don't matter where its made....so long as its to timken specs...

China does make allot of JUNK.....but they can make good things also...

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Like I mentioned before this truck is my daily driver so I needed to get it back on the road ASAP. I ended up getting the wheel bearing hub from NAPA for $279 a piece. I noticed my axle seals were in pretty bad shape too so I wanted to replace them. After researching I saw it requires a special tool to press that seal on. Some guys said you can probably take the axles to ford and they might put them on for you. Apparently my local dealership does not subscribe to that philosophy. Luckily the parts guy let me borrow the tool when I bought the seals thru him $179 for all four(at ford). I assume I payed a little more for the seals but it was less running around. Now that I saw the tool I can see how some guys make their own. One question I had was about the axle dust seal. Does it get pressed onto the axle or into the housing. The parts guy said the housing but some guys online and from me looking at both options it seemed like it went on the axle. I think maybe ford changed the design around the 05 years and made a different seal that gets pressed into the housing and maybe that's what the parts guy was thinking of? I wanted to do the dust/heat shield while it was apart but the dealership only had one on hand and I needed it back together so I guess that will be on my next tear down when the ball joints go. Everything came apart relatively easy. I couldn't get the axles out but tapping on the u joint. I ended up using a pry bar between the axle housing and the u joint and that did the trick. I cleaned up all the mating surfaces with a wire wheel and reassembled. It all went together nicely. I used a tip I saw online because my axles didn't seem to slide all the way back as far as they should so I took the old bearing assembly and put it on and used the four nuts to draw it in equally. That seemed to work pretty well. The four studs that mount the new hub did come with the ones I bought. They just weren't installed. I am curious to see if my auto 4x4 works now that everything is sealed up tight again. In my short career of owning a PSD this is my largest project to date so thanks again for all the info. Hope this helps out another newbie.

 

Yes I did but it was a while back when I was getting hubs for a Chevy van and I don't remember the price. Usually when it comes to parts for my truck I am more concerned with the quality than the price anyway, as long as the price is within reason I just buy it.

 

I think you are correct however I still don't trust China made parts 100%. China stuff is getting better though, and I suspect that some USA stuff may be getting worse.

 

kefrko, the dust seals for the axle tube get pressed onto the axle shaft. Last time I did it me and my buddy used 2 big flat screw drivers and hammers to seat the seal real nice. I am sure there are easier ways to do it but I wanted to give my buddy something to do so we did it that way.

If you find your hubs don't work, take a look at the wheel bearing assembly. There is a big o-ring that goes around the assembly. My new Napa wheel bearing assembly did not have this o-ring with it. I didn't notice it till my 3rd time in (don't ask why 3 times).

Baatzy

 

The most common failure is the non-serviceable needle bearing inside the hub. It is at Napa and is the B2110 needle bearing. They can't look it up by vehicle (only the whole hub assembly shows up) but it is the correct one. It's about $10 which is a far cry from a new hub. You will spend some time getting the old one out so you have to balance your time/money scale on which one is more important to you.

I have the Dynatrac kit sitting in my garage waiting to be installed and I can tell you from just looking at the parts that there is no way that any of it is interchangeable with the OEM stuff. The only OEM parts that will work are the 4 hub studs that hold it to the knuckle. Everything else is Dynatrac-specific pieces and bearings and looks beefy compared to the unitized bearing.