Jacked my truck up this morning. There is maybe 1/16th of an inch in each front wheel. Am I looking at repacking them?

 

If you are gonna repack them, go ahead and get new hub seals too. Pack the bearings and then pre load them to about 50 ft. lbs. while spinning the hub. Then back the nut completely off and run it back up until it just does get snug with your fingers, and there is no play. Make sure the hub spins free and lock the nut down.

 

Hard to tell sometimes if the play is from the ball joint or the wheel bearing. I just re-packed my wheel bearings a few weeks ago when I did the ball joints. There isn't supposed to be any visible play in the wheel bearings.

When I got mine the passenger side had about 1/4" of play in it and it turned out the shop that did the work for the previous owner put the locking washers in wrong so that they weren't locking and the wheel bearing nut was in the process of unscrewing. In spite of running for I don't know how long with all that play, the bearings were and are still perfect.

Depending on how long it's been since the bearings were packed you could probably get by with just tightening the adjusting nuts but it's best to go ahead and disassemble and repack them and put in new seals like Bill said.

 

Thanks so much for the input Bill. This is the ONE thing I have done a few times and never have 100% confidence that I get it right. Should they have any play at all? I did them on the last trailer I had and don't think I used enough grease. The hubs would get warm...not hot, but warmer than I thought they should get. Dangit....just when I thought I only had fluid changes to do before my trip home. Oh well....such is life with an OBS. I wouldn't change it for anything.

 

I have a related wheel bearing packing questions. It seems to me that shop manuals used to always recommend also packing the annular space in the hub between the inner and outer bearing with grease to a level even with the bearings. The manuals I've read recently just say to pack the bearings. When I packed the wheel bearings on mine recently just the bearings themselves were packed with grease and it seemed to be holding up fine and still in place.

Just wondering if anyone has any comments? Or am I overthinking this.

 

Thanks Bob. This must have posted just as I was posting. I might try this route if the grease looks ok. That' scary about a shop doing it that way! It's yet another reason I don't let someone touch my truck unless it's John Wood, Travis, or maybe another member from here who knows these trucks. I try to do it all myself unless I just don't have the place.

 

These are the same questions I have.

 

I'm fairly generous on grease when I do bearings. I don't pack that area tight, but I put some in there.

 

Can't go wrong following the bearing manufacturer instructions nor OEM manual procedures. That's not overthinking anything. Never really understood the "why" on this either, and if done by the book it uses a fairly large amount of grease. Got curious a while back and decided to dig around a little bit online for the reasoning. There isn't much. Also requires cleaning all the old stuff out and replacing it on a standard bearing inspection and repack. Sometimes the shop manuals specify filling the dust caps, too.

It's not as if the grease moves or migrates or liquefies and runs into the bearing when hot. So what gives? The bearing manufacturers instructions and the shop manuals will say something like "Fill the hub cavity with grease to a level even with the bearing race".

The only reason I can come up with is that this is a way of protecting the bearings from the effects of fording streams or rivers as the grease packed in the hub would prevent or displace an equal amount of water from collecting inside the hub and staying there, causing corrosion. Nothing else really makes sense and boat trailer wheels and such have similar instructions.

 

Well I got around to doing this yesterday because the drivers side kept getting louder on my way to work. I tore into ti and found about enough grease in the driver side hub to barely grease a U-Joint!! The passenger side looked good, but I did it anyways. The bearings all looked good. No burn marks or discoloration. I am guessing they have never been done. The old grease was really sticky like gum. I have never seen that before. I used Valvoline NGL#2 Synthetic. It was much more smooth and pliable. It was still thick, but not like the old nasty stuff. I really can't believe what an easy job it was. Just two bearings per side. I guess I am used to doing 4x4.