Rich,
Sorry, hectic day. An industrial bearing supply can cross match and special order bearings and cage if necessary without breaking the bank. We have a local Simco Supply that has those type of things and I am sure with a little perseverence you can as well. You have a handle on it and I am sure you will find what you need. I use a carburator basket left over from the 60's and just put the parts into it as I pull. I clean in the same basket which precludes the loss of the "little things" as they say whenever I clean parts.

 

Thanks for the encouragement Tex. I spent way too much time on this yesterday with no success. But what I did find is that Ford does carry a small parts kit that does include the bearing as well as new cap screws, seal and other misc. small parts. As you would expect from a stealer they want about 5 times what it is worth, about $75 per wheel. I did find it on line for about $55.
So this is my plan, I will reassemble everything with the bearing that is short one ball. One bearing guy I talked to said this would be OK so long as I don't do any strenuous 4 wheeling. I only want to test it to see if after the Marvel Mystery treatment the hubs have loosened up to where they don't grind in the turns. If they have I will fork over the $55 and get the small parts kit. If they hav not I will 86 the autos and go for some manuals.
As much as I like the autos, I don't have the nearly $600 it would take to replace them when I can get a set of Superwinch delivered to my door for about $140.
Thanks for all your help. I will let you know what happens.

Rich

 

Rich,
I completely understand. I'd pretty much maintained that I'd go with Warn Premiums or Superwinch if the auto failed, at 254.700 they haven't as of yet, and I was able to score two sets in the salvage yard as well. If you look closely at the red Bronco in my gallery that I was fixing up for a customer's son and have since bought, you will see Superwinch hubs. This will be my daughter's first vehicle. The previous owner (the original owner that my customer bought the Bronco from) had made the change because he was told that auto's were no good. I took him to a new development yesterday in the aftermath of the hurricane and went where we needed go, auto hubs and all. The other option, Rich, is to go to a salvage yard and "rescue" some 5 bolt hubs. As for the two sets I have on the shelf now, one is a backup for my F250 and the other will be used on Project Bronco as the left auto-hub cap was destroyed in the wreck that killed the donor F250. If over 70% of your driving is on the road and you use 4wd on weekends, go with the Superwinch hubs, I am kind of skeptical of using a hub with a missing bearing, but that's just me. All the best.

 

WOW! I can't believe the difference! Thanks Tex for encouraging me along. I have to confess that I have been procrastinating this since shortly after I bought the truck, about two years. But I put everything back together last night and took it for a little test drive in the school parking lot where I could try to get the hubs to act like they were before. Try as I might, absolutely no sign of any trouble at all. Tonight I will find a dirt road and cycle the hubs in and out of 4 wheel a couple of times and if all goes well I will order that small parts kit and get that bearing replaced.
Besides the hubs feeling good, the whole front end seems to be moving more freely. I am not sure if something was dragging before but it feels so much better now. I did a combination of your recommendation as well as Fords shop manual recommendatins.
Removed and cleaned all hub parts and wheel bearings. Installed new wheel seal. Packed bearings with Amsoil Multi-purpose grease. Soaked hub assembly in Marvel Mystery oil let drip dry for few minutes then a quick dip in Mercon ATF (per Ford). Packed drag sleeve brake spring with Fords special teflon grease. ($36 for a 1 pound can. Let me know if you would like to try some) Packed small bearing in question with assembly lube and put everything back together. Viola!!! It worked
Thanks again for your help. I will let you know if anything else developes.
Rich

 

Well, tonight my bubble is burst, at least a bit. I took it to a nearby dirt road, nothing too tough, and cycled in in and out of 4 wheel a few times. The grinding re-appeared. My wife did give me a good way to describe it though. I bought some tires tat were to extent of clearance with no lift. When turning sharp the tread would contact the front bumper and rub just enough to make a grinding sound. That is exactly what it sounds like. So this weekend I will remove the lockers entirely, cover the end of the hub to keep dirt out and put it to the test with lockers completely gone. Then I can decide where to go from there.

