Unitized Wheel Bearing Replacement

[bcbender]

Good morning all. Let me preface this by saying if I could afford it now, I would be going with Spyntec / Yukon and be done with it..... I took my front axle apart last night to replace u-joints and found one of the bearings seems a little tough to turn and has a little noise. I have to have the truck wheels down and on the road next thursday ( going to the Charlotte car show with my 5er ), so my question is. . Put it back together and pray,,, Stand on the corner with a coffee can and try to get the 1500 for a free spin kit,,, or 3rd option, replace the unit bearings with the best one ( I know ) that you can buy..... Does anyone know which are the lesser of evils..... Timkin, SKF, etc? I saw a post on another formum for SKF BR930502 ( Rock Auto $160 ) but I woudl like to hear the opinons of my fellow TDR Gurus. I have searched here but seems like the best way is Dynatrac / Spyntec / Yukon, but I just dont think I can swing it ( or even get them here) in the next 5 days... .



Thanks B

 

[mwilson]

Good morning all. Let me preface this by saying if I could afford it now, I would be going with Spyntec / Yukon and be done with it..... I took my front axle apart last night to replace u-joints and found one of the bearings seems a little tough to turn and has a little noise. I have to have the truck wheels down and on the road next thursday ( going to the Charlotte car show with my 5er ), so my question is. . Put it back together and pray,,, Stand on the corner with a coffee can and try to get the 1500 for a free spin kit,,, or 3rd option, replace the unit bearings with the best one ( I know ) that you can buy..... Does anyone know which are the lesser of evils..... Timkin, SKF, etc? I saw a post on another formum for SKF BR930502 ( Rock Auto $160 ) but I woudl like to hear the opinons of my fellow TDR Gurus. I have searched here but seems like the best way is Dynatrac / Spyntec / Yukon, but I just dont think I can swing it ( or even get them here) in the next 5 days... .



Thanks B

I understand what you are saying, I see the praises sung regarding the free spin kits and sure that for some it is worth the big bucks. I would rather avoid going back to bearings that need to packed, needle bearings that fail and manual hubs that stick or loosen up.



I am perfectly content with the factory system, when I need 4wd I want it to engage right now as opposed to pulling over and engaging the hubs. That is simply what I prefer, other desire the locking hubs. When I commute with either of my trucks in bad weather I may engage 4wd two or three times in 60 miles. I simply pull the lever or turn the knob at speed and then disengage when I am back on a clear road surface. If you start to feel things getting dicey underfoot, pull that lever and realize that the hubs are not locked the next thing you are going to see is that snow bank or guardrail coming at you. I have had many other 4wd with hubs in the past and it seemed like every time that 4wd was needed the hubs were not locked in. It is also hard on knuckle joints when they sit idle rather than turning and getting exercised. They will dry up and bind up.



To each his own, but don't feel that you are a failure in my eyes if you keep the factory set up. I have traveled several hundreds of thousands of miles with the factory system and prefer to leave it alone.



So in my opinion you should go get a Timken unit bearing, change it out and go about your business only a couple of hundred poorer rather than a couple thousand.



I don't recommend any other brand than Timken from my experiences.



Just my opinion.



Mike.

 

[mwilson]

I understand what you are saying, I see the praises sung regarding the free spin kits and sure that for some it is worth the big bucks. I would rather avoid going back to bearings that need to packed, needle bearings that fail and manual hubs that stick or loosen up.



I am perfectly content with the factory system, when I need 4wd I want it to engage right now as opposed to pulling over and engaging the hubs. That is simply what I prefer, other desire the locking hubs. When I commute with either of my trucks in bad weather I may engage 4wd two or three times in 60 miles. I simply pull the lever or turn the knob at speed and then disengage when I am back on a clear road surface. If you start to feel things getting dicey underfoot, pull that lever and realize that the hubs are not locked the next thing you are going to see is that snow bank or guardrail coming at you. I have had many other 4wd with hubs in the past and it seemed like every time that 4wd was needed the hubs were not locked in. It is also hard on knuckle joints when they sit idle rather than turning and getting exercised. They will dry up and bind up.



To each his own, but don't feel that you are a failure in my eyes if you keep the factory set up. I have traveled several hundreds of thousands of miles with the factory system and prefer to leave it alone.



So in my opinion you should go get a Timken unit bearing, change it out and go about your business only a couple of hundred poorer rather than a couple thousand.



I don't recommend any other brand than Timken from my experiences.



Just my opinion.



Mike.

I should also mention that if I lived somewhere other than snowy, cold, road chemical infested Maine the kits might make more sense to me.



I would fetch the Timken number for you but my laptop croaked last night and don't know if I can make this i-pad do it. Search my posts, I know I have put the Timken numbers on here before.



Mike.

 

[bcbender]

Mike, thanks for your quick reply, I tend to agree with your philosphy, I find it hard to justify the added expense. I just want to change the bearings for something that will / could give me the same level of durability ( I have 125k on the originals).

 

[cerberusiam]

The Timken bearing units would seem to be the best. Add the ability to grease the bearings and it is a viable option to the free spin kit.

 

[Regcabguy]

I'd love to shut down all that rotating mass and install Dynalocs. I just cannot afford it.
With past manual hubbed vehicles in offroad conditions, I'd just engage the hubs,drive in 2wd and engage/disengage 4wd at will. Not an issue.

