Lubing front hub bearings?

Hallo. Jeepers. I will do this weekend my U-joints on the Dana 30 Axle.
There is a little clunk, when I make a turn to the left.
I have looked everywhere under the Jeep. Everything is tight and no bad rubbers. So I do suspect the U-joint. Yes, I read all the treads about clicking. popping and clunks. Not only on . lol
But the Q. is, what about the front bearings? Is there a possibility to lube them?
Maybe with a needle through the seal? Or drill a tiny hole? Has somebody done this before?
There is no aftersales on the bearings and the hubs are very expensive.(275 euro each).
After 17 years and 260K km of duty, I do expect ,that the grease is death.. :wave:

Boy, that price sure sucks. They are $123 on Rock Auto. And with a discount code you can get 5% more off. Would they ship to Europe? 276E must be like $350 - 400. Seems like trying to grease is a good idea. You could drill and tap for a grease fitting. Good luck on that. Hopefully someone who has done it before will post.
http://info.rockauto.com/BCA/Detail2img.html?NATHF_513084_FRO.JPG&NATHF_513084_BAC.JPG

winterbeater said:

Boy, that price sure sucks. They are $123 on Rock Auto. And with a discount code you can get 5% more off. Would they ship to Europe? 276E must be like $350 - 400. Seems like trying to grease is a good idea. You could drill and tap for a grease fitting. Good luck on that. Hopefully someone who has done it before will post.
http://info.rockauto.com/BCA/Detail2img.html?NATHF_513084_FRO.JPG&NATHF_513084_BAC.JPG

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Looks nice, but are they made in the USA? I do hate the chinese ones.
The U-joints I bought are from Crown (made USA) and cost me 30 Euro's each.
I will order the hubs by rockauto in future, when my attempt to lube the bearings will fail. LOL:spin1:

Probably Chinese. We quit making things over here. (LOL) Major product now is McDonalds cheeseburgers.

Timken bearings are $96 at Amazon. Price actually went up recently. A couple of weeks ago, they were $83.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/compatibility-chart/B000BZ4ZZU/ref=au_pf_dp_chart

the front unitbearing is a sealed unit. there is not a way to grease them. the only solution is to replace the unitbearing

Don't disagree that they are sealed and are not SUPPOSED to be serviced. But there is always more than one way to go. It might not be a good way, but there are always options.

http://www.myjeepxj.com/index.php?page=cherokee-hub

Well. If you search. But will it work? I will try it and let you guys know.

I wonder what holds the two halves together? Must be some kind of internal rounded snap ring. If that was damaged a little bit, the big axle nut still holds the front wheel on, right? Good deal, it would be way better to clean everything up before adding new grease.

Yea. The question is now , how to put the two halves together? With what kind of force? Or will the torque specification (175 ft.lbs) of the axle nut do the job?
I will investigate that in the weekend.

In that article, I think he said he put them back together with a rubber mallet. You do have a spare car, don't you? (LOL)

Hi Wim, any update on the front bearing rebuild?

wim hoppenbrouwers said:

Yea. The question is now , how to put the two halves together? With what kind of force? Or will the torque specification (175 ft.lbs) of the axle nut do the job?
I will investigate that in the weekend.

Click to expand...

I've installed Moog hub assemblies to the specified torque and been unable to turn them without significant force. Which made me nervous. I then over torqued them, backed off and re-torqued to 175 and could turn them by hand. I likely seated (the bearing slipped a little) the bearing. In my opinion they were too tight out of the box. I believe pre-load on new bearings to be critical and a little loose (slightly snug) is better than too tight. too tight and they may wear in or they may generate way to much heat and self destruct. Mine have been doing fine for around five years now. Premature bearing failure in relatively new bearing sets, may be attributed to too much pre-load or side load.
http://www.asp-eberle.com/ sells (I believe) the bearings and seals to rebuild the hub for around 100 euro's (or they used to, I don't have the new catalog yet). I'd be tempted to order a set and take them down to a good bearing supply, get them measured and order through them, likely to save another 40 euro's or so. instead of 275 Euro's it can be done for 75 euro's or less.
Measuring the depth of the existing (old) bearings and finding a press someplace shouldn't be too much trouble. Which is likely the right way to do it.
I have a pretty good feel for gear sets, I've changed a bunch over the years, mostly industrial machines, not XJ specific, but a bearing is a bearing.
People forget about the rear hub seal on the Renix hubs, the seal race depth can be set (the race can be moved on the stub shaft). I've installed new hubs where the race was either way to tight against the seal or there was a significant gap between the race and the rear seal.

Hallo guys. It was not possible to press some grease to the bearings of the hub without open it.
By the shape and kind of the bearing, torque specification is indeed very critical. (read 8mud)
I want not open the wheelhubs of my own car at the moment, but I will try out it on a bearing hub of the junkyard.
I build my own little press, and I hope that will do the job.:rtm:



p.s. How many press force is equal to 175 ft.lbs torque?????. The press I build is about 2500 kg?

2500kg = 5511lbs. Guestimate that putting 175lbs torque on a jack screw would not lift 5511 lbs. Seems like a very difficult calculation involving friction along the inclined plane of the screw thread. Perhaps a torque table involving stretch points of bolts.

winterbeater said:

2500kg = 5511lbs. Guestimate that putting 175lbs torque on a jack screw would not lift 5511 lbs. Seems like a very difficult calculation involving friction along the inclined plane of the screw thread. Perhaps a torque table involving stretch points of bolts.

Click to expand...

Yes. it is a complicating calculation. You can only do it by testing.
With a bolt (same size and thread of the axle) crush with torque a test reference (Maybe a piece of brass or aluminium?)and compare the impact with a normal press.
My feeling tells me, that a torque of 175lbs on an axle nut gives a pressure of at least 10000 lbs. So my little press is too small.