Started hearing bearing noise a few days ago from my 2001 f250. Bought a new hub and bearings, and the seal/bearing that fits in the knuckle that has to be pressed on the shaft... About a week later, and all the bearings and the seal are ruined. The axle has lots of where it come out of the axle housing. Is there another bearing inside the housing that is causing the outer bearings to go bad? Its not leaking gear oil out of the tube, so I would imagine that the inner seal is still good. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

How did you go about tightening the bearings down? I guess the wheel might have been left a bit loose on the thrust bearing...... then it wobbled and chewed things up.

 

I pressed the knuckle seal/bearing on the shaft, and then put a new hub with bearings on to the shaft, and tightened it down to meet the knuckle... I think thats the only way to do it with this design. Is there a bearing and seal where the shaft goes in to the differential? there seems to be a lot of free play where the shaft comes out of the axle tube- Is that normal?

 

Humm.. I just did my complete front end last week. There is a seal deep in the axle tube by the carrier bearing.. you can only get to it by removing the carrier it self.
you should not have a lot of in and out free play in the axle. Was the inner hub needle bearing inside of the hub before you put the axle in ?? the only thing i can think of if you did everything right is that maybe you bought the cheep hub and bearings ? i know national bearing makes a hub and bearing kit for $140, but i would not use cheep bearings that may not last long. sometimes you got to pay it up front or spend more doing it twice.. hope you get it fixed and enjoy your ride..

 

The hub bearing isn't going to fail fast unless its faulty..Or you have 44 inch tires that stick out 10 inches. The axle has nothing to do with the bearing going bad..Two different things..You can take the axle out and drive around..There is however a needle bearing that the axle rides on which I'm sure you saw on the inner part of the hub bearing. The axle has to have a good surface for this..The axle isn't really tight in there normally as you can get some play grabbing the axle ujoint, this is normal for 1/8 play at the joint. Take the junk bearings back where you bought them and get another source as they are defective..IMO

Dick

 

Thanks for the input from everyone... Im really not sure why the bearings went bad unless it was indeed faulty from the factory.... As for the axle play, with the hub, and knuckle bearing removed, I can move the axle axle shaft all over the place inside the axle housing... Should it be tight, or is this amount of play normal?

 

Normal.. Don't go crazy as there is a seal in there at the end near the diff. The inside part of the axle rides in the diff. Thats it.