Wacky Sudden out of control truck and camper on the freeway the other night, was a front hub bearing. It threw me into the fast lane, scared the hell out of me and finally got it off the road in a very squirrilly fashion . $340 towing bill and spent the night in Les Schwab for morning repairs. At least I had a place to sleep. I got repaired before noon and got home but the ABS lite is still on... pain.

 

My question is has anyone figured out a way to lube those factory hub/ bearings? I heard they last an average of 100,000 but longer if you lube them by removing the ABS bolt and squirt grease down in there? They can be a pain getting them off too unless you lube the mating surface before bolting up.

 

Anyhow just to start a discussion.... I like the Dynatrac locking hub option for another thought

Checking the hub temp is a good idea. I've got an IR thermometer and I check a lot of stuff, but never the front hubs. I don't know what would be good or bad temp. If you happen to do a brake teardown, that would be a good time to grease the bearing. Or, if you like getting dirty, sweaty and cussing a lot, you could tear the brakes down for a good clean up on the sliding surfaces and grease them then. They use the winter road slime stuff up here, so I like to check things out every couple of years, as things get pretty gummed up.

15 minutes ago, greed said:

Checking the hub temp is a good idea. I've got an IR thermometer and I check a lot of stuff, but never the front hubs. I don't know what would be good or bad temp

 

When I check tire, brake, or bearing temps by feel on road trips, I am not looking for a specific temperature - I am looking for a different temperature between like objects doing the same duty, for example: one front hub bearing being considerably warmer than the other front hub bearing.

 

- John

1 hour ago, Tractorman said:

 

 

This has been an interesting read.  I am now at 297,000 miles with original non-greased hub bearings.  So, should I go to the trouble of greasing them, or should I just replace them?  On road trips I routinely check the hub temps by feel, especially on the  interstate - I will pull into a rest area using only the exhaust brake and gears to get down to 10 mph and then feel the hub temperature after I have parked.  Now I wonder if I should be more concerned after reading the reports of sudden bearing  failures.

 

Did anyone happen to do routine hub checks for heat prior to their sudden bearing failure?

 

- John

I check everything  a little more often these days with my hand on the tires and the wheel. Never paid much attention to the bearings until the second failed, not any warning on that one. Surpringly the second failed in less than a week after replacing the first one.

 The first one did not fail but was roaring at 65 mph and I figured to just replace it. It's only wheel bearing, nothing to it. Boy was I in for an education.

On my trailer and rear wheels I have added pressure/temperature sensors. The TPMS sensors came as a set of 6, an unusual high temp can indicate a bad bearing..  This may be a good choice for our trucks. and I may now move the 2 extra sensors I have on my two rear tires of the truck  to the  front and that  may give me a sign of a bearing in its way out. Just a thought

14 hours ago, Ed ke6bnl said:

On my trailer and rear wheels I have added pressure/temperature sensors.

@Ed ke6bnl Where did you get these? Sounds like a sweet idea. 

16 minutes ago, Dmaney said:

@Ed ke6bnl Where did you get these? Sounds like a sweet idea. 

These are the ones I use for my trailer https://www.technorv.com/tst-flow-thru-system-with-4-to-12-sensors/

that seems like a lot of money but On my my new to me used trailer I had a blow out on the first trip and nearly tore out the whole side of the trailer, with the sensors I came to find out that one of the rims had a pin hole leak from new. was able to braze it from the inside and never an issue again. Caught a puncture and got an alert on a trip through Louisiana and was able to pull over while still having air in the tire. I do like the separate monitor it has but NOW they have less expensive ones that use your phone to monitor the tires.

17 hours ago, Tractorman said:

 

 

This has been an interesting read.  I am now at 297,000 miles with original non-greased hub bearings.  So, should I go to the trouble of greasing them, or should I just replace them?  On road trips I routinely check the hub temps by feel, especially on the  interstate - I will pull into a rest area using only the exhaust brake and gears to get down to 10 mph and then feel the hub temperature after I have parked.  Now I wonder if I should be more concerned after reading the reports of sudden bearing  failures.

 

Did anyone happen to do routine hub checks for heat prior to their sudden bearing failure?

 

- John

I wouldn't replace those suckers until they fall apart. Kinda like my first television and refrigerator that lasted decades. I replaced because  thought I should and now I'm doing it every 6-7 years or so 

1 minute ago, dave110 said:

Kinda like my first television and refrigerator that lasted decades.

Might be true but inefficient at power usage. 

 

Like myself, I replaced my refrigerator and was shocked with how little power the new refrigerator took to run. Then I've got an old heavy cube glass CRT TV and that boat anchor need to go. That thing takes a ton of power to run. Then my new flat screen takes so little power that my inverter has a hard time even seeing the TV turn out.

 

So they might last forever but upgrading might outweigh the loss...

For an old guy with those puney speakers mounted in the rear of a new flat screen TV, I wish I could get my old box tv back from goodwill.  I can't tell what they are saying half the time. My old tv had big stereo speakers on either side. It was nice.

 

 

About Dynatrac Hubs......

Having done more searching... a more realistic savings for installing the Dynatrac hubs is your gaining about a half mile per gallon which puts the break even point for the cost at around 16,000 miles. I no longer trust the unit bearings on my truck used for long hauls. So going with those in the future.

 

Anyone know how to dump the ABS system on an 02 without the dash light coming on? 

Edited August 11, 20186 yr by JAG1

3 hours ago, JAG1 said:

Anyone know how to dump the ABS system on an 02 without the dash light coming on? 

 

You can't... What you lose...

 

Cruise control

Speedometer

ECM ability to cancel grid heaters. 

 

Way too many things wrapped around the ABS computer to ditch. 

