I have a 1989 F350 4x4 with the Dana 60 monobeam front axle. Recently I heard a grinding noise in the front right wheel. I identified it as the brake caliper grinding inside the wheel, and found that the cause of the extra play in the wheel was that all 8 studs were free spinning in the hub. I limped it a mile home to the driveway and once I had a day off work, spent the entire day with an extractor kit and my drill removing the old lug nuts and studs so that I could get the tire off. I was hoping that the studs were bad, but once I tried to anchor brand new OEM studs in the hubs I confirmed that the hubs were actually throated out, for lack of a better term, so the knurling on the studs had no solid grip. I then made the unfortunate discovery that the wheel hubs (centric part number 124 65.002) were discontinued. I have ordered them from dealers and wholesalers several times, only to have the dealers come back to me and say that their inventory systems were incorrect, and they cannot get the part (complete with refund and apology of course). I don't have the time to chase them around scrap yards all over NC, and centric estimates they won't have more until March.

My solution to get the truck back on the road is to step up the size of the knurling on my studs and get everything else as close as possible on the studs. So my question is, has anyone done a similar fix before? How well did it work and what measurements were most important to match the studs/bolts? Each of the holes in my hub seem to be at slightly different levels of wear, so can I utilize JB weld or some similar product? I'm using Dorman's database and have a few likely candidates but I want a sanity check from some more experienced folks in this area if they're available.

Thanks to all who frequent these forums, I'm constantly picking up really solid info here

 

What part of NC? Asheville Powertrain is a great place to get odd stuff like that. They deal in anything powertrain related from the flywheel all the way back from cars to trucks to heavy equipment and semi trucks. Last time i was there I picked up a slip yoke for an 91 chevy truck. Very knowledgeable guys. They also do manual trans rebuild kits for any size trans.