Good morning to you all! Thought I'd share my adventure of two weeks past, as it was another first...had the joy of doing the garage mechanical thing, once again.
Had a mechanic friend of mine confirm the noise coming from the rear wheel as being what I had guessed...a bad wheel bearing, on my '97 F150 Lariat. As I had never done the rear wheels on a 4x4, I had him available to advise me through the process, while I dug into the process.
First I did my research on the identification tags on the rear differential, to come up with what I was dealing with, and then went through the trouble of decoding the tag information. (Proper information upfront, helps to eliminate the headaches down the road...) My supercab has a limited-slip, so not only did I go the Royal Purple Synthetic, but also found the anti-friction additive at the local dealership.
Started the whole process around 11:30 am, in the south-facing garage, so as to allow the warmth to allow for better working environment. Got the back end up onto the axle jacks, and proceeded to drain the rear differential, and them onto the axle removal on each side. (RR was the source of the noise.)
Got both axles removed only to find out that my mechanic's son had borrowed his seal puller, so was now faced with tracking one down through a parts store...the local PepBoys had a rental available, and was nearby. Thank you!!
Pulled the seals and the wheel bearings, only to find that the originally purchased bearings were not the ones called for on my vehicle, as they had not considered the fact that the SCrew takes a different bearing--back to the parts store! (Nope, not in stock!) Two parts stores later, and an hour of daylight burned, I was back in the garage working to put the bearings and seals back in. Done!
Cleaned out the differential case thoroughly, with spray BrakeKleen, and patted down with clean cloth. Closed it up, and then sealed it back up with the black high-temp silicone sealant. Torqued the case cover to specs, and retopped with the appropriate fluids. Went ahead and cleaned each of the drums and replaced the rear shoes, as I was already into the mess, as it were.
Tools cleaned, garage put back in order, and the old fluids properly disposed of, I finished by 4:30 PM...had it not been for the two run-around trips, would probably have been done about an hour and a half sooner. All-in-all, it was a new experience, got the job done, and best of all---no more rear end sounds!
I do quite a bit of my own diagnostic and repairs, but had never gotten into something such as this, as this is the first 4x that I have owned, and had come up against something such as this.
Thanks to this forum, and the advice I have come across these past few months, I decided that maybe I could do it for myself, so I just went ahead and got after it. Thank you, all! Another day well-spent, and another learning experience for myself and for my son! I'm beginning to come to the belief that there are so many things we still can do for ourselves, should we take the time to become familiar with the situation, do a little homework upfront, we can accomplish what we set out to do...with a some help from our friends, here, as well!
Paul

 

This is a great site and someone is always ready to help. Thanks for the story. My 98 F150 is probaly not far behind yours in getting rear wheel bearings so when the time comes I'll dig into it myself as I always have and with the help of this forum the job will get done.

 

50th ann,

Thank you for the encouragement! You are so right about all the help available from all these folks, and I have found it to be all that much more to know that should I come across a new situation, I can count on the advice that is here. Good luck, should you get into the bearings on your '98. (My pickup had just hit 108K, so I guess that I got pretty good wear on the first set.)
Paul