I've gone through 3 sets of wheel bearings within the 18K miles I've had my tires. So, it seems every other oil change I'm knockin' and squealin' over every bump. For you 2wd guys with bigger tires, do you guys go through wheel bearings this much or is it just me? I've got this procedure down pat so it's no big deal, it just seems rediculous.

 

im going on my third set, so your not alone bud, but i do wheel my truck pretty hard, ive come to expect it

 

I did mine once and sometimes twice a year -- but I went into, and got stuck in, more deep muddy water than most folks.

 

twice a year i re-pack them and clean them. about every 2 years i replace them they start to get a little loose..

 

Well, I do wheel mine pretty hard when I go out, but that's pretty rare. Mine are to that point where you go over certain bumps and you can feel and hear them. I can move the bottom of the tire about a 1/2" right now. I average around 14K a year so I could fit in that 2 times a year category.

 

Is there a how-to to change them or someone want to tell me how? How do you know when they need to be changed?

 

You take the tire off, then take the bolts out of the caliper bracket take that off, then remove the spindle nut so you can remove the rotor, then take the bearings out of the rotor clean all the old grease out with brake cleaner or something, next you pack the new bearings and put them back in put the seal on and hit it with a rubber mallet or something. Put back together same way you took it apart.

That is basically it there are some very small things I left out but I think you can figure it out!

 

I replace mine ATLEAST once a year!

 

im on 33s and jump the truck, and blew out a rear bilstien 5100 shock if thats any indencation of how hard i beat on my truck. 27k miles on the truck and no problems yet.

 

um your putting new races in also right not just bearings? that could be part of your problem

 

hmm, I have never replaced wheel bearings.



I had regreased them accouple of times over the years, but never replaced

 

what are the races i just recently packed my bearings and dont know what races are if you could enlighten me i'd be much obliged.

 

What are races? I am confused!

 

its the surface that the wheel bearings rides on, on a 2wd bearing. its pressed into the rotor. when you replace the wheel bearings you also need to replace the race it is suppose to be matching...

 

looks like so:



tapered ring thats pressed into the rotor..

here it is pressed in(this is a general pic)






if you dont replace the races with the new bearings it will cause premature failure..

 

Holy CHIT!!!!! I been throwing those away!!! lol Well live and learn next time I will pull out the press! lol I FEEL STUPID!!!

 

That doesn't sound too bad.

 

Ha ha, well Roach, atleast we know part of the problem. I've been tossing those too. I just now thought today as I was unwrapping them......"Why would they spend time machining this stupid ring if you don't even use it?" I guess I'll use the press next time around. Overall, the process isn't that hard and it doesn't take that much time to do change out all the bearings.

 

i have not been able to remove the race from the hub/rotor when i have done mine... the set im on now were new when i did brakes/bearings and have had no problems

 

most good auto shops not like autozone the mom and pop shops will get them out and install the new one's for you if you cant get them out..

 

No problems here.. guess 31" is the right size!

 

It's probably a waist of $ but twice a year. I'm constantly driving through or into brackish water.

 

man, i do over 100K miles on each set of wheel bearings no problem, are you guys torqueing them with the proper 3 step procedure using the correct torque values?

 

Been through a few sets of bearings myself. I gotta show you all what happened to my last set if I remember to take a pic of it. Well, the damage was to the rotor actually... pics worth a thousand words... I'll have to show you all sometime.

I've gotten the routine down now so changing them out only takes a bit longer than changing my oil... sorta.