I drove my truck to work and all was fine. I went to pull out after work and it felt like the whole front wheel was going to lock up, grinding, banging, noisy. I quickly pulled it into a gas station and we jacked it up to see metal shavings and see the play in the wheel. Im getting it towed and going to tear into it tomorrow. Hopefully its just the bearing assembly and didnt take the hub with it. Anyone else see this before? I thought bearings were suppose to give you a warning before they went? The the way its on a 2000 F350

 

I think you will find the bearing is a unit assembly with the hub. Usually, they do give rumbling noises before blowing up. You have to know what to listen for, though.

 

You're looking at about $300 for a new hub and up to $600 for a dealer installed hub

 

The last unit bearing I lost was like that. It drove without noise(it did turn the ABS light on though) for 15+ miles. Next day, it was popping and grinding and locking up in the driveway.

 

Can't you just change a bearing? A quick parts search shows there is a simple bearing on 2001 7.3.

National LM102949 - Taper Bearing Cone | O'Reilly Auto Parts

 

2WD vs 4WD

And actually to the OP if you can wait, you can pick up Timken unit bearings at Rock Auto, or I found them at Autozone(Who I hate) but for 150 bucks each, hard to pass on them.

 

Scoreboard 2wd!

 

My last one went that way.Drove home about 25 miles from a job site and the next morning it locked up 100 yds down the road.

It did lock up for a split second 500-1000 miles before. I thought I hit something in road that I didn't see and it jerked hard to the left. I pulled over and couldnt find anything on the truck or anything in the road that could have caused it and forgot about it until locked up again. The second time when it broke free it was grinding.

 

I plan on doing it myself or having a buddy help but that will be the next thing is to find out which unit is the best one for the cheaper price. Is the Timken a good one to get?

 

And it is a 4x4

 

Timken was the OE IIRC.

Are you single rear wheel or Dual?

Here is Rock Auto if you can wait http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php

If you need one local and have an autozone Timken/Wheel Bearing/Hub Assembly-Front (515020) | 2000 Ford F350 Super Duty P/U 4WD 8 Cylinders F 7.3L Turbo Diesel | AutoZone.com

Even if you don't have front ABS, get the one with it, it's usually cheaper and you can grease the bearing through the ABS hole.

 

I stand corrected ....

 

Just replaced one on my 2002. I got a Timken from AutoZone. I think it was about 185.00 plus tax. They have them for ABS, non-ABS, fine thread and course thread lugs. The non-abs fine thread was almost $300.00. It was about a 4 hour job for me. Not real hard, just quite a few big nuts and bolts and a pretty heavy hub assembly.

 

sorry for the highjack but what type of grease is used

 

The search returns: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/4...-bearings.html
Ford High Temperature 4x4 Front Axle and Wheel Bearing Grease E8TZ-19590-A

Its step 5 of the installation. You need to check the specs on the grease your looking at compared to ford's req.

Here is the Annual grease list, which might be a better choice, as it appears to have different grease types named, and directions for all of it.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...-bearings.html