Spindle bearings. Replace, or not?

[vbrad511]

I'm going through the maintenance on my 97 4wd and I've never messed with the spindle bearings. With the hubs off there a good 1/8 inch side to side, up and down, play. Does that mean they're bad? They've still got a good coat of grease on the and they move just fine, just not much support on the axles. What do you all suggest?

 

[brinker88]

Do you have lock out hubs? If so, the hub nuts are probably loose....big problem with those.

 

[vbrad511]

Auto locks, but the nuts were torqued to spec and felt just fine coming apart. Thought about a set of Warns, but for as occasionally as I'm in 4WD I really like the convienience of the autos. So is the play in the spindles something to be concerned with?

 

[4x4junkie]

Are you referring to the axle shaft itself wiggling around within the spindle?

That's 100% normal if the hub is not in place (the hub supports that end of the shaft).

However if the spindle needle bearings haven't been serviced in a good while, I'd pull it all apart and repack them with some fresh grease.

 

[vbrad511]

That's what I needed to hear. Without the hub on, it wobbles loosely. They do move freely, and I just greased them again. I was worried about alignment and support with the hub.
Thanks

 

[brinker88]

Remember that before taking the spindle nut off, use a magnet and remove the little key in there.(third in from the left.)

Here's a writeup I did...it will take you through it step by step (goes further into it than you need to)

 

[Will]

Auto locks are fine as long as you take your time going between forward and reverse. They unlock when they change direction and then relock after about three turns. Rocking to get unstuck, for instance, can kill them. You have to keep them clean and lightly lubed with that black moly grease. Frozen or caked-up grease is a pretty common cause of malfunction.

Those spindle bearing are a fairly neglected item. Old axles I've taken apart tend to have dry, rusty bearings in them. Matter of fact, while you're doing this, how are the axle joints? The outers are pretty easy to get to, but that inner joint and the slip-splines tend to be neglected causing binding and destruction. Keep in mind that most of these parts are not made anymore so if you like your truck, it's worth servicing everything.

 

[gribly]

I agree with Will on the auto's being strong if you use them correctly. When I engage 4x4, I take it easy, but once I'm rolling I'll feed it the beans if I have to. I'm running 31's with a manual tranny, too. Heck, I've even done some light rock crawling where I was smoking my front tires off and they held just fine. I will admit that the one time I got stuck I would have been fine if I had manual hubs, but I wasn't willing to beat on it real hard, so instead a few friends and I started cutting trees to fit a newer ranger up to where the hole I was in was without scraping the paint like I do on mine all the time.

 

[racsan]

as long as all the needle bearings are there, id just coat things good with grease & be done with it. i take mine apart about every other year to look things over & to put fresh grease to the spindle bearings, cant really grease them without taking it all apart.