Unitized Hub Bearing Assembly Removal - Lessons Learned

[steved]

I am going back with greasable McQuay-Norris ball joints with the poly urethane boots.

Is there an online place to order these?? And are these "zero" or adjustable balljoints??



I have only seen reference to Moogs (they were still not available) and Napa which are TRWs (but they are adjustable)...



steved

 

[Jumbo Jet]

The McQuay-Norris come in both fixed and adjustable. I ordered through Advance Auto Parts.

 

[steved]

The McQuay-Norris come in both fixed and adjustable. I ordered through Advance Auto Parts.

That's cool... the last time I was there they tried to sell me D60 BJs for my 3rd gen AAM... they even listed spicer 60 for the 3rd gen trucks...



They must have got their books straightened out...



steved

 

[Jumbo Jet]

The local Advanced Auto Parts store said they just recently have been able to get these.



www.partsamerica.com sells them also.

 

[steved]

The local Advanced Auto Parts store said they just recently have been able to get these.



www.partsamerica.com sells them also.

That is awesome and very good to know, because as of recently, there weren't many places supporting the AAM.



Nice to know they have them now... a local supplier!



steved

 

[MickeyMiller]

Kind'a jacking this thread, but is there a difference in quality in the available aftermarket ball joints? Mine were OK when I just had the hubs off, but sooner or later ... . and if I'm going that far I want to use the best!



Thanks in advance!

 

[rbattelle]

I'm in for a crazy adventure!

So I built a tool out of the old wheel flange from the driver side bearing and some 2x2x3/16" A500 (with a 3x3x1/4" angle iron striker plate). First picture. Used with a sledgehammer. As you can see (hopefully), there's also a 7-ton puller in use. There's almost 4 ft. of swinging room with the hammer between the rails.



Got about 10 or 15 good, solid hits with my 14-lb sledge. The result was the second picture. The wheel bearing separated with NO MOVEMENT of the inner part in terms of coming out of the steering knuckle.



So now I've got the inner bearing housing welded in the knuckle. I'm not sure where to go from here. I was thinking of making another super slide hammer using the old bearing housing (shown in the photo sitting on the ground). It will take some time to fabricate that tool. I'm open to other suggestions.



It may sound strange, but I feel even though the bearing has separated and I'm now left with a vehicle that is totally un-drivable and there's no convenient way to pull on the inner bearing, I have somehow "improved" the situation. At least now I can pound away at the inner race directly.



You might be thinking "you idiot, you should've left the axle nut on so it would hold the bearing together!". That's true, except the tool I built can't be used with the axle nut in place. Oh well, live and learn.



Thanks again, Dodge!



Ryan

 

[HOBrian]

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:--)



I looked at the first picture and thought that should work great! Than I saw the second:{ :{ . I soon will feel this pain.



I would take this as a victory, after all those hours on the last go around this is something to be proud of. Oo.

 

[rbattelle]

after all those hours on the last go around this is something to be proud of.

Good point. It took about 30 or 40 hours of work to get to this point on the driver side.

The work you see here I did in under 90 minutes. This front axle would be a piece of cake to service if they didn't weld the inner races into the knuckles.

Thank God I have other transportation available now.

And the tool I made worked beautifully! Really increased my confidence in my welding skills. I mean, I really pounded the snot out of it and the tool is fine. A bit of denting on the strike plate (the angle iron), but I expected that.

Ryan

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

A word of caution: there is a such thing as too much grease. Too much grease packed into a sealed component is going to generate a lot of heat, which is going to break down the grease. So don't go nuts with it.



Ryan

Ryan, I've heard that one before - and if true, wonder why the "Bearing buddies" on my (and MANY others!) boat trailer work so well when their function is to keep the entire wheel hub cavity filled with grease as a means to to prevent water intrusion when loading/unloading the boat at the lake as the whole wheel is submerged in the water.



