Greasing 4X2 Front Wheel Bearings
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From: Oregon
Greasing 4X2 Front Wheel Bearings
I am getting ready to grease my front wheel bearings. I have already picked up the appropriate grease with Moly as well as the inner bearing seals. The only part about this procedure that has me somewhat conerned is adjusting the bearings. In the manual it says to spin the wheel while you tighten the adjusting nut to about 21 ft-lbs. I have a torque wrench so this is not a problem. It then says to loosen the nut by about 1/2 turn--so far so good. However, it then says to re-tighten the adjusting nut to about 17 in-lbs. Now I have a problem as my torque wrench doesn't go this low in "in-lbs". Perhaps I should purchase a torque wrench for this before I begin the project? Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
John
John
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From: On A Ship, MI
what u do is spinn the rotor after you put it on while tighting the nut rather tight. then back the nut off then finger tightn it then spin the nut a quater(1/4) turn. thats the same thing i do on my ranger and it comes out close to spec tourq.
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Thanks Rangersct04! That makes sense, I know that cars and mountain bikes are different but I rebuild my bike wheels yearly and of course each time you must readjust the bearings. With a bike the trick is to get them tight without play but not so tight as to cause binding. It would seem that with a truck it is the same thing except larger scale. Your system sounds like it would work just fine.
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I just wanted to give you guys a little update. I greased my bearings last weekend and it went really well. I even marked the nut and spindle before I loosed the nut so I could compare my torque to the original torque once everything was reassmebled.
Both the right and left bearings were just a touch loose but there was plenty of grease at 55,000 miles. I greased them anyway however. Upon reassembly, I snugged down the nut as the wheel turned, then backed the nut off 1/2 turn, re-tightened finger tight and then snugged the nut up about 1/8 to 1/4 turn extra. After doing this the bearings were tight without binding and the marked position on the nut was about 1/8 of a turn more than when I first removed the nut. This was probably just enough to remove the "free play" that I had before disassembly.
Thanks for all of your help guys. The project went well. I still might get an in-lb torque wrench down the road however just because it's fun to get a tool know and then...
Both the right and left bearings were just a touch loose but there was plenty of grease at 55,000 miles. I greased them anyway however. Upon reassembly, I snugged down the nut as the wheel turned, then backed the nut off 1/2 turn, re-tightened finger tight and then snugged the nut up about 1/8 to 1/4 turn extra. After doing this the bearings were tight without binding and the marked position on the nut was about 1/8 of a turn more than when I first removed the nut. This was probably just enough to remove the "free play" that I had before disassembly.
Thanks for all of your help guys. The project went well. I still might get an in-lb torque wrench down the road however just because it's fun to get a tool know and then...
Last edited by jcandrew; Feb 15, 2004 at 12:38 PM.
