Seeing/reading the post Mark had about repeat caliper failures reminded of my promblem.

On my 06 2WD I have had, 6-8 times in the last 2-3 years, my right side wheel bearing fail. 3 times causing the wheel to come off!! The left side has failed a few times as well.

I have always done my own wrenching, and have done lots of wheel bearings in the past without any problems. After the last failure (april last year) I thought I have to be doing something wrong so I took it to Ford to have them do both front bearings and told them to inspect everything. They said it was good, and repacked the left and right side bearings. So now every oil change I jack the truck up and give her a shake down. Since Ford did the repair there hasn't been a problem Untill a few weeks ago (of course the wife drives the truck now and dosen't really put many miles on it). A few weeks ago I was doing some work on the truck and decided to check the bearings again. Low and behold the right wheel is moving around like crazy. Wheel just about to fall off again.

So back to ford it will go when I get home again.

My question is what would cause all these failures? There has to be something bent, but I can't seem to find anything wrong. I did change the sway bar bushings, and links, last year sometime, and now I noticed the bar is loose again in the bushings. I'm at a loss on this one. Any ideas of what to check/tell ford what to check?

 

Well i used a cheaper Napa hub when I did mine. Less then 10k later it was smoking going down the road. Did you use OEM bearings?

 

Yes, I have had every bearing I can get localy in it. First time was something from oriley's, then I think Advanced, went back to OEM. Nothing seams to fix the problem.

On 2wd the hub is the rotor by the way.

Oh and one more thing. The first time the wheel came off I had to change the spindle cause it messed it up. I put a new OEM spindle in that time, Then I think the 3 or 4 time it came off it messed the spindle up again. I got one from a wreaking yard that time, but it's still a OEM one.

 

Sounds to me like an "over-tightening" problem. How can you let it go long enough for the wheel to fall off?????

 

WOW Scotty that does not sound good Very Dangerous

Hope you get it figured out being its a 2wd and diffrent from 4X4 I dont know anything abotu it so Im NO help

Good Luck with it

 

So the way I see a 2WD front bearing is it has a steering knuckle with a Spindal coming off it that you would slide the Wheel Bearing/rotor assembly onto and Bolt it on with a spindal nut and Washer.

Just by looking at a Pic of one looks like it will Hold the center section on it secured by the spindal nut to spindal and the outer brake rotor peice with the wheel Studs works its way off

So the tire falls off with the Brake rotor

and the inner Hub/Bearing peice is still attached with the washer and spindal nut.

Now Im just throwing thnis out there and Might be ON another PLANET thinking this since to me It looks like the Hub/roter is 2 peices that are pressed together but Could you Tack Weld the 2 together (where the outter Roter and Inner Hub Meet) and it woould still spin on the Inner Bearing thats riding on the Spindal shaft

Thats so Dangerous That at the wrong Place and wrong time could be LEATHAL PROBLEM

 

It is a solid unit. Rotor and hub is one piece.

 

Then I guess I dont see where its coming apart at?????

There were 2 I saw the one for DRW looked solid

But the One for Single rear wheel looked Pressed together maybe it was the Pic



Scotty is this truck a SRW or DRW

 

So your saying that he is overtorqing the Lug nuts Striping all 8 or whatever there are

 

What is it like when the wheel comes off? The way I imagine it happening, you must have really good luck for it to happen 3 times and not get in an accident any of those times.

 

Ok, let me clareify a little here. The wheel hasn't come completely off. The bearing basicly fails apart allowing the rotor/hub to not be attached to anything. The brake caliper braket catches the rotor (I have been pretty lucky on that one so far) keeping the wheel from completly falling off.

It's not that I let it go too long. I mean I have/was checking it every 1,000 miles or so, and at least every oil change. It seams to happen all of the sudden. No prior warning signs. Just driving along then all of the sudden bam jerks you off the road. Pretty scary stuff. I'm not very comfortable at all driving this thing. In fact I have thought about selling it because of this problems serveral times.