The wheels on my boat trailer are rather small 10 inchers - so the wheels and bearings certainly rotate lots faster than the larger ones on my truck - yet are always cool to the touch after lots of miles down the road at the speed limit...

 

[rbattelle]

I built a puller to pull the inner portion of the bearing from the knuckle. This requires splitting the bearing in half which is not a big deal. The puller looks like nothing more than a "box" made of angle iron that will straddle the four bearing mounting bolt holes... a thick pieces of plate is added to the top and four holes are drilling into the plate in the mounting hole locations... you then thread into the mounting bolt holes from the OUTSIDE and pull using those holes. You are then pulling against the knuckle using the mounting bolt holes with very little chance of damage to the knuckle or bearing. I have pulled several bearings using this... I have yet to have one even make turning the wrench hard during the pull.

A puller like this or the similar one made by Daveshoe would be another option rather than the hammer method. It's not clear to me which would be "better" - to pound the bearing and let the ball joints handle the loading, or to press the bearing and risk deforming the knuckle (and believe me, the amount of force required on a constant pull may be enough to deform the knuckle).



Gary - I guess RPM has a lot to do with heat generation in the grease. I have a little Dewalt 4 1/2" angle grinder I recently serviced. I packed it with new grease, completely filling the housing. When I ran it (10k RPM), the housing got very hot, very fast.



Ryan

 

[robmints]

Hey Ryan, wish I could give you some help.



Has anyone sprayed them with a CO2 extiguisher to give them the deep freeze and hit them with a chisel?



I think I could torch them out but it is hard to tell how much room there is to work with the spindle there.



If you are comfortable with your welding skill can you weld some ears to the bearing and and weld or bolt the ears to your tuning fork?

 

[rbattelle]

If you are comfortable with your welding skill can you weld some ears to the bearing and and weld or bolt the ears to your tuning fork?

That's an interesting idea, and one I've considered briefly. I think I could weld up something that would work.



But, to be honest, I'd really like to make something that bolts in place. That way, I can offer it up for other people to use on their own truck.



Tonight I worked on a design just like the one steved described earlier in this thread. Built from 2"x2"x1/4" angle iron and possibly some 2"x2"x3/16 square tube as well. This would be a press type tool rather than a hammering tool. It's a bit unnerving, though, considering the very small area of the knuckle available to press on.



I still haven't decided whether a hammer-type tool would be better.



Ryan

 

[BGott]

Now weld some beads across the part that is stuck in the spindle. When the welds cool you have a good chance of the part falling out.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Now weld some beads across the part that is stuck in the spindle. When the welds cool you have a good chance of the part falling out.

THAT could very well do it alright!

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Check this thread out - especially the part about pulling the hub and the puller used:



EMS hub install, IN COLOR! - TDR Roundtable

 

[rbattelle]

Very cool puller. It's good Hercules had an easy time with it. That puller would simply have separated my bearing.

I'm now working on a design for a puller to remove the inner bearing part.

Ryan

 

[HOBrian]

Ryan, Any good news yet? Did you get the inner bearing out yet?:{

 

[rbattelle]

Still building the tool. Here are a few pictures of the progress. I was hoping to have it finished up tomorrow night, but a great deal of grinding and finish welding remain.



The first picture shows one of the half shells being welded on the back side. That's 2"x1/4" A36 (hot roll) welded with 1/8" 7018 @ ~140A DCEP (Lincoln Excalibur... nice stuff).



Second picture shows the two half shells temporarily bolted to the knuckle. They still need to be beefed up with side supports.



The last photo shows the side supports tacked in place on the truck.



So what's left to do? Finish welding the side supports on, then lots of grinding to clean up the spatter. Maybe 6 more hours of work (got about 15 hours into the build now).



Ryan

 

[nickleinonen]

Now weld some beads across the part that is stuck in the spindle. When the welds cool you have a good chance of the part falling out.

i have seen dry sleeve engine liners pulled out that way. . when i get bushings that are stuck at work, i torch them out. . 99% of the time, i don't cut into the parent material, just the bushing