Hey ya'll - I was delivering a load of wood in my '00 SD F350 DRW 4x4 74K miles and running about 70 when I heard the gawd awfullest squealing from the front end. Went away when I hit a bump - took a look and found nothing obvious. Noise happened several more times and truck pulled to right slightly when it happened and I could hear increased noise from underneath as if driving with 4wd engaged.....though maybe the auto hub vacuum deal was trying to engage the hubs at speed. Took her apart today....needle bearing that supports outer / stub axle was disentegrated and shrapnel got the auto hub and the axle shaft.....housing was full of rust and gunk. Other side is Ok but rusty as well. Is this an ongoing problem with the SD? I reckon it ain't warranty with 75K but I ain't looking forward to buying the axle shaft.
I'm figuring on changing to full manual hubs. Any advice or tips out there?

 

You may need to dig into the sealed bearings for the steering knuckle. There are quite a few reports of these sealed bearing units going bad.

 

that happed to be on the friday before the fourth of july in the middle of the iowa, while i was on a road trip. that was the biggest let down i've had with my truck.
i ended up having to leave my truck and camper with some hillbilly ford dealership, rent a ford contour, and drive to my granny's house in topeka about 3 hours away. the warrenty covered it, but i had to do some serious sweet talking to the shop manager to let me keep my trailer in her fenced off yard.
and i got paid back for the rental, hotel and the towing of the truck and trailer but AAA.

it wouldnt have been a big deal if they made the bearings like they used to, but now they are all sealed and whatnot. you cant just replace the bearings alone.

 

This isn't an uncommon problem on trucks that haven't had the front end serviced.
I think that Ford says the spindle bearings are to be repacked and the seals replaced at 50,000 km intervals which would be about 30,000 miles. I might be wrong on the exact mileage but I know they say they need to be repacked.

 

Where did you get this information. I've tried to do all the proper maintenance on my truck and haven't heard this one. I even get the letters from a local dealer, advising me of what routine maintenance they need to perform, but it has never mentioned repaking any bearings at 30000 miles. Not saying you're wrong, just need the info in case I missed it.

 

At work we use Ford's QC550 checksheet when doing services. That's where I got my info.
I just took a look at http://www.motorcraftservice.com/vdi...02&vehCode=con ( I used a 2002 F350 as an example) and it says that under normal conditions the spindle bearings should be repacked at 60,000 miles, for "special operating conditions" they should be done every 30,000.
Where I live we have a lot of water, bad roads etc, so we usually follow the special operating conditions schedule.

 

Thanks Dave. I'll add this to the list. I seem to do a lot of maintenance for this thing lately. Just part of the deal I guess. Pay now or pay later.

 

I had the same thing happen to the front end of my '97. I would be driving, hit a bump and she would start to growl. This happened to me on my move from Florida to Maine. Thankfully it happened as I was pulling into get some diesel at the NH / ME border. I limped to my folks place in southern ME and jacked her up. I noticed that the passenger side front wheel clicked when I spun it...bingo, there was my problem. I took the hubs apart and looked inside. It was a MESS!!! I did the manual hub conversion, and it was VERY simple to do. The only advice I can give is:

1) clean out the entire hub housing.
2) check on the seal you are talking about.
3) find someone that will lend you the LARGE spanner style socket wrench (you'll understand when you are ready to re-assemble), otherwise you'll have to buy a $50.00 tool.
4) use a GOOD quality torque wrench, and go to the specified torque settings.
5) use GOOD quality grease on the new setup, but be careful not to overpack.
6) before you put the outer cover on the new manual hubs, apply a little bit of good quality silicone on the large 'O' ring. I didn't do this right off the bat and ended up with leaking grease after about 25K miles.
7) do NOT overtighten the small Allen head bolts that hold the cover on the hub. They are not terribly tough and are easily snapped.

That about does it. Hope this helps, good luck!
Rob

Oh, almost forgot... I bought the Warn replacement hubs.