wheel bearing advice (1 Viewer)

[motomike]

My front bearings are causing some serious howling and most likely need replacing. The inner axel seal is shot as well. However, I'm out of time until spring to do a compete front end overhaul and would like to just tighten the bearings and hopefully quieten them down a bit at highway speeds.

Is ist just as much effort to get in their to tighten the bearings up as it is to actually replace them? Are we talking an hours worth of labor here or should I plan on half a day or so? Or should I put up with the howling til spring and go for the complete front end rebuild and do it all at once?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[ballardcruiser]

How much driving are you planning on doing till the spring? If much at all, I would just replace them, asap. Find a day (or 3/4 of a day if you work faster than me), do the knuckles as well, and do the job once and for all. Do one side at a time if you have to, and spread the job out over two days. It'll give you some peace of mind when you're driiving. And if the inner axle seal is shot, are you sure those bearings have been getting enough grease? They may be shot, as well. And it takes pretty much the same time to get to them as it does to replace them. I know it's a pain but I'm not sure tightening the bearings would do anything but make the situation worse.
Also if you can get some help from a buddy whose done a front end rebuild before and some air tools, this job won't take as much time as you may think.

 

[ODDBALL]

Letting them run as bad as they sound you may save your self more money by doing a full sevice now. They sound like you may not make it till spring for you to do the work. I have built a few & know how much time it takes in Toys. Fastening them down more will only make them burn/LOCK UP Faster IMO.

 

[humper99]

I'd replace at least the wheel bearings now. If one of them locks up you'll do alot of damage and leave yourself stranded with a tow bill.

 

[lowtideride]

Well if you are in there to tighten them(which I dont think you should do), all you have to do is take one nut out and you are at the outter bearing.for cheap insurance if you do not feel like doing a complete re-build would be too...

take the hub off, take the two nuts off that hold the outter bearing on, replace it with a cheaper version of the bearing from a local trailer parts store, with having the two nuts that hold the bearing on it also holds the disc brake on, pull that off and at least grease the second wheel bearing...then throw it all back together...it would take 30 mins a side to doo...

if you want to spend no money at all, take the bearings off and re-pack them with grease.

 

[kevinmrowland]

make sure you have the Factory Service Manual.
You can look at that and see exactly what you want to do.

 

[motomike]

That setlles it. Since I only want to crack into this thing once and getting to the bearings sounds like i'm half way to the inner axel job then I reckon I'm headed for a complete rebuild.

Thanks for helping me overcome this disease they call procrastination. It's a daily battle....lol.

 

[ballardcruiser]

if you want to procrastinate some more, buy that knuckle rebuild dvd ... it's for sale in the FJ80 forum. it'll give you a good idea of what you're getting into, save you some time and questions and -- best of all -- you get to kill 45 mins watching it!

seriously, if this is your first rebuild, it'll probably be a big help (along with the mandatory FSM).

 

[Mark W]

If your front wheel bearings are actually making noise... it is well over time to replace tem. Tightening bearings that are that worn will usually result in a catastrophic failure pretty quickly.

Take a good look at your knuckle bearing situation while you are messing with the front end. If your inner axle seal is bad then your knuckle bearings almost certainly are too.


Mark...

 

[Cruiserdrew]

Moto-If the bearings are that bad, I would guess they would fail within days. Are you sure it's the wheel bearings? Assuming it is, if they are not replaced you will trash the spindle, and that will get expensive fast.

 

[motomike]

I'm assuming it's the bearings from reading the archives and some other recent post. Additionally, the truck was/is pulling to the right a little so I took it in for an alignment. They said my alignment was good but the right side bearing was a little loose. Ignoring what they said, presuming they were just trying to get some more $$$ out of me, I continued driving as normal. Then I noticed that while driving around 55mph what I thought was wheel noise would increase or decrease depending on whether or not I was in a turn (lessening when turning right and increasing when turning left). Remembering what the alignment shop had said about the right side bearing, got me to wandering if he was possibly correct.

To confuse matters more, I've noticed at times the humming will happen while driving straight sometimes but not all the time and it never makes the humming sound (turning or not) when going less than 50mph or much over 60mph. At no time does the steering feel loose or out of control.

So that is where my assumption of the wheel bearings being bad is coming from. Keep in mind i've put about 7k miles since that alignment fellow alerted me to the possible bearing issue. The noise hasn't gotten any louder thankfully but I'm getting a little paranoid about pushing my luck any further if it is indeed the bearing.

 

[OrygunCruiser]

I plan on doing a full rebuild over the next two weekends, new bearings races seals no noise yet but I know they havent been done in 5years and dont honestly know when the last time it was done

 

[klinetime574]

I plan on doing a full rebuild over the next two weekends, new bearings races seals no noise yet but I know they havent been done in 5years and dont honestly know when the last time it was done

I'm pretty sure my front axle is a virgin. 27 year old virgin that is haha

Everything still functions and I get no strange noises. Maybe when I quit leaking oil I will re-build that sucker.

EDIT

Did not realize this thread was super old! hahahaha

 

[Benjaman]

Less then two hours to pull the bearing and repack them.

I'm assuming it's the bearings from reading the archives and some other recent post. Additionally, the truck was/is pulling to the right a little so I took it in for an alignment. They said my alignment was good but the right side bearing was a little loose. Ignoring what they said, presuming they were just trying to get some more $$$ out of me, I continued driving as normal. Then I noticed that while driving around 55mph what I thought was wheel noise would increase or decrease depending on whether or not I was in a turn (lessening when turning right and increasing when turning left). Remembering what the alignment shop had said about the right side bearing, got me to wandering if he was possibly correct.

To confuse matters more, I've noticed at times the humming will happen while driving straight sometimes but not all the time and it never makes the humming sound (turning or not) when going less than 50mph or much over 60mph. At no time does the steering feel loose or out of control.

So that is where my assumption of the wheel bearings being bad is coming from. Keep in mind i've put about 7k miles since that alignment fellow alerted me to the possible bearing issue. The noise hasn't gotten any louder thankfully but I'm getting a little paranoid about pushing my luck any further if it is indeed the bearing.

 

[Skniper]

Well, that only took six years to revive...

 

[Benjaman]

Well, that only took six years to revive...

So I've been waiting 6 years to know if it was a bearing or not.

 

[OrygunCruiser]

lol I didnt realize it was that old either, the search function is awesome