Hey fellas. I have a 1979 F250 4x4 . Dana 44 in the front , a Dana 60 in the rear. It has a C6 with a np205 transfer case. I am away from out about 5 hours and just developed a come and go noise in the front end. After a brief inspection , I found the drivers side spindle bearing is worn enough that the axle shaft may be hitting the ball joint , not enough to bind up yet. I checked. Both front wheels , I jacked them up and I believe the wheel bearings are ok. I have a 5+ hour drive home on Thursday evening . Any suggestions on keeping this spindle bearing from being a problem long enough to get home? Thanks in advance.

 

Turn the hubs out.

Do you mean an NP203? if so, you may be able to pull the driveshaft and pull the gears that connect the shaft to the hub. I'm not sure if that will work or not. if not then it sounds like you need new pocket bearings before you drive.

 

Was a 203 available in a 79 f250? Jack the truck up and make sure the front isn’t locked in, hubs and case. Spin the wheel of suspect and see what you can find. If you have bearing issues its best to take care of it before a 5 hour drive. Could cause a meltdown, fire, or worse it could lock up while driving.

 

The spindle bearings are only in use when the front drive is engaged one way or the other, so like they said, you don't have an issue if you're running a 205 and have free-running hubs installed.
What was the noise anyway? An occasional clunking sound? Or something else?

Good luck.
Unless you're home already. In which case... Whew!

Paul

 

Yes the NP203 was an option. I have one in the F250 my dad bought new.

I have no idea why it was an option but it was. at least Ford gave you the option, nobody else did if you had an automatic you got full time 4WD. stupid era for 4x4's.

 

Never knew that! Did OP get home okay? Curious to know what he found out.

 

Thanks fellas. No I didn’t get home , not until Thursday after work. My truck has the np205 with manual hubs. It almost acts like maybe a hub is engaging and disengaging after hitting a bump. When it starts I hit a bump and I get the feeling the front drive line is engaged. The transfer case is definitely in 2 high. Would a bad hub lock engage and disengage itself. They are old , I have had the truck over 15 years. I am going to pull the hubs off tomorrow after work and see what happens.

 

Would be very unusual for the hubs to lock or unlock from just bumping around if they are original Spicer lockouts. The aftermarket ones are not as robust, so might do it.
If something in the outer **** of a stock hub was to fail, the inner spring would cause the mechanism to lock. But I doubt that once it was locked it would just come out on it's own

Only way to know for sure is to check/test it when it's acting up. If you can turn the front driveshaft by hand (2-wheel drive) and watch the axle shaft u-joints spin inside the knuckles, then the hubs are not locked.
By the same token, if you can get your fingers or a tool of some sort in there to spin the u-joints and axles by hand, then the hubs are not locked.

If, on the other hand, you can't move the axle shafts even with a tool, you may have a problem.

Paul

 

Thanks Paul. I will check the front shaft when it acts up again. I hope it’s not a wheel bearing . I have never been in this area before, I don’t know if any of the local garages can even work on it and all my equipment and tools to diy it are at home.

 

Yeah, lots of shops no longer know (if they ever did!) how to work on an adjustable wheel bearing. Sad, but true. Even thirty years ago most shops that dealt with cars had never seen those kinds of adjusting nuts and did not have the tools. As you could tell when you pulled one apart and found the nuts had been totally gouged out from the shops using hammers and chisels, rather than a spanner socket and a torque wrench.

But in essence, that's all you need. A $20 socket, a torque wrench capable of 100-150 lbs or so, a standard snap-ring plier set, and a tiny screwdriver or pick to pull the large locking ring out of the hub. Oh, and an Allen wrench set to get the **** off with internal hubs. Externals just use bolts.
I don't know if the 44's on F250's still used the standard 4-prong nut system (https://www.wildhorses4x4.com/produc.../bronco_Dana44) of the 1/2 tons and Broncos, or if they used the larger 4 or 6 prong, or hex style nuts of other vehicles. But either way, the tools and parts are still available. So if you have someone look at yours, just make sure they have someone with the proper tools. The procedures are easy to follow, and you can lay them out for them if needed.
I know, it's sad if the customer has to explain to the mechanic how it's done, but it's not really that sad. And not a stumbling block as long as the mechanic has an open mind and accepts the real world into their life sometimes. It can work out fine.

