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hub units

L

little red cheroke

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Nashville TN
how often do you change hubs?

i changed my last pair 3,000 miles ago. now they're loose again. i've gone through at least 5 sets of hubs on my jeep.

what the hell? any suggestions? they aren't complex to install it's not like there is any way to install them wrong. torquing the hub nut to 175lbs. my tires aren't that big just 33x12.5x15 i've seen people run much larger tires on a D30.

what am i doing wrong? it's getting extremely frustrating changing hubs more than my oil....

Jeep: 2001 XJ. 98k miles. 4in of lift. 33x12.5x15 goodyear silent armor. hit the trails once every couple months or so and they're light trails at that.

thanks for the help
 
Are you torqueing them to spec?
 
I always thought hubs were something that needed replacement every 100k miles or so. I fairly sure most of my friends still have there stock hubs on there Zj and Tj D30's.
 
I have had some bad luck with this as well, I only had 31's on mine. I have only put 20k miles on mine so far and I am on my third set. I bought on set from Advance and changed them both at the same time and one failed in about three weeks so I replaced them both and saved the good one for a spare. The next ones I got off ebay with a lifetime warranty and the company changed its name and acted like they didn't know who the first company was when I tried to exchange them about 6k miles later, this time due to a catastrophic failure that almost cost me my entire jeep.
bearing010.jpg

bearing011.jpg

The bearing separated completely going over some railroad tracks breaking the end off the axle shaft. When the tires tried to turn in two different directions steering became a bit of a challenge which put me off the road toward a swamp. It turned out alright, a buddy came and got me and I had a spare unit bearing and a $20 axle shaft from pull a part fixed it all real quick. I can change these things with a quickness now that I have done so many. Try to make sure you get quality bearings, so far I have not found any I would call quality.
 
This is why I was asking the OP what type of hubs he bought.

You need to pay that little extra and buy quality parts for important pieces such as unit bearings, etc.

The general rule is, if the part has a lifetime warranty replacement, then you are usually going to be spending most of your lifetime replacing it.
 
It seems I have been told Warn makes good unit bearings. IMHO the older design is better than the newer (97+?) design. To use the older hub on a newer rig you would have to use the older rotors. It is critical the axle nut be torqued to 175 FOOT pounds. A loose nut will result in a failed unit bearing inside of a couple hundred miles.
 
i don't know what brand they are but i picked them up from oriley and they have a 1yr warrenty on them but i think the warrenty is only good for 1 exchange. i think most of the local auto parts stores carry the same brands and i don't think any of them carry a quality unit like a timken or something.

when you say the new style units does that mean the one with the taller lip or the shorter lip? i just changed rotors too to fit the units with the taller lip on the bearing, i think that's the new style. i've had fellow jeepers change them on a yearly basis but every oil change?
 
Auto Zone sells Timken part #HA597449
 
I just changed out my stock units at 139k, I'm quite certain they needed it at least 10-20k ago though. I guess I'll see how long my junkyard replacements (came with the new shafts and I was too lazy to replace) last with my 33s on 0" of offset / 4" BS on 8" wide rims.
 
Go Timken, or keep your fingers crossed....
 
The general rule is, if the part has a lifetime warranty replacement, then you are usually going to be spending most of your lifetime replacing it.[/QUOTE]

lol. Never thought of it that way but there is alot of truth to your statement.
 
NEWYXJ said:
The general rule is, if the part has a lifetime warranty replacement, then you are usually going to be spending most of your lifetime replacing it.
Click to expand...



lifetime warranty replacements also get you back into the store to buy something else, like a loss leader.
 
Buying Timkens is no guarantee. I bought some Timkens a while back and they only lasted a few months. And yes, they were torqued properly. It's a crapshoot.
 
Just to be clear. The quote is from Begster's #7 post.
 
I just installed a pair of Timkens a week ago because I thought that my factory originals were going bad. As luck would have it, there was nothing wrong with my old ones (the noise I was trying to eliminate was coming from something else.) And they had 161,000 miles on them.
 
I have 150,000 on my originals. How can you tell if they need to be replaced?
 
Jack the wheel up and grab it at 6 and 12 oclock, pull in and out. If there is any significant movement either the balljoints or the unit bearing (or both) needs replacement.
 
Other than movement, will it make any noise when it is failing?
 
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