Could you just borrow your 56 axle depending on how urgently you need the truck?

 

The old outer needle bearings fused into a bunch of lumps that I had to pry off the spindle with a screw driver. If you didn't know what they had been, they would have been unrecognizable. Pieces of the cage were inside the hub, along with a bunch of sharp metal. The axle nut washer took the load of the hub and was bent and mangled to the point I need a new one.

I'll put that old spindle on a shelf just in case, but I'd rather be safe than sorry and get a new salvaged one, especially for a $70 investment. New king pins will be nice too.

I thought about stealing parts off the '56, but I'd rather keep them separate and just get new stuff on the '64. Plus there's the F250 8 lug vs F100 5 lug thing.

 

Wow, the PO must have torqued to 80 and left them there.

Just make sure you fully clean all the grease out of those hubs now to get all the pieces of metal out.

 

So the new bearings are in on one side. The loaner bearing race insert tool from AutoZone is a life saver. I'll never monkey with a wood block again after using that perfectly machined aluminum disc. The races went in cleanly in a few taps.

With the bearings packed and inner seal in, I filled the hub with grease and the the wheel went back on the truck. Torqued the axle nut to 50, backed it off completely, and then brought it up to 20, then backed it off to the next opening on the castle nut. That is not much more than hand tight, but it sounds like loose is preferable to too tight. The wheel has zero in/out play, so it feels solid, and it rolls free.

The next challenge was the dust caps. Got the caps with the correct inner diameter measurement and then spent over an hour trying to coax the thing into the hub. Lots of swear words. Couldn't find anything around the shop to use as a driver.

The solution was good old Mr. Angle Grinder. Took off some of the depth and shaved off some outer diameter from the dust cap flange, then tapped it in with a dull chisel.

 

I happened to be doing some bearing service on a medium duty truck today and Meritor's sheet shows the 100# yadda, yadda instructions I posted above but the final spec is a .001-.005" end play. Like I said, a little loose is better than a little tight. If one were to follow the procedure and not do the measurement at the end it, at least on the truck I was working on, would end up way too loose.

It's doubtful the bearing nuts were installed 1/2" impact tight, they wouldn't have made five miles as all the grease would have been squished out and/or burned up. more than likely thermal distortion occurred as the inner race spin-welded itself to the spindle.

Jules, I don't think anyone said to pack the hub completely full. Doing so would cause pressure to build usually resulting in the cap popping off or grease being forced past the inner seal. Squishing all of the grease from the rollers (and why would there be any burrs in there? Didn't you just clean everything?) isn't quite right. However being certain that the inner bearing and the seal are fully seated is necessary before making the final adjustment. I just think 80# is pretty high for an arbitrary figure considering the seal in our application is a simple single lip. A Scotseal on today's heavy trucks is another story, they can sometimes require quite a bit of pressure to be fully seated

 

It's always best to use the manual instructions. The bearing manufacturers are also good sources of information. Who'd a thunk it? The internet has ALL of it (Free) at our fingertips and has done so for about 20 years now. Manuals, instructions sheets etc.

Timken actually says that typically bearings are installed (wrongly) on the loose side.

I certainly agree, this is better than roasting spindles, but it's also worth doing it correctly. "Finger tight" or near enough, is correct for bearings and race that are being reinstalled but not for new bearings.

In the instance above for a 64 for example tightening to 50 to 80 ft lbs (while rotating the wheel, hopefully) is correct, and then back off one or two castellations depending.

But then you mention backing off, and then tightening to 20 foot lbs?

That's the adjustment procedure again, don't mix and match. This is why following the actual manual procedures are important. The bearings are "too loose", strictly speaking.

 

That thing really should have a spindle replaced. If you smooth it out with emery cloth it still might have imperfections on the surface that will cause the bearing to have a tight spot and eat another bearing. That would be the best case failure.


The worst case is a total failure of the spindle and losing a wheel at highway speed.

 

You had said "fill the hub to a level even with the bearing races" I just wanted to make sure it was clear not to fill it right up.


I believe I read the small burrs thing in one of my Ford manuals. There are burrs on everything, just because they are too small to see doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

I didn't fill the hub completely. Just packed the perimeter of the hub cavity until the grease filled the space between the inner and outer races, and to a depth about equal to the race thickness.

With the axel nuts on there was no play whatsoever on either side, but it didn't bind either. Cranking more torque felt like it was binding, so I backed it off very slightly.

 

You're right. I went back and did it per the manual.

 

Rob, which manual instructions did you end up using?

 

i did "torque to 50-80 while turning the wheel, then back off 1-2 castellations to open up the cotter pin hole". I used 60.

 

Nice, you already up and driving again I assume.