Ive got a 93 f250 4x4. I just rebuilt everything on the front end. My hubs are getting warmer than before. New bearings and seals on a dana 50. I pack the hell outa the bearings with grease and even glopped more of it in the hub. I torqued them down to 50 to set the bearings then I backed the lock nut out torqued it to 40 then backed of 90 degrees.my back ones dont heat up. But the front ones get pretty hot. Not sure what I did wrong. Any help would be great. Dont want the bearings to weld themselves to the spindles. Doesn't feel like they get that hot.

 

Bump creampie felching

 

According to Haynes that is incorrect for a hi-shear lock nut (assuming that is what you have. It states to tighten the nut to 70 ft-lbs while rotating the wheel to seat the bearing. Back off 90° then tighten the nut to 15-20 ft- lbs.

If you have the older style (IMO better) with two nuts there is a different procedure. As a side note I think you are using way too much grease. You do not need to pack the hub with grease.

There are those with different techniques that work for them but I have used the Haynes procedure for both locking types and never had a problem.

 

There are two nuts on each side of the axle

 

What does the haynes manual say about the hub nuts for a dana 50.

 

No the hubs should not be getting hot unless it's from the brakes. I set my wheel bearings up with as little preload as possible with no end play or the smallest end play I can get. It takes some trial and error, no torque wrench needed for this.

 

Torque the inner nut to 50 ft-lbs, spin the wheel around, back the inner nut off a quarter turn. Lock the outer nut against the inner nut.

That should get it set.

 

Torque to spec while spinning the wheel at the same time is the idea, just to be clear...

 

1)Inner nut to 50 ft lb. to seat bearing
2)Back off & retighten to 30-40 ft lb.
3)while rotating the hub back off inner locknut 135-150°
4)assemble outer lock washer and tighten outer lock nut to 65 ft lb.

 

I think it's important to think about what you're trying to achieve. With greased tapered roller wheel bearings, is the intent to preload them like an oiled differential pinion bearing? No. Greased wheel bearings operated at or very near 0 preload to maximize bearing life, so when setup they should be on the cusp of having endplay. Add a little brake heat into the system and they run at zero end-play if they started with minimal end-play. By that I mean, if you loosened the inner nut (preload nut) by 1 spot on the lock washer and torqued the outer nut, there would be endplay in the bearing.

Does it matter how you achieve the correct end-play? No. But following an arbitrary torque sequence may very well set the bearing up with too much preload, causing excessive heat and premature failure. I'm sure I'll catch flack from the "follow the manual to the letter" types, but this is what I've been taught & used with no issues

 

I've installed and reinstalled a lot of tapered bearing sets, the problem for the bearing manufacturers is that it takes a bit of skill and experience to do it right, and "feel" isn't easily translated into published procedures.

Reading the manual is a great idea, but reading the proper procedure is even better. There is usually a different torque for new bearing sets versus used, i.e. new bearings have a fair amount of preload, used bearings hardly any. You can get away with setting new bearings a little loose, but used bearings set tight - no way. Pay attention.

 

Here is the '96 service manual section that covers torque specs, procedures, etc for wheel bearings for both Dana 44 and 50. I assume it's the same as your '93:

 

If it helps you want 1 to 10 thousandths of an inch of play in the wheel bearing.