Yesterday I replaced the front brake discs/hubs including new bearings. Every trace of old grease was cleaned off spindles and the other parts you would keep. The new-car dealer (not Ford) had mixed new red grease with the old gray grease when dressing the old brake discs, and I determined that the two types were incompatible and breaking each other down. It was a good thing I did the work now.
The driver's side spindle had a small area of surface corrosion that polished right off with fine-grit sandpaper. Possibly a drop of water got in the works when that dealer was messing with the brakes.
Originally I wanted to reuse the old discs/hubs, but the bearing cups (outer races) would not budge despite whaling on them with flat punches and a 3–pound maul. I managed to bend a punch.
Instead of trying to find someone with a press, I gave up and got new discs/hubs to get the job done. One great thing about Rangers is parts availability. NAPA had them in 2 hours.
The new Timken bearings and other parts have been greased by hand with Red Line CV-2, a full-synthetic orangeish-red grease with moly. Each bearing was rotated by hand before installation to circulate the grease.
As I was putting everything back together on each side, I followed Ford instructions for preloading the bearings to 17–25 ft-lb, then backing off the nut 1/2 turn for retorque. But my smaller 1/4" drive torque wrench would not click when set at 20 inch-pounds, the bottom of its range. In a pinch I ended up tightening the nuts to be just a little snug, which allowed free wheel rotation with no play. Now when you rotate either front wheel with it off the ground, it rolls and rolls and rolls smoothly.
After a test drive at low speeds to make sure the grease was circulated, a trip at highway speeds went very smoothly, and the brakes stop better than ever. Seems like a success.
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