front wheel bearings

[bignblue]

I've got a mousy-sounding squeak from the front when I take off from a dead stop. It "tracks" with my speed, so I'm following up on a WAG (Wild-A*s Guess) and swapping in some new front wheel bearings. What's involved in this? Any special tools? My shop manual mentions "Tool #blah blah blah" but there's no real description. Can someone who has done this give me a play-by-play? Thanks much.

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'78 Chero WT
401/4bbl/TH400/BWQT
44s F&R
"Jeep: the toughest 4-letter word on wheels"

[ClarkGriswald]

They were probabley talking about the allen wrench socket needed to remove the brake caliper, and also there is a really large socket with 4 teeth in it that you need to remove the retaining nuts inside the hub. There are two of these nuts per side.. the first one is a locknut that locks a ring down against the second nut.. the ring has holes all the way around it and is keyed on the indside to the axle. The inner of the two nuts has a little pin sticking up that engages this ring with the holes. When you get them apart, make sure and look at the two nuts and look for the little pin and remember that this one goes in first with the pin pointing out, and then the holy ring must line up with the axle keyway and with the pin on the nut so you have to eyeball it close then put ring in there and make sure it engages onto the pin or you will damage the inner nut\pin when you try to tighten the second nut down onto that whole deal.. Now there is not only the two wheel bearings (that WILL fall onto the floor out the front of the hub when you pull it off the truck unless ya catch it) but there is also a needle bearing on the inside of the spindle that the axleshaft rides on. To be honest if your front ujoints havent been dealt with recently this is a great time to have an extra pair and change em too since your that far in. Yell if you need more info, I just was trying to cover the basic's involving the special tools they told you about..
Hope this helps.

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88 Grand Wagoneer
D44's front\rear
Warn 20990 Lockouts
AMC 360
TF 727
NP 229 (Funky)
Custom Hacking Via S.P.A. (Standard Polish Archetecture)

[Brown Bear]

One more thing you might need is a seal puller to get the inner bearings out. Some of you older gents could probably get it out without one, but a youngster like me found it very usefull. Make sure you get the seal from Peps or Autozone, whatever you have around there, before you get into the guts of it. If this is your only ride (like me) you don't want to have to put it all back in, drive to the store, and tear it all back down again. AMHIK.

That's about the only information I'm good for. Atleast I got my .02 in for the month.

Nathaniel

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1984 Grand Wagoneer
bone stock
P235/75 R15 Daytona Stag XT

[Narnian]

I may be out wrong, but I think when bearings go, they make a low pitched grinding noise. And it isn't rythmic, it is constant with movement. At least that how I heard it on my Trans Am. Before you go tearing into those bearings you might want to test for a few more possibilities.

I had a a squeaking cricket/mouse noise like that on the rear of my Vette a while back, and it was a U-joints. To test, we lifted one wheel off the ground and rocked the top of the wheel in and out from the car. One wheel didn't budge, the other moved in and out almost an inch. That was the bad joint. Fixing it also got rid of a weird vibration between 68 and 76 mph.

Can't tell you what your noise is, just suggesting that you should be a little more confident before you start replacing parts.

[porkchop]

I had the same type of wierd squeaking coming from the front of my Jeep and it turned out to be the brake pads. They were pretty wore down and they would squeak pretty bad while driving and braking. I would have to agree and say that the bearings going out would not squeak. My front bearings went out on me once and it made a terrible grinding noise. I would look at just greasing everything up front and then checking out the rotors for any unusual wear or foriegn objects caught on the rotor.

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'67/'79 Wagoneer mix
"Old Timer"
Body of a 33 year old
Heart and legs of a 21 year old.
Spirit of a 1 year old.
360,TH400,QT,D44's F&R
SOA 32X11.50's

"I regret that I have but only one paycheck to give to my Jeep."

[Ralph]

I had such a squeeking noise also, which I just fixed last weekend after many previous attempts over the past 18 months trying to find the culprit.

The above posts are correct about checking the brakes and the bearings inside the hub assembly. However, my problem turned out to be a frozen needle bearing inside the spindle.

So, after you get the front rotor and hub assembly, per the above instructions, you will find six nuts holding the spindle in place. These are 3/8" fine-thread locking nuts, and I had to go to a half-dozen hardware stores to find 12 (enough to replace both driver and passenger side).

