Front wheel bearing secret?

[Fopar]

Is there a secret to keeping these things alive? I've only driven this car 36k miles since I bought it and I've now gone through 6 front wheel bearings. The ones on the car now, one has like 2k or less miles and the other maybe 2500-3k miles... one is a timken the other a moog... My foxbody (5 lug) has the same ****ing bearings and I've driven that car probably 25k miles and never touched a front wheel bearing. So what's the secret?

I torqued the first few to factory spec (258 ft-lbs). This last set I torqued a little less (I think 200 ft-lbs) thinking the others might have failed from squeezing the inner race outward but if anything it shows the opposite? The weird thing is I don't recall these being bad when I parked the car before winter....What da funk guys...

 

[badcobra]

Replace the whole hub, they are like $35 on Rock Auto.

 

[ToddW702]

Maybe a bad alignment is causing this problem? There is some sort of issue up there in the front end for it to be doing that.


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[Blkkbgt]

I thought there was a procedure to seat the bearing with a specific torque value, loosen and retorque?

I could be thinking of another application.

Have you measured the spindles where the bearing rides to make sure the are the correct dimensions?

Honestly with the crap coming out of China I'd feel better getting a junkyard hub and rebuilding it.

 

[01yellercobra]

I thought there was a procedure to seat the bearing with a specific torque value, loosen and retorque?

I could be thinking of another application.

Have you measured the spindles where the bearing rides to make sure the are the correct dimensions?

Honestly with the crap coming out of China I'd feel better getting a junkyard hub and rebuilding it.

That's how you did it with the old school set ups. They didn't have a sealed set up and you had to seat the bearings when putting everything together. The sealed hub should make that unnecessary.

OP, it sounds like something is out of whack. I would think that under torquing would be bad for it. But I don't know how much the bearings rely on the hub nut to stay seated properly. But we all know what under torqued hub nuts do to the rear hub bearings.

 

[Blkkbgt]

That's how you did it with the old school set ups. They didn't have a sealed set up and you had to seat the bearings when putting everything together. The sealed hub should make that unnecessary.

I thought you were supposed to do something similar for these hubs too. Guess I was wrong

 

[Roots-type]

Those bearings are probably coming from the same chinese factory where the ford racing tob's are made. Ha!

 

[01yellercobra]

I thought you were supposed to do something similar for these hubs too. Guess I was wrong

I believe if you really want to you can pull them apart and rebuild and grease them. But with the way they're set up you just slide them on and torque the hub nut.

 

[shurur]

Maybe buy complete assembled hubs...

 

[Fopar]

Replace the whole hub, they are like $35 on Rock Auto.

Maybe buy complete assembled hubs...

I dunno why u guys assume I'm not... I have been, why would I bother pressing out an old bearing when the hubs are $40-$80 Every one of these has been a new hub assembly.

 

[Fopar]

That's how you did it with the old school set ups. They didn't have a sealed set up and you had to seat the bearings when putting everything together. The sealed hub should make that unnecessary.

OP, it sounds like something is out of whack. I would think that under torquing would be bad for it. But I don't know how much the bearings rely on the hub nut to stay seated properly. But we all know what under torqued hub nuts do to the rear hub bearings.

Ya I mean considering my results were way worse this time, I'm going back to the factory spec . I should also mention both these last bearings I was still driving across the U.S. So they got put on then immediately did 3-500ish miles on the freeway at 80-85 mph

 

[Fopar]

Ya I dunno, popped the caps off, nuts still tight. I re-torqued back to the factory spec.. the passenger side (which is a moog) and was not making noise but had a little play no longer has play.

The drivers side which is just howling when you drive got worse... All pics are showing the drivers side... all looks normal, just a little grease coming from the bearing.

Only conclusion I can draw is they're just garbage bearings and giving them an instant freeway send didn't help anything.

 

[shurur]

I am starting to think that what was once considered quality parts may be outsourced to China.
You may be on the bleeding edge of the problem.

I think I got my hubs from Detroit Axle...in since 2015.
This has a response from them..dunno..

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/detroit-axle-wheel-hubs.219796/

The only thing left is the actual spindle itself.

BTW: your first post only mentioned bearings, not hubs, thus the confusion.

Then there is this recent thread:

Front wheel bearings SN95 / Fox4 spindle

Does anyone have an idea how to remove the sealed bearings from the front hubs? Do they press out through the front? Through the rear? Is there a machined boss in the middle and a bearing puller is required? Any info would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

www.svtperformance.com

 

[Blkkbgt]

I am starting to think that what was once considered quality parts may be outsourced to China.

I think I got mine from Detroit Axle...

The only thing left is the actual spindle itself.

Timken has moved a lot of their manufacturing to China.

I replaced the hubs on my old truck a few years back. Autozone had 3 brands in stock. Timken, Moog and Duralast.

All of them were in the same style box with different stickers on them. The only difference in part number was the first letter which denoted the brand. You couldn't tell any of them apart from the others unless you looked at the PN.

Every single one of them was made China and obviously in the same factory. The Timken was more than double the Duralast but the Duralast came with a 1 year warranty. I ended up going with the Duralast.

The old sayings like Timken is all USA made or the best are going out the window fast.

 

[98 svt]

The old sayings like Timken is all USA made or the best are going out the window fast.

So true.

 

[Fopar]

It's funny, if you look at pics online the timken hub has koyo cast into it, and also has a koyo bearing (I can confirm this is what you get as mine was this way). Koyo is actually a decent japanese bearing brand, but obviously this is one of their chinese operations. So it's an American company that re-boxed a Japanese product that was actually made in China....

 

[Fopar]

FYI I found this thread, may be useful in the future. How to rebuild SN-95 front hubs

I just ordered a set of motorcrafts from Bear lake (which honestly look like another Koyo rebox if the online pix are accurate). So if these die I guess I'll just buy whatever and take them apart and re-grease them before I use them...

 

[big dad]

Just a thought. When you take off the hub did you feel any roughness in the bearing? Are you absolutely sure it's the front wheel bearings and not one of the rear ones? The rears are notorious for having the nuts backing off, in fact there is a revised axle nut that addresses this issue from Ford.

 

[SecondhandSnake]

If there's nothing glaringly out of spec, it might just be junk bearings. I went through several on one of my other cars, all under warranty. All parts store ones, even the name brand Timken. Finally sprang for the "premium" bearings and they went for the rest of the life of the car.