of what was making the rotor look bad. now with about 100 miles of driving, about 50 of it on a twisting winding road that i drove just to work the front end high speed and high g turns left and right, brakeing and accelerating. now the rotor looks good brand new even which with less than 10k on them it better look new.



originally the rotor looked like it had metal to metal contact and scoring but i could not really feel (felt like it was starting to score, very light) it, just see it. also there was brake dust on the rotor and even some discoloration. after tearing down i could see a clearly outlined contact patch of the brake pad. i actually thought i would have to be machined. i should note both my cousin and i who are accomplished mechanics thought it looked bad. also the brake pads and caliper all looked great, again they should since there are very few miles on them. i dont know what made the rotor look like it did but now it looks perfect and feels perfect too. it also sits the proper distance from the knuckle, both sides are the same now.



since the mod the truck drives much better, steering is smooth and tight, and turns better, truck handles bumps better, the truck seems to accelerate smoother now, and i notice it takes more brake pressure to stop at the same rate as before. for the moment i think this is a good thing as it is an indication that the truck is rolling more freely.

 

[budnate]

do you have a pic of where you landed your zirk hole? been wanting to do the mod .



B.

 

[Mhannink]

i will try to get one for you by the end of the week. if i dont i am only 1000 miles away from my next service and i know i can take one then. ill post it here in this forum for you and anyone else interested.



when i post the pic i will explain more, but with a little bit of thought you can put the zerl and the hole through the knuckle almost anywhere you want.



also if your planning a head a little better than i did you might consider an elbow and extension for the zerk. as mark (first person who did the mod) commented and i discovered too, a new grease tip is almost impossible to get off as there is no swing room. worn might be better, but if i were to go back and do it again i would get the smallest brass elbow i could and install a long zerk so that it stuck out through the knuckle making greasing a lot easier.

 

[JKosten]

This is for a 3rd gen but similar: How to: Add zerks to your wheel bearings

 

[TPringle]

I am going to do this also since I already have the front end of this truck scattered. I wondered what kind of grease you used? Since mine is a 2000 model, it looks like the only way to grease these is to remove the caliper and brake disc. They look like the hubs in the pics from the link above.



That could be a "grease it when I rotate the tires" day.

My hubs seem smooth and tight, and I want to keep them that way!

 

[RDHamill]

My post from back in 2004. That truck has over 350,000 miles on the OE hub.

I had a wheel bearing fail one mornig on the road, ground and whined for a while but I got it home.
When I pressed it apart, there was nothing inside to call grease, atfer giving the ******* $350, I drilled the bolt hole for the ABS senser so that I had access to the cavity between the inner and outer bearing.
I put in a shot of oil, and then filled it with grease. Liked it so much I did the other side. and made a new bolt with grease fitting.
The OE hub lasted 90,000 miles, dealer told me they go at about 75000. Now that I can grease them, they should last a long time.
The right side now has 190,000 on the original bearing, the left is now up to 95,000.
As for the concern for types of grease, while I agree with the theory the guys are using, in practice any grease would be better than what's left of the factory grease after a few miles, which is nothing as far as I can see.