2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Looking for details on greasing 4wd front wheel bearing hubs through ABS port. Jelag?

[Coalsmoke]

I have read a couple of posts on here about people greasing their front bearing hubs through the ABS sensor bolt hole. What is the procedure here, does the hole have to be modified any or is it as straight forward as pulling out the sensor, pushing in some synthetic grease and buttoning it back up? Jelag, is this the method you are using now?



Thanks.

 

[jelag]

YES, we pull the rotor, and than remove the ABS sensor... . we don't pump the grease into the bolt hole but the hole the ABS is removed from... the counter for the ABS is on the inside of the hub...

We got a tapered tool with a rubber tip for our grease gun, and pumped in 4-6 pumps of a very high grade grease... . we use a full synthetic bearing grease with a drip point of close to 500*F. I hate the grease, it sticks to everything and is almost impossible to get off your hands... the tool is something like 1/8 - 3/16" in diameter about 3 inches long and is designed to press into a hole and seal with the rubber end...

We seem to do brakes every 120-140K miles, so that's the time we do it...

We've actually taken one apart after greasing it... . it will press apart with an arbor press, and with the correct amount of grease it seems to get into both bearings...

 

[Coalsmoke]

Thanks Jim for the details. I wasn't sure whether the ABS clocking ring in the hub was also the bearing grease cavity. Didn't want to mess anything up. I plan to use NitroLube's Red Synthetic in them, that stuff is much like what you describe, and has a 680*F max temp rating.

 

[budnate]

hey take some pics when you do it... curious where your going in at.



Thnx B.

 

[Coalsmoke]

I will describe it for you. Pull your wheels, pull your calipers and rotors, use a 5mm allen wrench to remove the bolt holding down the ABS wheel speed sensor (WSS), with an o-ring pick gently work the ABS WSS out of the clock ring hole, grease access is through the clock ring hole, reassemble once greased paying attention to the condition of the o-ring on the ABS WSS and replaced it if necessary as a leak here will allow water and contaminates to filter into your wheels bearings, doing more harm than good. Obviously you will need to have 4 wheel ABS for this trick to work.

 

[SRath]

Have you checked out CumminsPower98's website? I recently took advantage of his ingenuity and installed grease zerks in my hubs along with drilling an access hole through the knuckle to enable easy wheel bearing greasing at any time without disassembling anything. Quite frankly, Dodge should fire about half a dozen 'injuneers' and just hire Mark, based on all his ideas and fixes. Here's a link to his website:

Ram Modifications

 

[Coalsmoke]

Ive seen that, and like that idea, but what I don't like is that without a good way for cleaning the zerk before greasing, how is a person going to keep junk out of their bearings? I guess you could hose it out with brake clean first, that would help. It will take me 15 minutes per side by going in the ABS WSS, I figure I can afford the 30 minutes once a year.

 

[Coalsmoke]

Well, here's an update, the WSS are now being epoxied into the new replacement hubs at the factory, so no more easy greasing. When I got my pair of new hubs I ended up removing the bolt holding the WSS in place and drilled a 9/64" access hole into the bearing cavity. If careful you can keep all the chips out while doing this. A magnetized pick helps with cleanup after as well. Each new hub assemebly took about 15 shots of grease.