4 hours ago, JAG1 said:

Dynatrac hubs is your gaining about a half mile per gallon

 

Nothing gained. The driveshaft doesn't take that much to spin free. Even the CAD unit front axles don't gain that much over solid lock axle. 

4 hours ago, JAG1 said:

 I can't tell what they are saying half the time.

                                

                                     You need a pair of these.                                   

                        

Thanks Mopar1973Man, my ABS lite finally went out when I ran it today. The exhaust tail piece rusted off of the muffler and melted one of the airbag air feed supply tubes. I got that fixed, rerouted it away from exhaust and exhaust is temporarily held until I can get to the muffler shop .

 

I guess the only gain is better bearings that are easier to change and keep greased.

 

IBMobile are those bed pans? Good way to save money for a new truck. 

Edited August 12, 20186 yr by JAG1

I like the idea of free spins but if greasing our hubs makes them last 500k I'll keep greasing, about to order some better grease and flush mine out to see if it cures the ABS light coming and going. I used Lucas green grease and wonder if it has something in it that interfere with sensors.

While you all whine about unit bearings I'm going to drive the crap out of my truck. 

Edited August 12, 20186 yr by Mopar1973Man

8 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

While you all whine about unit bearings I'm going to drive the crap out of my truck. 

Okay I'll send you mine after I get the Dynatracs      Oops, this is Sunday, I forgot.

Edited August 12, 20186 yr by JAG1

23 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

Okay I'll send you mine after I get the Dynatracs 

 

So now are you willing to jack up your truck every spring and repack the front bearings? This means washing out the old grease and inspecting the rollers and the race. Then hand packing the bearing again. Then set the preload of the bearing. I'm going to assume it like my old 1972 Dodge were you going to need a custom socket for getting the nuts of the spindles. Then there is some sort of locking tab or pin. These wear out too so will you be able to get replacement lock?

 

Then the mechanical locking hubs. I remember blowing up 2 sets on my 1972 Dodge 250. First set of Warn hubs snapped them like aluminum junk. The second set I broke pulling a logs downhill and left me hanging. I had to be towed off the hill to get the log off me. The chain was pulled tight and couldn't free myself.

 

Something about unit bearing. No locking hubs to mess with, no bearings to pack with grease, no parts to inspect, they last at least 150k miles. 

 

Like myself, I need to jack up my truck and quick inspection of the bearings for roughness or looseness. 

Edited August 12, 20186 yr by Mopar1973Man

I understand your point and appreciate it. It just that my Spicer hubs on my 92 Dodge were almost nearly neglected and ran without problems for the 20 and a half years I owned it for a work truck. I had them repacked only once early in its ownership and that was it, but checked each year after. It was an amazing truck. I guess maybe those days are gone. At this point I need to rethink how to properly zirk the unit bearings. I like the way Dieselfuture describes doing that. I think he eats nuts/ bolts for breakfast. lol

I like sealed everything. It makes me smile. I even found new old stock sealed u joints for my drive shaft. If these are only half as good as the oe they will last longer than I need.

Jag,

 

I know I can't sway you,  you just experienced something that I hope I never do.  (I am so glad you guys are OK.)

 

Do NOT buy the hubs because you are going to see a mileage increase.  (I want to see actual numbers... engineering calculations of the inertial loads and oil drags of the components still turning.  I could run them, but am too busy right now.)  Lets think through it.  With our central axle disconnect what turns when we unlock?  On the passenger side a very small stub shaft.   On the driver side, again a stub shaft and the spiders in the carrier.  The ring and pinion do no turn.  The front propeller shaft does not turn.  The drag from the inertial mass of these items is totally lost in comparison of turning our wheels and rear differential (especially those of us with a locker).  The design of our tires (and pressures) would have a much more significant impact on mileage.  Heck our frontal area alone....  or at least our height above the road..... 

 

You want a piece of mind.  There is no price on that.  Don't justify it otherwise.  You will be disappointed if you do.  I truly doubt that you will see a savings in mileage. (I hope you do!!!  Just don't buy them thinking they will pay for themselves....)

 

Anecdotally,  With the EPA so harsh on milage of new vehicles, what manufacturer installs manual locking hubs?  (I agree manual hubs don't work well with "auto 4x4 and all wheel drive type situations")  but on their base models, who uses them?   Now I agree, not everything on new vehicles is mileage based, ease of assembly, cost and getting through warranty period is high on the list but none that I can think of come with manual hubs anymore.

 

ymmv,  HTH

 

Hag 

15 minutes ago, Haggar said:

The design of our tires (and pressures) would have a much more significant impact on mileage.  Heck our frontal area alone....  or at least our height above the road..... 

 

Bingo. Like I've been saying all along with tire size and tread pattern. Even lift kits and leveling kits impact the MPG more so than bearing / unlocking hubs. I always that it was funny I'm running a solid axle to this day I still hold the MPG record even about CAD axle design. This proves that axles and hub design aren't going to make an MPG change. 

 

20 minutes ago, Haggar said:

With our central axle disconnect what turns when we unlock?  On the passenger side a very small stub shaft.   On the driver side, again a stub shaft and the spiders in the carrier.  The ring and pinion do no turn.  The front propeller shaft does not turn.

 

Actually, the driveshaft still turns but at a much slower rate. The drag of the cold gear lube prevents the driveshaft from turning faster.  Like my 96 Dodge has the CAD axle it has not made big leaps in MPG at all. Now what I'm planning on picking up on Tuesday will make a huge improvement. I'm dumping the 235/85 R16 and going to a 215/85 R16 tire. Increasing the final ratio and reducing the engine load from the excessively low final ratio. Then with the tire being narrower and 1-inch shorter is going to reduce the rotational mass more.