But I digress. I first had to remove those nuts with a nut-splitter, because no amount of penetrant was goint to solve the problem. (Especially after I stripped the dang things with visegrips!) With the spindles off, I could check the needle bearings inside. These are about 1" inch in diameter and about 1/2" in width, and consist of many tiny bearings that look like the things that hold watchband onto a wristwatch. The ones on my driver's side were flat, not round, and frozen in place; the ones on the passenger side were round and turned freely. Also, you can slide the axles out and give them a look-see -- no special tools required except one's fingers and opposing thumbs.

So, I had to get a little puller from AutoZone and yank the bad bearing out. A new bearing cost $8.99 at NAPA. I just pounded it in place with a hammer and piece of pipe until it seated completely, then greased it up good (though it was pre-packed with grease when I bought it).

From there on, to paraphrase an otherwise helpful repair manual, installation was the reverse of removal. If you've got it apart, you might as well investigate all you can, and for good measure you can paint parts for rust-prevention. (My backing plates are now silver -- whoopee!)

[This message has been edited by Ralph (edited September 06, 2000).]

[EEVW]

I need to tow my boat about 250 miles and also want to repack my bearings. Actually the brake shop said they include rpacking bearings with every full serv job. But if it meant inner and outer bearings...yeah right.

Do the rear wheels have the same "complex" bearings?

Steve VW

[Ralph]

No, the rear wheels have the bearings pressed directly onto the axle. It's really not a difficult job to get at them, but you will need to have a machine shop remove the old bearings and then press on new ones, usually $10 (local grease monkey with his own press) to $25 (NAPA slick using the company's press).

Take off a rear wheel, then the brake drum, and you will see the axle flange. It has a hole in it so you can fit a socket wrench in and remove the bracket bolts. Once the bracket is off, you will need a slide-hammer type puller (available anywhere, including most tool rental places), and the axle will come loose with just a couple of good whacks.

My first experience with this involved sealed bearings, which went bad in less than a year. The second time around I used the bearings that have a separate seal, and I packed them with grease once they were on the axles; this wasn't necessary, since gear oil from the differential will slosh through the axle tubes and keep them lubed, so I can only hope I did more good than bad here.

Once again, installation was the reverse of removal. One axle was shorter than the other, so I had to make sure not to mix them up.

[Ralph]

One more helpful hint from Heloise, guys. On the front hub assemblies, there are supposed to be two, not just one, snap rings. If you only have one, make darn tootin' sure it's on the innermost groove, else you will get an awful grinding noise when the axle slips out of its splines.

[andy d]

i had the fr/end apart on one of my wags for a leaky seal. what a PITA. my special jeep tool was a punch and a 2lb hammer. made torquing kinda problematic. gm 1/2 ton 4wds use the same tool so it may be a rental item. best case its a brake related thing,next is a ujoint,front wheel bearings were no funatall.let us know how ya make out.

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'88 gwag,pure stock

[ClarkGriswald]

The lock ring tool is like 20 bucks Max from any decent parts store. Pretty common. Looks like a hole saw but instead of teeth there is 4 tabs sticking out. Ive only ever seen one snap ring in there.. inner groove for the solid hub, outer for manual hubs like Warns

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88 Grand Wagoneer
D44's front\rear
Warn 20990 Lockouts
AMC 360
TF 727
NP 229 (Funky)
Custom Hacking Via S.P.A. (Standard Polish Archetecture)

[bignblue]

My front brakes were replace about 20k miles ago by a very reputable shop (they misdiagnosed an ignition system fault I had, paid for the tow and labor to finally fix it--my only bill was $38 for parts!). I'm still going to inspect the front, but it doesn't sound like a warped rotor or anything. I can't feel any vibration in the brake pedal. The front u-joints are probably up for replacement, but I figured if I already had the thing apart...I've got quite a u-joint collection in my shop: enough to replace 'em all plus two spares. U-joint shopping is just a compulsion of mine! (I'm joking. No, really!)

Too many times I've dived into repairs and had parts / tools scattered all around me before I've realized that I'm WAY out of my depth. Forewarned is forearmed, so I'm just polling the group. Thanks everybody for all your advice.

By the way, my special Jeep tool is a large and colorful store of curses that grows larger and more powerful with every use.

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'78 Chero WT
401/4bbl/TH400/BWQT
44s F&R
"Jeep: the toughest 4-letter word on wheels"

[Ralph]

There is one for auction on eBay at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=431476245