If you need to know the bearing adjusting procedure at some point, it's a simple few steps we can run down here easily.
What do your hub ***** look like? Are they red (now faded to pink) plastic with the FORD name imbedded? Or are they metal or plastic ***** with either an aftermarket name, or the FORD name on a wider portion with a decal?

Paul

 

Hey Paul and all you guys , thanks for the help. No my hubs are not the original spicers, they are made by superwinch. They were on the truck when I bought it, 15 years ago. Going to work this morning it acted up, so I stopped and checked it. It was difficult , but not impossible to turn the steering u-joints. I have spun the before, very easily, so I knew there was a problem. After work I pulled off both hubs and went for a drive. Problem was gone, and the truck felt like it went forward easier. So I am going to tear the guts out of the hubs, then use them as dust covers to drive home. I know I have another set of hubs at home and I believe they may be a set of original spicers. I am so grateful to all the fellas on FTE. You guys are always ready to pitch in your 2 cents , whenever someone asks. Bill ( Numberdummy ) is the best resource for part numbers. I actually have a friend who is an old time parts guy at a local Ford dealer who has been very helpful as well. Thanks again fellas. I don’t usually drive my old Ford this far , but the commuter rig was in for repairs. Of course I will let you guys know when I make it back home!

 

Hey, glad you got it narrowed down. Still have to get a little greasy, but that's small potatoes compared to getting home in one piece!

And I might as well say it... Now's the best time to inspect and re-pack your wheel bearings if it hasn't been done in awhile.
Yeah, I know, more stuff to do. But unless you're on a tight schedule (and even if you are!) it's one of those "well, I might as well, since I'm here..." things.

Paul

 

Well I am sorry it took so long. I got home with no issues on Thursday evening. Only to find out my internet service was down. Friday morning I got a good look at my truck , figured out what happened and made sure it’s ok to drive. Turns out I did have problems with the hubs, so I pulled the guts out of them, they are glorified dust caps for now. Front drive axle turns freely as it should. Like you said , Paul, while I am in there , I will be changing out spindle bearings and wheel bearings and ball joints. I also want to change out axle seals, since the drivers side is leaking pretty good. There is where I need some advice, I don’t know how to change them out. Thanks for all the advice. You fellas on here are the best!

 

Should be the same as the ones I've done, which is to say it's a bit intimidating, but less of a pain than you would expect. But you do have to get clever with some garage-tech tool manufacturing sometimes.
I've used broom handles with big washers screwed to the ends, long all-thread that a buddy happened to have laying around when we did his Dana 60, and probably some other wacko long-reach tools as well.

The intimidating part is you have to pull the differential out because the seals are right there in the most inner end of the tubes, just outside of the carrier bearings. So after the axle shafts are out, all the guts have to come out of the business end of the differential.
The good news is that, at least in my experience, if you keep track of where everything came from and put it back the same way, you do not need to set up your gears or anything like that. Just remove and replace.
Where some hassle arises is if your particular unit is "tight" and does not want to walk out under your adult supervision. For that Dana axles are actually supposed to need "case spreaders" that fit into those two big round recesses on each side of the cover that most people have always wondered about. But for me anyway, I've never had to use a case spreader before.
A really tight setup can be made to spit itself out by jamming a rag between the gear teeth and rotating the pinion yoke until the jamming action literally spits the carrier and gears out. Into your lap if you have a helper turning the yoke, or into whatever fitting you have to catch it and give things a soft landing.

Probably some youtube vids on the subject. I've never had to put a tight one back in though, so can't say for it's reluctance to go home or not.
Mark the caps and bearings, place all the parts on a clean and out of the way pad to keep them in order so you can put them back where they belong (especially the shims!) and have at the seals. They are not hard to remove, but take some finesse.

The long-reach tool I mentioned comes in handy here. A long dowel or rod to push the seals inward into the diff case from each side, then some way to put the new ones in. If you're lucky, the new ones will insert themselves with just hand pressure (if you're GI Joe with Kung Fu Grip) and others require a way to "pull" them into place from the outside. Or push them in from the opposite side. This is where the long piece of all-thread and a couple of nuts and washers came in handy.
Two of us were there to do the Dana 60 and it practically took longer to write this than it did to get the job done! Slick as you like.

But man, that '60 ring gear and carrier were heavy when they came out! However, if you've ever dropped a Ford 9" into your lap from underneath a truck in that hunched-over position, you can do this no problem.

Good luck.

Paul