rebuild front wheel bearing hub?

[jordo]

yeah, up here dealer and napa premium replacements are almost $300 ea all said and done. iirc 89 and down came with a rebuildable hub while anything newer is non servicable. remember something about needle bearing vs ball bearing too.

mine's a 90 and didn't have the choice to rebuild but on a coworkers 88 he decided it'd be quicker just to grab replacements than get them rebuilt. guess if you can do it yourself it'd be less of a deal. a 4lb brass mallet makes short work of removing a stubborn hub. once the new one's in with some antiseize your set.

 

[DrMoab]

Be very wary of cheep hubs. The chineese junk ones are well....junk. I have seen several fail after only a year or two with offset wheels and big tires.

 

[95Z28A4]

Mike,
Shoot I threw that it away the day the I changed it out. Man wish I knew you were interested. Sorry.
JJ

That's OK, mrblaine has offered to send an old bearing to me

 

[lawsoncl]

I understand some of the older unit bearings had seperate races that could be pressed out and replaced. The newer ones do not, so replacing half the bearing and keeping a torn up race is a lousy idea. The couple I have pressed apart were this way.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Manual hub conversion is the way to go longterm. Unless you need stronger axles, then you want to look at 9" or D60 IMHO.

no way.....i'd rather have unitbearings on my rig then manual hubs. so much easier to change a shaft on the trail (or anytime for that matter).

 

[DirtyMJ]

no way.....i'd rather have unitbearings on my rig then manual hubs. so much easier to change a shaft on the trail (or anytime for that matter).

How about you build a strong enough axle that you don't need to change shafts?

 

[IntrepidXJ]

How about you build a strong enough axle that you don't need to change shafts?

i'm not losing ground clearance by building a bigger axle then my d30 when I only run 33's

 

[XJEEPER]

Manual hub conversion is the way to go longterm. Unless you need stronger axles, then you want to look at 9" or D60 IMHO.

My 2000 D30 is what they call Low Pinion.....I run 27" BFG AT KO's. I plan on keeping this rig for a while so your longterm advice is to convert my unit bearing assembly to manual locking hubs? Can you suggest a supplier for these?

 

[fuzzydog]

Just an update, now that I have done mine (of course it was the last one i checked) but looking at the hubs from my 90 XJ - it is definitely rebuildable. The design is identical to what is used on my Audi and they are definitely rebuildable (BTDT several times between me and a friend's Audi). You just need a really strong shop press (most people won't have this and will need to take it to a shop. do it on a saturday and just give em $20 cash), and the bearing does get destroyed on the way out. Having said that, i don't know if it would be worth the trouble but i will find out. I'm going to take one apart and press in a new bearing and keep it for when I need to do another replacement

 

[ren]

Anyone have a bearing pt #?

 

[fuzzydog]

when I get it done I'll take some pics and get part numbers. Might not be for a while though

 

[XJedi23]

My search.

http://www.google.com/products?q=Part+%23%3A+53007449AC&btnG=Search+Products

 

[fuzzydog]

My search.

http://www.google.com/products?q=Part+%23%3A+53007449AC&btnG=Search+Products

those are all unit hub bearing assemblies - we (at least I have) been referring to the actual bearing itself that goes between the 2 pieces of the hub.
Its not a money saving thing, its just a..because I want to...kind of thing.

 

[MudDawg]

My FSM for EARLY models shows an exploded diagram of the hub...but I called my local NAPA and they can get the seals, but said the BEARINGS are select fit FWIW. And it's like Muddy said...you gonna need a hairy chested gorilla of a press to do the job if you can get the parts....

Personally, I circumvented the whole unit hub problem with a servicable Warn
conversion.

 

[BlackJax]

My 2000 D30 is what they call Low Pinion.....I run 27" BFG AT KO's. I plan on keeping this rig for a while so your longterm advice is to convert my unit bearing assembly to manual locking hubs? Can you suggest a supplier for these?

MileMarker or Warn. Summit Racing stocks the MM stuff and the Warn stuff can be had from DC4WD.com.

 

[law.74]

So is there anything besides the press fit of the bearing components that holds the unit together? pardon my ignorance

 

[IntrepidXJ]

So is there anything besides the press fit of the bearing components that holds the unit together? pardon my ignorance

yeah, the 36mm nut on the outer stub shaft. if you drive on a unitbearing without the stub shaft, it won't stay together too long

 

[Anak]

I know I am dragging something up from the grave, but this was the most relevant information I could find while researching the feasibility of this task.

The bearings come out. Just most people do not have access to a large enough press.



My uncle used to rebuild them. But he had access to a 100T+ press. 10T is nothing - you normally can't the wheel bearing off a semi-float axle with a 10T press.

From the above, and a couple of other comments, I could gather that a 10 ton press was not up to the job, but a 100 ton was. But there is a lot of difference between those two, so what about the range in the middle? Particularly, if you happen to own a 20 ton Harbor Freight press? Will that do the job?

Well, the answer is "Yes".

The support is a steel pipe with a 6" ID. It was taller than needed. You really only need enough height to leave yourself about 3/4" of travel. The steel bars are 1" x 1" x 6.5".

Hopefully this will be helpful to someone else.