6 sets of wheel bearings in 8 months.

[feellnfroggy]

93 ford ranger 4x4 4.0l

Obviously I have the d35, My wheel bearings have been going bad on a "regular basis" One time they were too loose and one time they were too tight, But other than that they should have lasted me at least a year. Well, my grease is breaking down prematurely, and my hubs and rotors are running hot. They just went out again, and Im wondering if its because I accidentally left my grease in the back off my truck. The lid fell off and I didnt know it. If water sits in it long enough will it break it down? ALso if dirty grease mixes with clean grease will it pose a problem? The grease I had was the expensive Valvoline Synthethic stuff. I have had welded auto hubs on there for about a month for fulltime lock since I was going through so many auto hubs also. I havent wheeled alot but put it in 4x4 at least once a week sometimes every two. I dont wheel hard but I drive hard. I also added 31's three days ago. IS there an outer bearing seal that I dont know about? I thought the locknuts were suposed to contact the outer bearing and there was only an inner seal. Im at a loss, I dont wanna pay a mechanic to do something that should have been as simple as a wheel bearing. Am I destined to be replacing these things every month or two for the rest of the life of the truck?

By the way, I have done brakes once and had a wheel fall off due to bearing once, SO I have swapped in new rotors 2x in the last 8 mos, so I am doubting its the bearing housing, but who knows.

 

[-Nathan-]

when you change the bearings, are you also changing the RACES inside of the rotor?

are you using a good quality BEARING grease?

there is an o-ring on the back lock-out, that should contact the rotor and seal it from any water.

 

[Frank The Tank]

We mix water dirt and old grease all the time on the farm....... it doesn't hurt anything. I've never had any wheel bearing issues, but this doesn't sound normal at all.

Frank

 

[chrwilkins30]

What I would do it take it apart and clean with brake cleaner. air hose it out and go buy a brand new can of grease. You dont want dirt in you bearings at all. it will get in the rollers and sound like shit.

 

[Jason]

This has to be installer related. There is no way you can have everything else be good AND get that many bad bearings. You either aren't sealing it right, your brakes are not right resulting in excessive heat, you have nastiness you aren't cleaning out in the bearings or grease or you are leaving crap races in there with new bearings.

 

[UrbanRedneckKid]

Just another one of my good reasons for my SAS.... the bearings are to close together and very prone to loosening/tightening themselves.

I was too plagued with this issue. Except mine lasted 3 weeks. But I figured it out.
Got brand new spindle nuts and retaining washers from Ford,
Brand new Timken bearings,
Expensive grease(don't remember what it was)
New inner spindle bearings and seals(back of knuckle, where axle rides)
Cleaned the hell out of it,
and RTVed the hub to the rotor.

Follow the regular procedure for tightening the inner spindle nut and installing the retaining washer, the most important of all, sounds crazy but, tighten the outer nut to 150-200ft/lbs and make sure the washer doesn't spin with the outer nut during torquing, it'll snap the little pin right off.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Well I was using the expensive stuff, its all in the first post. BUt It wasnt installer error, come to find out. Thats the good news, the bearings are fine. My entire front end is fawked. The front driveshaft has 3/4 inch or more of play in it. The housing where the DS meets the front diff is broken and missing a 1x1 inch piece. I had the welded auto hubs on there which was causing everything to turn obviously but it was dragging the inards around enough the a small problems which was previously unnoticable became very noticable very fast. Now I am driving with no hubs whatsoever and exposed locknuts and bearings. But its the only way I can move the truck, its my only ride and i have to be at work 9am. I dont have the hours it would take me to rip the whole front end apart for a while. But thanks for all the input, should these bearings go bad again I will most likely review all this lol.

 

[Will]

The cone & rollers bearings are supposed to have zero preload. It's important that you push all of the grease out by tightening the inner nut some while you spin the wheel back and forth. Then you pull the tension off that inner nut and then run it only up to the bearing without putting any force against the bearing. The book calls for 16 inch pounds of preload, which is none basically. The outer nut is beefed against the inner nut to hold that setting. If you have done this properly your bearings will not fail.

I've seen people tighten the shit out of the inner nut. I've seen people think that a good hard jerk on an 8" ratchet with a cheap spindle socket would suffice to lock the bearing setting. 150ft# of torque is a bunch. Especially when the shitty prongs on those sockets won't stay in the notches. You need a socket with an outer ring around the prongs. You also need to realize that a long 18" wrench needs 100# of force on the very end to reach 150ft#. We're not talking wrist pressure here. An 8" ratchet would require 225# down on the very tippy end of the ratchet.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Actually I use my 1/2 inch breaker bar with the locknut socket. And this time I didnt snug them almost at all, just enough to feel the resistance. I also have in there the shim with the tab to prevent turning, that has all the holes in it, it allows the grease to squeeze out some when turning. The onlly thing Im worried about now is the fact that I had the welded auto hubs and I removed the hubs and am running without them otherwise the locked up front end wont allow me to get outta my driveway. I have to check my bearings every couple of days to make sure they stay clean. Whether or not I want it I have a new D35 needing to go in. Unless I can find a jeep D35 and everything I need all at once for dirt cheap I cant SAS, mostly because I cant afford new wheels. Hopefully it will hold together.

 

[NC Fire Ranger]

Did you ever get this figured out? I'm having the same issue with my 94. I can't get my bearings to last more than a month and that's with me and 3 other people, including 2 shops in town, putting them in. So pretty sure it's not just something I'm doing wrong.