Wheel bearing gone and ABS light on.

[Cattletrkr]

The ordeal started out with the ABS and Brake lights coming on. Brakes worked fine so I kept going. About 20 miles later the steering got goofy. Pulled over on the freeway and tried to find what was going on. I thought maybe I had a pad fall apart or dragging or something. Couldn't find anything so I slowed down and drove the last 10 miles to my stop. Unloaded and then started looking again. Found it. Driver's side wheel bearing is gone. I mean gone. Rollers are laying loose and pieces of bearing or race or whatever are falling off. Brakes were fine until about 1 mile from the stockyards. Then the pedal went soft. Brakes still look fine and everything. Is the ABS screwing with the brakes 'cause the sensor is most likely fubar'd?

Sorry if that's a little jumbled. It's been a long night and I'm tired. Tomorrow ain't gonna be much easier.

 

[JApol]

I had this EXACT issue about 2 months ago but on the passenger side. I was doing 80 down the freeway and that is a realy crappy time to find out your brakes are not working



Anyway the passenger side was like you explain, jusut a couple pices of a race hanging out. If you can spend the time I would go head and buy a free wheel kit. It cost me $200 per hub and $1200 total bill at the dealer. The drivers side wasn't as bad but there was some play in it.

Get an ABS cable on order. I saw the remains of the one that came off the passenger side. The sensor toast.



According to the dealer the hub that got cooked just fell out. The other hub took 2 guys with a sledge hammer 45 minutes to remove. Then the axle seal started leaking on that side.

 

[PBrauer]

Tone ring was probably moving around before you started feeling the bearing thru the steering thus setting the ABS code. Might have moved enough to contact/damage the sensor so take a look at it. Goofy steering is/was from the bearing. Hot bearing might have boiled some fluid (gas bubble) in that caliper... or, most likely, axial movement of the rotor was simply pushing the pads further apart than normal.



I suppose it's also possible that you ruptured a line or seal from heat but axial movement of the rotor or a steam bubble are my best guesses. Probably a good time to flush the brake fluid once the bearing is fixed but the brakes are probably OK.



ABS is totally inactive when light is on... not possible for ABS to give you the soft pedal.



At least you and the wheel arrived at the yard at the same time...

 

[steved]

At least you and the wheel arrived at the yard at the same time...

Unless the stub shaft would break, there is no way for the bearing to completely separate... while it might lockup, the wheel would remain on the truck. The reason we torque the stub shaft nut is to apply preload to the bearings... the bearing is literally held together by the stub shaft on the 4wd models.



Cattle - are you going to do the R&R yourself?? And if so, have the bearing ever been off before??



steved

 

[cyborg]

same happened here. Took two days and a hot wrench to get the ball joints out.

Mine went out coming down Conway summit on Hwy 395 at 80 mph. A little steering wobble, then "aw krapp". Smoke, fire, it was armegeddon.

The ABS light came on a while before, I stopped, everything looked good so I continued on my way.

 

[HOBrian]

Sounds like if your ABS light comes on, check those bearings for any play or missing parts. This might be the only warning you get before all heck breaks loose.

 

[bb218]

How may miles were on the bearings before the failures??? Mike

 

[JasonCzerak]

The hub can come part with just force. Mine managed to come part when we were removing the hub to replace u-joints. The hub on the drivers side came off in two pieces. It was replaced with a napa OEM unit at $299.

 

[steved]

The hub can come part with just force. Mine managed to come part when we were removing the hub to replace u-joints. The hub on the drivers side came off in two pieces. It was replaced with a napa OEM unit at $299.

If you were referring to my post, you HAD to have REMOVED the stub shaft nut to get it into the two pieces... the way that hub is desinged (live spindle), the stub shaft holds the bearing together.



And again, just because the hub splits in two pieces when removing it, doesn't mean they are not useable (if there was nothing wrong with them when you attempted to pull them apart)... both the hubs on my dad's 99 have been "split", greased, squuezed together, and reinstalled (not once, but twice). He has 270k on his ORIGINAL unit bearings... the lack of grease is the main reason I feel they fail prematurely.



steved

 

[JApol]

How may miles were on the bearings before the failures??? Mike

mine lasted 50K EXACTLY

 

[JasonCzerak]

If you were referring to my post, you HAD to have REMOVED the stub shaft nut to get it into the two pieces... the way that hub is desinged (live spindle), the stub shaft holds the bearing together.



And again, just because the hub splits in two pieces when removing it, doesn't mean they are not useable (if there was nothing wrong with them when you attempted to pull them apart)... both the hubs on my dad's 99 have been "split", greased, squuezed together, and reinstalled (not once, but twice). He has 270k on his ORIGINAL unit bearings... the lack of grease is the main reason I feel they fail prematurely.



steved

Wanted to make sure it was going to be reliable. . and lack of a press to get them back together correctly.



And yeah, we removed the axel shaft and what not naturally and were using a hub puller. Rust was so bad it came apart in two. This was including massive amount of hammering on the bolts and everything.





LOTS of anti-seize went in place

 

[TAbbott]

HOBrian said: "Sounds like if your ABS light comes on, check those bearings for any play or missing parts. "



That's exactly right. The bearing starts to loosen up and then the clearance between the tone ring and the sensor gets to large for the sensor to pick up the pulses. At that point, all it might take is tightening the nut on the spindle to stop the carnage and let you go on to your destination. Just keep driving and it comes undone. Same way on big trucks. First warning is ABS light comes on. It normally doesn't do that without a reason, and often that reason is the bearing is letting go.

