front hub HELP!!!

[rideforever13]

i was drivin home from work and my front right hub started makin a nasty clankingish noise and i could feel the truck startin to pull towards the right. anybody have a diagram of the front hub assembly? and how difficult is it to change em out? its a manual locking hub

[dhanna6powerstroke]

Originally Posted by rideforever13

i was drivin home from work and my front right hub started makin a nasty clankingish noise and i could feel the truck startin to pull towards the right. anybody have a diagram of the front hub assembly? and how difficult is it to change em out? its a manual locking hub

Take the center cap off, remove snap ring and pull hub out. Super easy

[rideforever13]

sweet! i hope thats all thats wrong with it. thanks

[zpd307]

have you checked your wheel bearings for play? i see your truck is lifted, that will kill them much faster....

[X JBM X]

Originally Posted by zpd307

have you checked your wheel bearings for play? i see your truck is lifted, that will kill them much faster....

I'm trying to figure out how this makes sense...

Why would being lifted have any effect on the longevity of a wheel bearing? I understand how big tires kill transmissions, but this doesn't make much sense to me.

Can you please explain this to me?

Thanks.

[X JBM X]

However, if it's your wheel bearing. Take off the center cap. Carefully remove the snap rings, then you can take out all the gears and crap inside. then there's a couple washers, another snap ring (that you'll need snap ring pliers for) and get everything out from the inside. Then on the back there are 4 bolts around the axle U joint knuckle. Take out those 4 bolts, and you should be all set to get the wheel bearing out. it's a whole assembly.

I replaced mine, they can be had for $120-$300 depending on brand and what year your truck is (the early '99 trucks are more expensive) and it took about 2.5 hours as a first-timer.


FYI, there are also much better write-ups on how to do this on this website, I just tried to give you a fast breakdown.

[zpd307]

fords wheel bearing design is inadequate at best. bigger tires just add more stress and therefore have a tendency to cause premature failure. bigger tires are heavier....

[X JBM X]

That still doesn't make sense to me.

The wheel bearing design may be inadequate, however, putting on big tires doesn't change the geometry of anything with reference to the wheel bearing, so I'm unclear on how it adds more stress.

[dereku]

it adds weight and when you hit bumps it add more up and down momentum which puts a lateral stress on the bearings causing them to fail early.

And to the OP look into PMF free wheel kit. I just got one and its great. About 1650 but ford wants 400 per wheel bearing.

The PMF kit takes 20 a side to rebuild so it pays its self off. And you are suppose to get better mileage, the hubs are aluminum.

[rideforever13]

well i pulled off the whole hub assembly and the center cap was F*$#ed up! there were metal and plastic shavings just layin in there. and also the axel from the knuckles out woubles a TON! it moves the inner axel up and down and all around also. is that normal when i have the hub assembly off? and the spline is also looks like it has a small twist on it.