I was in the process of changing my front brakes on my '06 Escape. I noticed the right front wheel was rather loose when I got it up in the air. I had noticed a bit of a drag sound developing particularly when cornering, but had assumed it was the shot pads dragging on the rotor. Investigating further I noticed the CV shaft nut was not tight on the hub. I figured at that point, the bearing must be shot by running with a lack of preload.

Off to the auto-parts store to rent a hub puller and slide hammer set and I had it apart. The strange part is once I got it apart, the bearings themselves look good, nice shiny ***** and races. The hub inside the inner bearing and inside inner race were all galled like the hub was spinning on the race instead of the bearing rolling. There was a lot of slop on the inner bearing on the hub. The hub under the outer bearing is tight (I don't know what it looks like as I won't go to the trouble to pull the inner race off since both are going to be replaced.)

Any idea why this would happen? I've never seen something like this.

 

Pictures please!

 

How 'bout:
Without tight pressure holding the drive into the hub & bearings tightly, the outer drive splined shaft can wobble around, wearing the shaft where the inner diameter of the inner race rides on the shaft, while the outer diameter of the outer race wobbled around against the inner diameter of the hub. The nut keeps things together, and without that tightness, the drive spline will want to move in and out as the lower arm flexes for road irregularities, moving the bearing because it can(force is not transferred directly but roundabout). The bearings have to bear the side loads of turning, and transfer that force to the hub & suspension. W/o the nut, the bearings can & will move. There are two 'movements' in the daisy chain, I think.
tom

 

Here you go - both should be clickable for a larger view. The inside of the bearing was hard to get good lighting but the spindle shows clear - it was sliding.

Plus when I put them together there is about 7 thou clearance.

 

That's one nasty, rusty bearing there! So what's a hub going to cost you? I've never read of that happening on an Escape before either!

EDIT:
Looking at RockAuto pictures of hubs. I see what you are saying now. The inner bearing has a .007" gap but the outer bearing looks like a .250" gap, correct?

I have seen where a bearing spun on a shaft which looked like it was machined on a lathe.

 

There isn't supposed to be any clearance on either race. The new hub and bearings were interference fit on both of the bearings. It spun and turned what was tight into a clearance of about .007".

I wanted to get the vehicle going quick so I didn't get the set from Rockauto. That would have saved me about $15. I ended up getting a "kit" with the locknut and snap ring too for $67 from Autozone.

The torque rating was specified as 212ft-lb but that was insufficient. The assembly had lots of slop. I cranked a little harder and I could feel it sucking up a tiny bit more. I got a good turn out of it and it went solid so that's where it sits. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up.

 

Back when tapered bearing were used as wheel bearings the outer race was a slip fit. Do you know that there are special Timken wheel called NASCAR Blue because NASCAR uses tapered bearings and I imagine most race cars still do?

You got this? Duralast Transmission Seal DL518515- ReadReviews onDuralast #DL518515

 

That's the one I got.

I sure wouldn't mind tapered roller bearings still. They last so much longer and you can remove and reinstall them.

 

I miss the "old" days of cleaning and repacking bearings. If there were a tapered bearing option for my Escape, I would already have them installed. I'm just not a fan of press-fit bearing assemblies.

 

My old neighbor brought me a trailer axle one day where the tapered bearing failed and almost cut the axle in two!

I have a 10" metal lathe. I cut the damaged end off, milled the end square, drill and reamed a pilot hose in the end. Used bar stock, turned the bearing diameter, turned a pin at one end to match the pilot hole,cut the threads for the nut leaving some bar stock with chamfered edge. Banged it together so there was a good groove for welding. There was a guy about a block away that did welding jobs.

My neighbor picked it up, just said thanks, never offered me a beer or anything!!

 

Not even a beer..
If it was a boat trailer, ask to borrow the boat.... Else if a regular walled or flat bed, ask to borrow whenever you need one...
I betta nickel he did not realize how much effort went into the repair, figuring you just got out the torch and welded the old, ground down piece back in place.
Then again, who knows.
tom

 

That was years ago, long gone. Moved near my brother-in-law's brother who had him as a neighbor. Hear that he one day backhanded his three year old son across the room and knocked his tooth out! Might be in jail, who knows?

 

You got to hone your skills and you learned that your neighbor is not the kind of guy you want to have a beer with.

Some are simply socially inept (harmless dorks), others are insecure and resent the success/skill of others (a plague on mankind).

 

He's long gone and the home has changed hands twice.