Rich

 

Sorry buddy, I wish it had worked out. It just may be another culprit though. Take a look at the shield on the disc brake system, it does get bent occasionally.

 

U-joints! I just went thru the whole front end; rotors, pads, bearings, auto hubs to manuals, two tie-rod ends, and a steering gear. The end culprit of my front end problems was the u-joints after all that. I don't even think my auto hubs are bad but replaced anyways to be safe.

 

There are lots of good uses for both kinds of hubs. I prefer manuals myself. Without going back in posts to quote, someone mentioned they'd love to see someone like me crawl back into my truck after being knee deep in mud. Heh! If you're silly enough to enter the mud without the hubs already locked in, you deserve to be knee deep in.

That actually applies to the auto hubs as well. You don't have to engage 4wd, but having the hubs already locked in is good preperation in the event that you need 4wd.

That being said, good maintenance/regular checking on potential high wear items such as hubs is the best way to ensure your rig stays moving at critical moments. There's NO substitution for lubrication and preventative maintenance/visual inspection of dust seals, etc. The old saying, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.

In regards to the noise talked about in this thread.

It might seem a bit odd to check, but check your flex lines on the front wheels for cracks. I had this problem a few years ago. When making a tight turn either direction, the flex line on the opposite wheel becomes extended. If the flex lines are dried out and not as flexible as they should be, they may close off or shrink on the inside diameter, effectively activating the brakes on that side, which will create a slight dragging/scraping noise.

 

Some great suggestions, Thanks. Alz are you talking the U-joints at the steering point? I thought about that, and maybe I have this wrong, but if your 4 wheel is not engaged the axles/U-joints should not be moving, right? If that is correct the only things rotating, thus grinding, in the front are the wheels, rotors, bearings and a portion of the locking hubs. The locking hubs are the only thing I can imagine being the trouble since the grinding sound is more of (for lack of a better example) "card in the spokes" type of pattern rather than a steady one. To verify this I plan on taking the hubs completey out, covering the empty space for dust protection and taking it through the paces that usually cause the grinding noise. No grinding noise, manuals get installed. Grinfing noise keep scratching head and digging.
RR4E I did notice the brake lines and while they aren't cracked it did look like they could stand to be replaced. But like I stated above the noise isn't like a scraping noise so I doubt that is the problem.
Thanks for all the help. I will keep posting as this progresses and hopefully somewhere down the road it will be of help to someone else.
Rich

 

U-joints on the front axle. When you turn, the joint must turn also with the spindle and hub. My problem was that the u-joints were engaging the auto hubs at random times as I would make a turn and the joint would not flex smoothly. When I would put into 4x4 all problems would go away and return when the hubs disengaged. I thought the hubs were the problem and replaced w/ manuals to no avail. Check those joints just for piece of mind. I could not turn either spindle left or right by hand but I was able to steer ok while driving.
Hope this helps
Al

 

Ah, I got ya. Whew, how do you get to these to replace them? Well never mind, I can imagine. Were the parts easy to find?

Rich

 

U-joints are common replacement parts. Any of the major chains or dealerships will have them. In order to remove the u-joints, you first have to remove the rotor and hub and then the spindle. That's just to get it off the truck. Then you need to remove and reinstall the joint into the axle. If you need help, there are many who have done it on this board.
Hope this helps
Al

 

Check the Constant Velocity Joint, the boot is probably making the noise your hearing. Spray some silicone lube on boot.

 

I don't recall having a booted CV joint on the front axle. There is a boot that goes over the slip joint on the passenger side axle, and that spins when the axle does.

 

That is the only boot I can think of as well. Do the new trucks have a more modern CV type joint that would be booted? I plan on replacing the U-joints sometime this week as well as anybearings and seals encountered in the project. Even if they are not bad, I am going to assume they are the original and with 145K on the clock they could use replacing anyway. Time is my biggest obstacle right now.