I believe they switched to live axles in mid year 2000. Someone posted it above.

I will say that NAPA SKF isn't above failure either. Had to replace on under warranty less than 50K. So far truck has 145K and I've been through 3 of these hub assemblies. I think one was around 60K, the other side 90K and the first again around 110K. I do not abuse my truck.

 

It is hard to understand how some Rangers have these failures often and others have no failures. I have over 166,000 miles on mine and the wheel bearing are still original and good. The ball joint are still original but I can tell they are beginning to show signs of wear. I am not easy on my Ranger. It sees a lot of off-road use, is my daily driver and does a lot of towing.

 

by seeing the close up , it is clear that the bearing has seized up quite a while ago

as to why there was zero steering wheel jerking input , strange

 

the reason is that SKF had found out that a chinese bearing manufacturer had been replacing genuine skf bearings with their own cheap copies inside genuine skf boxes

the stampings on the inside collar gave them away

unfortunately ford had received and installed quite a few of the fake bearings on several different vehicles before SKF informed them of the fake bearings

timken now has 85% of their bearings manufactured in china now ( ever since 2006 to be exact )

i will install plain jane napa bearings before i ever touch a timken bearing

SKF are the top automotive bearing manufacturer in the world

here is a hint what to look for :::

on the inside collar , there are stampings indicating where the bearing was manufactured

you are looking for either ;; switzerland or france stamped on the inside collar

 

That is good information, I will make note it.