4X4 bearing Hubs and ABS Discussion....

[JAG1]

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

[greed]

I lubed the front bearings on my 2002. I pulled the ABS sensor, then pumped in about 30 pumps of grease, turning the hub a bit every few pumps. I used a rubber air blow gun tip on the end of my grease gun to help make contact in the ABS sensor hole. You have to take the brakes off to get at the ABS sensor. I've read even brand new bearings sometimes have very little grease in them. It's a lot of work to get at the ABS, but a good time to clean up the brake slides and inspect everything. A good website explaining all of this is www.courtsara.com.

[Dieselfuture]

I drilled and tapped mine behind calipers, but there is a catch, right after, my abs light came on. I believe it's over greased and dirty grease messing with sensors. I like the idea of a grease fitting, so you can pump grease and rotate hub and watch old stuff come out of abs hole. Do that till clean and then I use old vacuum to get as much out as you can from sensor hole. I would use hight melting point grease so it stays solidified and doesn't mess with sensors. The reason I say this is in winter when it's cold out my abs light stays off, come warmer temperatures I get abs light, I belive it's because grease melts and screws with sensors. I've seen where people disassembled brand new front hubs to find very little grease in here. So if you grease them they will last 500k or more but then you got to deal with abs light. Unless I find better grease next time to try out, on my list. 

When I drilled mine I used a tiny bit to go all the way through and the right size for the zerks, just to go in far enough for the zerks and before I drilled all the way through I first got the zerks in place and then drilled rest of the way. Used grease on the bit to go the last little bit. 

5 minutes ago, greed said:

about 30 pumps

Did you ever got abs light after doing that

[Mopar1973Man]

It's the amount of metal graphite in the grease fouling the magnetic field and no longer capable of creating a good sinewave that the ABS computer can count frequency. This is why the whole greasing method tends to foul the ABS light.

[greed]

My ABS light has never come on.

[JAG1]

1 hour ago, greed said:

My ABS light has never come on.

What type of grease are you using?

[Dieselfuture]

12 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

What type of grease are you using?

You stole my question 

[greed]

I used the grease that was recommended on courtsara.com. Kendall L-427 super blu. I think I found it on Amazon. He said of all the bearings he had pressed apart, they all looked like that was what was originally used. It is a Lithium complex grease.

[Dieselfuture]

Here we come Kendall..... dont they also make racing oil, I used to use their green oil on my race bucket

[JAG1]

Thanks greed.

 

 Not to change the subject....Just a thought..... if the dynatrac hubs are about 1900 bucks, it would only take around 8,000 miles at typical .25 cents a mile to pay for themselves. Then you have the benefit of grease able and better bearings that are readily available.. Seems like a real savings in the long run. Are they easy to put on yourself though?

[dave110]

[dripley]

My oe bearings lasted just over 200k. Replaced them and 200k oe so later did a front brake job and replaced them just because a had 2 laying around I bought off of member here who sold his truck. I gave him $150 bucks for the pair, brand not known. Never greased any of them. If the unknown ones go 200k I will most likely not be worried about changing them again. Plus i saved the ones i took off, they appear to still be good.

[JAG1]

13 hours ago, dripley said:

My oe bearings lasted just over 200k. Replaced them and 200k oe so later did a front brake job and replaced them just because a had 2 laying around I bought off of member here who sold his truck. I gave him $150 bucks for the pair, brand not known. Never greased any of them. If the unknown ones go 200k I will most likely not be worried about changing them again. Plus i saved the ones i took off, they appear to still be good.

One of mine fried the other night at 99,000 miles. Without warning I almost lost control hauling the truck camper. Other threads I read while doing a search, most experienced failure around 100k. and was the conscensus with the ones I read. Add the fact the bearing cages are made of plastic prompted me to question them.

[dripley]

1 hour ago, JAG1 said:

One of mine fried the other night at 99,000 miles. Without warning I almost lost control hauling the truck camper. Other threads I read while doing a search, most experienced failure around 100k. and was the conscensus with the ones I read. Add the fact the bearing cages are made of plastic prompted me to question them.

My first one failed slowly. Just had to replace. That was my introduction on removing said bearing. Not sure what was the most fun, learning how to get it out or paying for the replacement. The both pained me greatly. The second failed quickly with the experience you had though my truck was empty. The camper would be great multiplier in the pucker factor compared to empty.

 As far as the 200k life span, that is just this man's experience. Never spoke to anyone else.

[greed]

Several years ago, there was a long thread on TDR. One of the members had a commercial operation in Spokane, WA. He had several Dodge P/U's in his fleet. He did the bearing grease operation every time he did a brake job. IIRC, the average mileage in his fleet was about 360,000 miles, with no bearing replacements. I'm only at 98,000 miles on my 2002, so time will tell if greasing the bearings helped.

[JAG1]

I'm right there with you greed on the mileage for my 02 and thats the one that went. I had the caliper scraping on the wheel squirrling down the road.

 

Dripley pucker factor is putting it mildly...... more like something we often talk about during woodstove season that shrank a couple a inches. Lol

 

Okay, now lets say the average second gen owners going to run an average of 200 K miles before he sells his truck. With a 25 cent per mile saving with Dynatrac Manual locking hubs..... I gotta say, that's money in the bank not to mention getting a better price on trade in or when you sell. Correct me if I'm wrong..... it's alot of money those hubs would save you.

[dripley]

17 minutes ago, JAG1 said:

 

 

Okay, now lets say the average second gen owners going to run an average of 200 K miles before he sells his truck. With a 25 cent per mile saving with Dynatrac Manual locking hubs..... I gotta say, that's money in the bank not to mention getting a better price on trade in or when you sell. Correct me if I'm wrong..... it's alot of money those hubs would save you.

I seen you mention 25 cents a mile savings, what is that? I am missing something with that.

[JAG1]

Dynatrac and some other threads say you'll get a 2 mile per gallon increase.

 

Dripley your right its more like around 20 cents a mile fuel cost. still quite a savings when just 9500 miles will pay for the Dynatrac hubs.

Edited August 11, 2018 by JAG1

[Mopar1973Man]

Get these for punching out the unit bearing quick. Stick them in an air hammer and drive those bolts out! Works really good!

https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-38210-Hub-Remover-Dodge/dp/B00396DMMA

 

[greed]

Over the years I've never read on the various forums where anyone gained any appreciable mileage gains with the various lock out hub kits. Even a small gain would be nice. I think, the biggest advantage is being able to easily maintain the and check for wear. When my OEM bearings finally give out I may look into a locking hub kit.