I don't beleave it's from over/under torqueing the spindle nut either. The very first time it happened I used ford specs, even though to me it seamed not enough, but it's what ford says so that's what I did. A day later, and maybe 200 miles, I checked it and sure enough the wheel was loose. Installed anouther set of bearings and this time did the job the way I have done tons of other ones when I worked as a tech. Everything seamed ok that time for about maybe 6K or miles, then driving to work one day it started squelling (sp???) and before I could get stopped bam it came apart again. I was out of town, so I went to a junk yard and got a used spindle, and put it all back together. So that time it lasted about a year or so (mainly because I don't drive it to much anymore) then one day on the way to Dallas it happened again. Again no warning signs or anything. In fact I had it at firestone the day before, getting the alignment checked, and while they had it up on the rack me and the tech looked it over and everything seamed fine.

So after that last time it did it, on the way to Dallas, I took it to the Ford dealler to have them check it out and install new bearings (thinking that maybe I have been doing something wrong). That was April last year. I have been checking it regulary since then. And like I said in the OP I checked it the other day, and sure enough wheel/hub is really loose. I'm sure the bearing is just about disenagrated.

I can't seem to figure out what is bent/out. I'm thinking that the first time this happened it bent something, because every since then Just can't seem to get the sterring wheel straight with alignments. It drives fine, but something has to be putting quit a lot extra stress on the right side bearings.

 

Any strange tire wear? I'm thinking anything that's bent enough to start chewing up wheel bearings would chew up tires even faster. If there's no funny or fast tire wear, you can probably rule out bent suspension or steering parts.

Sounds like a stupid question, but are you sure you're getting the right bearings? I'd take a stab in the dark and say that since the OEM bearings from Ford (presumably based on your VIN when in the shop) lasted the longest, there's an issue with someone's parts computer/book elsewhere, that's listing the wrong bearings. Heaven help us if they're listing ball bearings versus tapered roller?

What brand of bearings? I think Timken may be the only US-made brand left...

As far as I remember, bearings don't fail unless they're either the wrong size, or are not lubricated. You're using HIGH TEMP wheel bearing grease, right?

I'm covering the basics here in order to clarify everyone's thought process.

Normal bearing operating conditions are such that failures show up FAST; properly lubed and assembled bearings last for hundreds of thousands of miles before failure.

HOW do the bearings fail? Does the cage come apart? Do the bearing rollers shatter? Do the races pit, gouge, groove, or otherwise degenerate? Note that the bearings on the 4x4's have plastic(!) cages.

I'm thinking here that you're getting the wrong bearings, which are listed incorrectly in the parts book or computer. The inner and outer race diameters are such that they fit the hub and spindle, but the bearing rollers are the wrong size, probably too small. This makes the bearing too narrow, and so the "proper" torque on the spindle nut doesn't properly pre-load the bearings. The "excess" weight (since the bearing is too small) quickly overloads the strength of the rollers, and the whole thing shatters.

-blaine

 

Answers in red

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far. If you think of any more things to look at let me know.

 

Are your axle shafts wore? My brother has a chevy, and the "stub" shaft, (the one that goes through the unit bearing was wore) and he was eating bearing's till a mechanic told him to replace the half shaft with the unit bearing. been 2 yrs with no problem's.

I don't know if it would matter on a super duty, but the mechanic said the axle shaft on the chevy supported the bearing's.
(I have never had the front of my Super Duty apart)

 

Since this is a repeat failure, I'd recommend checking a few things before just replacing the bearing.

The bearing inner and outer races need to be replaced as a unit. Just replacing the bearing and not the race can cause the problem you are seeing. Make sure that the new cup is fully seated in the hub - very important.

The bearing is installed, followed by a flat washer that is smaller than the OD of the bearing. You want the washer to push against the bearing cup and not touch the rollers.

A hub nut goes on next. Tighten to seat the bearing, back off and retighten to about 1 fl-lb to remove play. Install the nut retainer. Install a cotter pin. The hub nut may be a castle nut with the nut retainer as part of the nut. In that case a nut retainer is not used.

With the correct parts and with a properly seated bearing race and bearing, your truck should go for thousands of miles without any problems.

Lou Braun