So i noticed that my driver front tire leans a few degrees in on the top. had me kind of worried. I jacked it up and diagnosed it with my wheel bearing being shot, there wasn't even a dust cap on it. What kind of risk is it to drive on it? as soon as i figured out i parked it, but would it be ok to drive a little if i absolutely need too?

so i picked up the inner and outer bearings, seal, and dust cap. cool stuff too, i love bearings and stuff with such precise tolerences. but im going to tackle it first thing in the morning so i can go out and do my christmas shopping haha.

Anyone have any tips? ive had it explained to me and it seems like a just start taking things apart and its pretty self explanatory. make sure to get it nice and clean (told to use a coffee can full of gas). pack the bearings up nice and well and put them in. tighten the nut until it seems right (not too loose, but not excessive friction) . All of this sound right? I can document it too if anyone is interested in pictures.

need to do ball joints soon too

 

This sounds 100% right as long as you're 2wd Edge or similar. Avatar says so.

The only thing I'm hung up on is the cleaning with gasoline. Just wipe the old grease off. No need to completely degrease it as more is going on. I would put some grease on the spindle shaft as well as the bearing races. Depending on how bad the old bearing are you might want to look into replacing the races. The can get worn strange and cause premature failure of new ones. They're pressed into the hub/brake rotor.

 

Real easy to do. You should have no problems!

 

Sounds like the bearings right? the wheel/ rotor wobble but the spindle stays still. thanks for the faith guys, im not to worried about it.

 

There is a special way to tighten down the nut, it needs to be tightened and then loosened and retightened. I did a tutorial on replacing brakes not too long ago, it's in the tutorial submissions section and it has a picture from the Haynes book showing the right way to do it. You may or may not be able to read it, you can PM me and I'll type what it says or you can go to the auto parts store and buy one of the books for the Ranger too. They are cheap and have lots of info.

Also, make sure you are using wheel bearing grease and not chassis grease.

 

When replacing bearings ALWAYS replace the races.
And get all the old grease out of there.It will contain particles of the old bearings and contaminate the new grease.A coffee can with a little gas and a parts brush work just fine.

 

Here's how to tighten the spindle nut:

 

When I replaced my rotors I use Ford/Lincoln/Mercury high temperature bearing grease. It was pretty easy, just a little messy repacking the bearings.

Just grease the spindle, pack the bearing, put it all together, put a lop of grease on the outside of the bearing once the nut is on and then I went ahead and put a lop inside the dust cap.

I used the finger method and double checked with an inch-pound rachet.

 

just finished. truck drives so much better, then inner bearing was SHOT. i could hear the grinding when i pulled it out and spun the bearing.

i dont have access to a torque wrench here unfortunately, but i did tighten it up and loosen it a few times before deciding on the tension that felt right to me. i decided to err a little bit on the tight side of what i thought felt appropriate for the bearing.

it all went smooth except for smacking myself in the knee with a mini sledge while taking the lugs off. all i had was the stupid wrench that came in my truck. Having full air at work makes it so frustrating not having air tools at home