I'm just thinking that if a customer of mine (or another mechanic) ever saw me send that out the door I'd be shot. Isn't your safety worth a bit more than a used knuckle? I couldn't care less if it hasn't turned colors, the gouges are at the point where the threads begin. If they should happen to fracture you'll lose the wheel and it's highly doubtful that will happen while it's parked in your driveway. Safety isn't based on what you might get away with, it's based on not taking unnecessary risks.

The most common issues I see when people repack and adjust wheel bearings are:
1) They clean the cavity of the hub out (sometimes) but they never put any grease back in. The cavity should be packed to the point that the grease touches both races. Not packing the hub is similar to assembling an engine with oil but not filling the pan.
2) Over-tightening the bearings. I've always set cars and light trucks at zero lash and have yet to lose one in 46 years. A little pre-load is o.k. but too tight and they'll overheat and you've got pictures up there ^^ of what that causes. Tightening to 50-80# and backing of a slot or two is too vague for my tastes.

 

Spinning bearings with compressed air can cause the rollers to centrifugally expand the cage followed by the rollers flying away and the possibility of the cage breaking and causing some pretty nasty injuries.

 

The bearing manufacturers set the installation instruction procedure. I defer to their judgment. I haven't lost any wheels either, but it doesn't matter how long we've been turning wrenches, if we're doing it wrong we've just been doing it wrong for a long time.

50 to 80 foot pounds is the preload on a new bearing and race. It might sound vague, just try it works fine. It just reflects the fact that a new bearing and race is a lot tighter than a used bearing and race. Maybe this is even part of the problem. 80 foot pounds on a used bearing for example would be way too much.

Incidentally a lot of people just replace the bearing and leave the old race in, because it is less labor. Strictly speaking, this is totally incorrect. A new bearing and race is noticeably smooth compared to the lazy way.

As far as packing the hub with grease, the manuals actually direct to fill the hub to a level even with the bearing races, not just touching. This is quite a lot of grease.

 

Definitely. I suspected it was not serviceable and it looks like that's the case. A replacement spindle is in the cards, plus an inspection and repack on the other side.

 

Don't forget if you replace the spindle you'll need to get the replacement spindles king pin, bearing & shims.
Otherwise you'll need a new king pin set (they don't come for just one side). You'll also need a good machine shop to ream the new bushings to match your new king pin. If you do all this I'd pull the other spindle and do them both at the same time. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

Yes, that's a good point too. What a bummer. More time and money...

 

Just to clarify, are you saying the hub cavity should have grease around the perimeter between the races, to a depth that matches the races, leaving open air through the center? Or should the entire hub cavity be filled between the two races?

 

But then you know what you've got

 

Touching the races/level with the races is the same intent, in my mind. It may be semantics but that was what I meant as well.

8o# is a lot on any bearing, new or used. It's the backing off of a notch or two of the nut that's kinda shady to me. I'm sure somebody along the way did the math and testing to affirm the procedure but a lot of things have changed over the years. The heavy trucks I work on these days say to torque to 100#, back off one turn, torque to 25# then back off one third. It leaves the bearings pretty loose, enough that you can rock the hub. But once they heat up and expand they probably take up some of the slack. Point being a little loose is a lot better than too tight.

 

This is directly out of Timkens SettingTechniques forTapered Roller Bearings http://www.timken.com/en-us/Knowledg...r-Bearings.pdf

"MANUAL BEARING SETTING
Manual methods are frequently used to set bearings on a variety of equipment with low to moderate volume production requirements whereby a non- exact, primarily end play, setting range variation is acceptable. No special tooling, gauges, charts or xtures are typically required, but assembler’s skill and judgment are necessary. For example, in the case of a conventional truck non-driven wheel with a single adjusting nut design (Figure 3), manual setting involves tightening the adjusting nut while rotating the wheel until a slight bind is felt. Then the adjusting nut is backed off 1/6 to 1/4 turn to the nearest locking hole or suf ciently to allow the wheel to rotate freely with some minimal end play. The adjusting nut is then locked in this position. Skill and judgment are required to determine when the wheel binds slightly in rotation."

 

You can dry them in the palm of your hand when flat. But when you spin them with air it really puts a load on the cage and the rollers can fly out. The cage isn't made to contain them in that way. Centrifugal force and all that. One pic I remember was a broken tooth next to a big fat lip.

 

Definitely a case of over tightening here by the PO. It took my 1/2 inch impact wrench to get both axle nuts loose.

The good news is the old king pins dropped right out a few minutes ago without a struggle.

Let's hope this salvaged spindle looks good tomorrow. I'll bring both spindles to a buddy who owns a shop and have him press in the king pin bushings.

 

Rob, was the inside of the bearing gouged where it ran on the spindle? I would not be surprised if it was already like from the PO? Do you have any pictures of the burnt bearings?

I would maintain that the spindle is fine as it is and I would certainly run it on my F250. The main gouge in the picture is not deeper than the threads and as I said before no colour change means it was not heated...much. If it was not heated it has not lost its temper if it had any in the first place.

I could also have sworn most manuals say NOT to pack the hub full but you do need a good amount of grease in there.

For tightening the nut, the first stage of tightening and turning the wheel is to press all the grease out of the rollers and squish any little burs and such then back off to release pressure. At least having a torque is less vague than feeling a slight bind.

 

1/2 impact! How long had he driven it and how long have you had it?

 

I don't know how long he drove it that way. I've had it since late January and driven it about 800 miles. It's serving as my work truck while my '56 F-250 is in pieces, but right now it's demanding all the attention instead. Ironic.