 

[JR]

I just had my bearings out and added grease fittings to them like Cerb mentioned. It is a simple job but one you must pay attention to and use extra caution to make sure no shavings are left behind. I got the idea from a guy locally here that added fittings to his 2nd gen when it was still fairly new and has over 450k miles on the original bearings. In my case my trucks only got 90k miles on it but after I added grease to the hubs they spun noticeably easier. My guess is there isnt that much grease in them from the factory and after 13 years what was in there was pretty stiff. It may be something for you to consider before putting everything back together

 

[mwilson]

I'd love to shut down all that rotating mass and install Dynalocs. I just cannot afford it.
With past manual hubbed vehicles in offroad conditions, I'd just engage the hubs,drive in 2wd and engage/disengage 4wd at will. Not an issue.

Normally it is not an issue, I agree.

It is when things are happening in a hurry, a surprise black ice patch, truck starts dropping in this patch of dirt that you are going across, etc. that locked out hubs are not so much fun.
Not to mention when you want to lock them and they are frozen in place as a result of rain one day, then the temp drops to zero overnight.

Again, area specific.

Mike.

 

[Ozymandias]

Has someone a picture ore a write up of how to make this grease fitting to the oem hubs?
I'm going to go to an Iceland trip this summer and there will be dozens of river crossings, so more grease will likely be good.

 

[JR]

Its pretty easy to do heres a few pictures from when I did mine.

Not a very good picture but thats a 90 degree grease zirk drilled and tapped right in the center of the flange

then I drilled a 5/8 hole in the spindle at the 9 oclock position for the grease zirk to look through. This allows you to grease the wheel bearing without even having to take the wheel off.
Now part of the reason I did it this way is because Ive got the earlier style rotors with studs pressed through. If youve got slip on rotors you may be able to get away with just putting a straight grease fitting on and then taking the tire, caliper and rotor off and then grease the bearing if you dont feel comfortable drilling.

When drilling the bearing use a magnatized bit with some grease on the bit to collect shavings. Then a pencil magnet to fish out anything else that may have dropped down in. Its critical to get everything out before adding any grease

 

[TMutziger]

I was clued in by others on here to just remove the ABS sensor and add grease through that hole. This has worked great for me. No drilling or metal shavings to fall in there. Just remove the tire and its one allen head bolt and its out. I've got 150,000 miles of hard use on my original bearings and they're still in great shape.

 

[Ozymandias]

Thanks a lot to both of you.
How many strokes with the grease gun you push for how many miles, I think to much wouldn't be good either.

 

[cerberusiam]

The other way would be drill out the hold down bolt for the ABS and add a 90 zerk to it with a hole in the backing plate for access. Then you don't have to remove the wheel or drill the spindle. You will have to check to see how many pumps, probably not many as you don't want to push it past the seals and there is not a lot of room to hold excess.

 

[bcbender]

The Timken bearing units would seem to be the best. Add the ability to grease the bearings and it is a viable option to the free spin kit.

FYI for those looking to order the Timken Unit Bearings here are the details:

I ordered the parts from Rock Auto that were listed and confirmed the P/N that Mwilson posted previously (thanks) the part number is HA590032 (for the 03-05) and I was able to get the pair for 313. 78 + shipping, not too bad IMHO, DC wants about 350 each and they are the SKFs. I will update later when I recieve them to give my opinion but I am optomistic as Timken is a reputable bearing MFG in the USA. Don't forget to search for a coupon, I got 5% by a quick search and that basicly paid for shipping!

 

[AH64ID]

It sure is a lot cheaper to just replace them!

Thou I can say that the truck drives much better without the front mass spinning. But I doubt I will ever see $1200 in fuel savings, but the use of 2wd low and the easier steering truck is already worth it and they only have a few hundred miles on them.

I'm not sure I would add grease down the ABS hole, I didn't see any grease there on my OEM unitized bearings so I am not sure it would get where it needs to be.

 

[cerberusiam]

I'm not sure I would add grease down the ABS hole, I didn't see any grease there on my OEM unitized bearings so I am not sure it would get where it needs to be.

You never will, that how they are constructed. The grease that is in there is only on the rollers and they are built for planned obsolescence. As as they get out the warranty period it doesn't matter. For normal use, 150-200k and they get replaced. No biggy. When you beat these trucks down leased and haul roads in the oil fields, mines, etc, it is a bit different when the wheels fall off every 25-30k.

The grease will work into the bearings thru the ABS bolt or mounting hole and as long as so much isn't pumped in it blows the seal out it works. Pump too much grease in there and blow the seal and you might as well replace them.

Sad thing is, when Dodge did this same design in the 70's they came with zerks and if they were religiuosly greased they worked as well as they could. In pursuit of the almighty $$$, the simple things were ignored.

 

[CBari]

Cerb I understand the chase of the mighty dollar but, I wonder if they removed the zerks on purpose because of overzealous grease monkeys pumping too much in blowing the seals thus shortening their life. You know the way of the world protecting us from ourselves. Either way it is said that we live in a throw away society.

 

[cerberusiam]

If the seal is blown from over greasing that a parts sale and not warranty either if it is obvious. Its all about selling as many parts as possible and making a new vehicle seem attractive. Can't have things last forever or they would never sell new vehicles. All part of our throw away society.