 

[cyborg]

HOBrian said: "Sounds like if your ABS light comes on, check those bearings for any play or missing parts. "

That's exactly right. The bearing starts to loosen up and then the clearance between the tone ring and the sensor gets to large for the sensor to pick up the pulses. At that point, all it might take is tightening the nut on the spindle to stop the carnage and let you go on to your destination. Just keep driving and it comes undone. Same way on big trucks. First warning is ABS light comes on. It normally doesn't do that without a reason, and often that reason is the bearing is letting go.

Roger that!!!

I had about 140k on the clock.
Think of all the money we saved by not having those pesky zerk fittings:{

 

[Cattletrkr]

Cattle - are you going to do the R&R yourself?? And if so, have the bearing ever been off before??

I was planning on doing most of the work myself. Little bro went with to haul the truck home and he stuck around and did most of the work instead. I had a load tonight anyway so I used dad's '03 3500 CTD.

The axle joints were replaced about 20K ago. They claimed to have anti-seized everything before they put it back together, but we had to do some heating to get stuff apart. The rotor was amazingly stuck. I'm waiting for a rotor to arrive (tomorrow afternoon) and then it'll be done. So much for getting 200K out of my brake pads.

 

[Cattletrkr]

Unless the stub shaft would break, there is no way for the bearing to completely separate...

How big of a cotter pin do you think is holding that axle shaft in place?

 

[PBrauer]

Unless the stub shaft would break, there is no way for the bearing to completely separate... while it might lockup, the wheel would remain on the truck. The reason we torque the stub shaft nut is to apply preload to the bearings... the bearing is literally held together by the stub shaft on the 4wd models.



Cattle - are you going to do the R&R yourself?? And if so, have the bearing ever been off before??



steved

steved,



Thanks. My cousin and I changed the U-joints about a year ago and ever since then I've been trying to remember what all actually came apart in the process. He's been doing this for half his life and made is seem almost easy. I'd been trying to remember when we used his air hammer, which was the only challenging part of the whole process.



I now realize it was probably to get the bearing off of the "stub shaft". Hammer on the end of the shaft while using a mallet on/around the hub... Would that make sense? If so then does that mean the whole bearing "assembly" was essentially "off and ready to replace" at that point?



Your explanation of the unlikelyhood of a wheel seperation makes perfect sense, btw. I'm pushing 1/4M on original bearings (pads, rotors, ball joints too) with no apparent symptoms yet. It's nice to have a better idea of the "worst case".



cyborg,



Please confirm that the "hub bearing" in your pics has, in fact, seperated, i. e. , the back half isn't present in the pics???



Also, can we assume that you removed the ball joints to replace them, not specifically to remove the bearing assembly?



Probably obvious questions but I was confused until my memory started kicking in... might help others following the thread so I'll leave them.



cattletrkr,



That cotter pin is "ordinary" and reusable. The nut however is big... probably at least 2-3", and it took several seconds for it to start moving with my cousins impact. If my rapidly improving memory is correct, this is where my cousin said we might have to use heat but we got it/them off without it. I can't imagine getting it off without a full size impact wrench.



Just re-read your last posts... looks like your past this point already but I'll leave it for the sake of others as well.



Hope it wraps up OK. Good luck.

Great thread... for me at least.

 

[steved]

How big of a cotter pin do you think is holding that axle shaft in place?

The cotter pin is only retaining the stub axle nut that has no rotational force applied to it (where it is located). The nut is applying all the pressure to the unit bearing... and the pin is just there in case someone didn't get the nut torqued down correctly and it happended to work loose (like the bearings weren't seated)...



Again, unless the nut falls off (prevented by the cotter pin), the stub shaft breaks, or the four hub-to-knuckle bolts shear or fall out, there is very little chance of the bearing ever separating to the point the wheel would part company with the truck.



steved

 

[steved]

steved,



Thanks. My cousin and I changed the U-joints about a year ago and ever since then I've been trying to remember what all actually came apart in the process. He's been doing this for half his life and made is seem almost easy. I'd been trying to remember when we used his air hammer, which was the only challenging part of the whole process.



I now realize it was probably to get the bearing off of the "stub shaft". Hammer on the end of the shaft while using a mallet on/around the hub... Would that make sense? If so then does that mean the whole bearing "assembly" was essentially "off and ready to replace" at that point?



Your explanation of the unlikelyhood of a wheel seperation makes perfect sense, btw. I'm pushing 1/4M on original bearings (pads, rotors, ball joints too) with no apparent symptoms yet. It's nice to have a better idea of the "worst case".





Hope it wraps up OK. Good luck.

Great thread... for me at least.

One of two things come to mind... he either fought the stub shaft nut off, or he used the tip of the stub shaft to "push" from with a three jaw puller?? Was it an air hammer or an impact wrench??



steved

 

[steved]

They claimed to have anti-seized everything before they put it back together, but we had to do some heating to get stuff apart. The rotor was amazingly stuck. I'm waiting for a rotor to arrive (tomorrow afternoon) and then it'll be done. So much for getting 200K out of my brake pads.

If you had problems on the disassembly, I was going to offer to ship my "puller" that will remove the portion of the bearing stuck in the knuckle after you get the bearing pulled in two pieces.



How bad did it screw up the rotor and pads???



steved

 

[steved]

Wanted to make sure it was going to be reliable. . and lack of a press to get them back together correctly.



LOTS of anti-seize went in place

Contrary to popular belief, a press isn't needed to get the two halves back together... we use a piece of 3/8" all-thread and some spacers... the stub shaft does the squeezing when you reinstall. I understand why you didn't though... sorta makes you wonder how much abuse these things can take...



Neversieze is your friend! I have never had a problem getting unit bearings off once neversieze was used, and I live in the rust belt. This is probably the single most important "improvement" you can do to the factory unit bearing!



steved