Wheel bearings or Ball Joints?

Pavoner · Mar 26, 2008

I was swappin tires on my LF today and found a little bit of play when doing the "test" that Chilton specifies for checking ball joints. However if you ask me it looked like the mvmnt was in the wheel bearings and not the ball joints... If so I have very little experience installing/ adjusting wheel bearings.
And this seems to be a touchy subject in manuals and forums. My manual which is normally a pretty good source of info(would recomend chilton over haynes anyday!) just says "follow recomended bearing instalation procedure".
So what is it?!!!! WHat do you guys do for this. The best sounding one I've heard is seat the bearings at XXX ft=lbs then loosen off...tighten till you feel resistance and back off very slightly until no more resistance. Does this work for RBVs and if so what is torque spec for XXX. Any other suggestions are Very Very welcome.

'94 ranger XLT 4X4 4.0L 5 spd warn manual hubs in front ... stabilizer bars front and rear...

Thanks agin and sorry for the long post.

metalmacguyver · Mar 26, 2008

XXX = Porn, sorry I mean = 30-35 ftlbs.

when you tighten the spindle nut, tighten it to 30-35 ftlbs WHILE ROTATING THE ROTOR!

Then back it off and tighten the spindle nut to 15-20 INCH LBS!!!!

Thats it. Your now done.

When your inspecting the bearings, be absolutely ANAL about keeping sand and contamination out of them. Repack them with fresh grease after inspection or replace them if needed.

gotmudd · Mar 26, 2008

metalmacguyver said:
XXX = Porn, sorry I mean = 30-35 ftlbs.

when you tighten the spindle nut, tighten it to 30-35 ftlbs WHILE ROTATING THE ROTOR!

Then back it off and tighten the spindle nut to 15-20 INCH LBS!!!!

Thats it. Your now done.

When your inspecting the bearings, be absolutely ANAL about keeping sand and contamination out of them. Repack them with fresh grease after inspection or replace them if needed.

according to my fullsize manualyou should have an adjusting nut[tightened to 50ft lbs while rotating wheel to seat bearing then backing off 90 degrees] and a lock ring installed by turning adjusting nut to nearest notch for dowel pin installation and THEN a lock nut tightened to specifications not sure what the specifications for your truck would be :icon_confused:

Pavoner · Mar 27, 2008

Thanks for the help guys. I changed my rear shocks today and got the left front wheel bearings and shock installed. I think the wheel bearings went pretty smooth. In fact turns out the old ones were in pretty good shape... The shocks on the other hand sucked. Snapped the lower mounting pin at the shoulder trying to get the LF off..... :shout:

Drilled it, tapped it, put a bolt in there worked prettty slick but took way too long... anyway haven't driven yet got one more side to do... when I do go drvin anything to watch/listen for?

Thanx Again! :icon_thumby:

Chris

bronc · Mar 28, 2008

When doing the wheel bearings, do the inner races just pop right out? What type of grease do you use? How hard are the inner wheel bearings to get at? Is it recommended to do rotors at the same time since the races ride in the rotor?

My wheel bearings are on their way out. The front right wheel makes noise and has excess play in it. I haven't yet dug into it to inspect. I am not sure what happened. I put my manual hubs on a while back and packed the bearings. Not sure if they didn't like the grease I put in or if they just wore out. Other option is the outter lock nut loosed off but I tightened it up to over 200 ftlbs. To set the inner nut, I tightened it to specs while turning the rotor and then loosed off and torqued it by feel since my torque wrench doesn't go low enough to 20 in lbs. I tightened it till there was no play but not too much friction to turn the rotor. Is there a better way to do this?

metalmacguyver · Mar 28, 2008

bronc, the races need some encouragement to get them out. I use a punch and hammer and work around it going from 3 O'clock to 6 to 9 to 12 and around again slowly working it out.

The inner wheel bearings come right out with the rotor as the hub and rotor are one piece. If the rotors have not been replaced recently then it is not a bad idea at all because the bearings should normally be replaced when replacing the rotors.

To put the new races in I use a flat piece of steel and a hammer right in the middle. then i take one of the old races and cut a slot in them and put them over the new bearings and use that to drive the race the rest of the way in.

As far as them not liking the grease you used, that definately would have been the case if you didnt use Disk brake wheel bearing grease or if any sand or bits of contamination could have gotten in there.

About tightening the inner nut. One way to do it is to take the spindle nut and go to "finger tight" using only your finger tips to tighten it.

By the way, its considered forum courtesy not to "hijack" someone elses thread and to start your own.

bronc · Mar 28, 2008

Yea, I was aware of the hijacking thing. Sorry, thought this would be a good place for it. Thanks for the help though. One more question, how hard should it be to turn the rotor when it is torqued properly? Should it spin freely or stop quickly when you give it a spin?

rickcdewitt · Mar 29, 2008

take off the spindle and check the little bearing in the back of it.its less than 10$ and will ruin your stub shaft if it goes bad

Wheel bearings or Ball Joints?

Pavoner

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metalmacguyver

Yeah, I built that.

gotmudd

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Pavoner

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bronc

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metalmacguyver

Yeah, I built that.

bronc

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rickcdewitt

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