Hi, i posted part of this topic in another thread but i am posting again in need of some advice.

I have a 1994 3.superslow 4x4 supercab ranger stick shift.

I got an inspection on friday morning and my ranger passed but the guy told me my front passenger side wheel bearing was pretty loose and needs to be tightened. While i was driving home, i noticed a humming noise coming from the fron and it got louder as i speed up, but if i turn the wheel ever so slightly, the hum goes away, so it only hums when i am driving straight.

I took the tires and wheel off and the hub came off along with them. I am guessing this is not suppose to be. We noticed the rotor was loose so we tightened the bearing there were visable since the hub was stuck to the wheel.

Are the hubs suppose to come off when the wheel is removed? I took a soft hammer and could pound the hub off if i tried.
The bearing were about 2 inches in diameter so how do you tighten them with a tourqe wrench?

Please help me, this sound is annoying and after we tighten the bearing and installed the wheel, the play in the tire back and fourth was still there.


thanks.......

 

You really should replace the bearings on that side. I suggest getting a manual to help with this repair. Someone that has done this should chime in.

 

any other advice or helpful ideas?

 

To answer your first question yes the hubs are suppose to come off. For the second question there should be an outer and a inner nut that you can see when the hub is removed, remove the outer nut and with a torque wrench tighten the inner nut to 25 foot pounds then back off to 15 to 18 foot pounds. and as stated above you should replace the bearings and spend the money and get a chiltons or a hayes manual either one will be very helpful.

Chad

 

why would the hub and manual 4x4 **** come off with the wheel?

i do see 2 nuts after the hub is removed but what type of socket or whatever do you use to tighten them with a torque wrench?

these circular nuts look like 2 inches in diameter.

now i know there are outer and inner wheel bearings....i am guessing to do the inner, you need to take the whole rotor/4x4/caliper off?

 

you can go to autozone or Oriely's and they will loan you a bearing puller.. my truck has been vibrating from the driverside front tire as well.. when I turn right I can really feel it, since when the wheel is turn all the weight is on that wheel..

 

You should probably put it all back together and take it to someone who is equipped to do it. This is a CRITICAL point in your fron suspension. You dont want to risk putting yourself or anyone else in danger.

 

you dont need a bearing puller, you need a wheel bearing nut socket, its a simple 4 prong socket that you can get at any parts place. get an inner and outter wheel bearing and a new seal and get some good grease.

take off the wheel and pull off the hub, take off the caliper and tie it up out of the way. using the special socket take off the outter hub and then pull off the locking ring. then take off the inner nut (keep all these in order as they are supposed to be where they are). pull off the rotor and the outter wheel bearing will just fall out. place the rotor on its outter face and pry out the seal from the back and remove the inner bearing. clean out the rotor and clean off the spindle good.

now, you need to pack the new inner bearing with grease really good, dont be afraid to get your hands covered in grease, its the best way to be sure its really packed in the bearing well. rub some grease into the rotor and spread it around inside there, then drop the inner wheel bearing into it. now tap the seal onto the rotor. rub some grease onto the spindle, dont be afraid to use a decent amount of grease when doing all this. now slide the rotor onto the spindle, it shoudl slide right through the inner wheel bearing. Add a bit more grease into the rotor from this side and pack the new outter wheel bearing really good. slide the bearing onto the spindle into the rotor.

now the important step, torqueing the bearings properly, so far noone in this thread has told you properly how to do it. First spin the inner nut all the way on and torque it to 25 FT-LBS while spinning the rotor. Now back the nut off 1/4-1/2 turn without touching the rotor. now torque the inner nut to 18ish INCH-LBS (yes INCH-LBS, not FT-LBS) most people dont have an inch-lb torque wrench but this is not very tight at all, just grab the socket and hand tighten the nut, don't crank down on it, just snug it up tight by hand. now slip the locking ring on so the little nipple is in one of the holes. and finally spin the outter nut on and torque to about 250 FT-LBS yes 250, this one needs to be quite tight because there have been issues with them losening up when driving and the book torque specs of 125 FT-LBS on the outter nut is just too loose.

So that is how you replace the wheel bearings. It is a VERY important part of the truck and the torque specs and process needs to be followed preceisely, if you do it right the new bearings will last a very long time and there will be no noise from them anymore. If you tend to submerge your truck past the hubs in water and mud very often you should take the wheel bearings out and repack and retorque them after to get any water or mud out, but thats just more of a maintenece item. any more questions feel free to ask.

 

i would recomend taking it to the shop if u dont kno wat ur doin. i replaced mine with my dads help and it was still time consuming and difficult.