Done, but questions. I ended up with the wheel bearing adjusting nuts barely hand-tight, with the locking nuts torqued to spec, before I could get the preload down to 11 lb. Is that mormal? I'll be checking it again this morning after driving some short errands, is that too soon to seat new wheel bearings? I have to leave for a week in Dallas today, want the wife's rig trouble free.
As long as you performed the steps to seat the bearings (torque, spin 5x, spin 5x the other way and back-off) you should be ok. The important part is the resistance (8-12 lbs) - the torque is only 48 in-lbs (and the outer nut torqued to 48 ft-lbs w/ lock washer will keep it on)....
Checked it again after driving some errands, no change. I set one a little tight expecting it to loosen, had to loosen it a little. Finger tight I still get 11 lbs on the fish scale after torquing the lock nut. Too much grease maybe? Paranoid maybe?
Checked it again after driving some errands, no change. I set one a little tight expecting it to loosen, had to loosen it a little. Finger tight I still get 11 lbs on the fish scale after torquing the lock nut. Too much grease maybe? Paranoid maybe?
Sorta, but that's just the fronts on one truck. My wife thinks I should wait 'till fall to do the rest, I'd have to learn it all over again! I know I'll soon be back under there, she's been telling me her tie-rods were bad since we bought it. Sure enough, I shoulda listened.
Just shows you how screwed up that proceedure really is. How in God's name could finger tight provide enough pressure to ensure that the bearings are rolling properly.
Just shows you how screwed up that proceedure really is. How in God's name could finger tight provide enough pressure to ensure that the bearings are rolling properly.
I rechecked my wheel bearings a couple weeks after the repack, and during a freeway trip in the interim I pulled to the side of the road and hand felt each wheel after about 30 minutes against the possibility of overtightening one (I'd done all 4). Having them all feel about the same temp - no hot one - and also about the temp of years of habitually checking temps at gas stops was reassuring. At the recheck though, I had a bit more slack in the LF tire, so I tightened it a bit which took about 20 minutes. Subsequently, no increased temperature was noted in prolonged freeway running, so I feel that things are properly tightened.
In your situation, I'd have no worries whatsoever about having the family driving the vehicle around while you're gone. With fresh grease in there, and torque in the ball park you're in great shape compared to the literally millions of vehicles driving around at highway speeds with hot old bearings that are having no difficulties. When you get home, you can recheck things but don't concern yourself about it. Sure, if they were taking off without you to Moab for a prolonged freeway trip in hot weather and then some serious wheeling before repeating the trip I'd want to recheck things - but I wouldn't even give it a thought for errand running the rest of its life.... Relax and enjoy a job well done and $900 in your pocket for not paying someone else to screw it up.
Did you have the drive flange on or off when you did the initial test and second check? I also tend to let it spin a bit just after I torque it down before measuring. The initial pull it ALWAYS higher then the next pull.
I'm back from Dallas, no wheels fell off, I guess I succeeded. Highlight of my trip was seeing a tricked 40th on Lamar under 360, big ih8mud stickers on the sides! Nice.
