Front Hub Assembly

It looks like the hub on my passenger side is starting to go. The heep is kinda growling and it feels like a tire is out of balance so I rotated and was gonna get them rebalanced but as they were about to take them off there is a considerable amount of play side to side. The drivers side seems fine for now. My main question is are there any aftermarket units that are stronger than the stock replacement ones or just stick with the stockers because thay already lasted over a 100k. The prices I've found so far range from around 120 to 180

Buy Timken brand, they last the longest.

Shop around. Locally I can get Timken unit bearings for about $75.

-Cal

Wow! Over 100K on stock hubs - stick with them, that sort of life expectancy is fantastic.

The Warn 5 on 5.5" hub conversion for the D30 is stronger but will require a change of wheels. There is a 5 on 4.5" conversion but I'm not certain if it is really any stronger or will give you better mileage than you are currently getting.

I get about 30K miles from my unit bearings on my '93 running 33x12.50 tires.

Vince said:

I get about 30K miles from my unit bearings on my '93 running 33x12.50 tires.

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Buy Timken bearings, and make sure your front end alignmnet is correct. You should be getting more than double that.

Mine have 258k on the stock hubs. all stock until 244k

Vince said:

Wow! Over 100K on stock hubs - stick with them, that sort of life expectancy is fantastic.

The Warn 5 on 5.5" hub conversion for the D30 is stronger but will require a change of wheels. There is a 5 on 4.5" conversion but I'm not certain if it is really any stronger or will give you better mileage than you are currently getting.

I get about 30K miles from my unit bearings on my '93 running 33x12.50 tires.

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why is the 5 on 5.5 stronger than the 5 on 4.5?

It uses smaller components. Warn rates it for "up to 32 inch tires".

-C

If you buy new unit bearing hubs, be sure to take one of the old hubs in for comparison....there are three distinct different styles of hubs...and a lot of parts places data is wrong about year model differences....never mind that jeep has been known to throw in a few zingers...

If you get the wrong hubs the brakes will not fit up correctly.

242K original hubs stock upto 238K...
and still running strong

hadfield4wd said:

Mine have 258k on the stock hubs. all stock until 244k

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I vote for getting ones from a scrap yard. You can buy brand new cheapo ones, and they sometimes are alright, but sometimes are junk. IMO, it's a crap shoot anyway you look at it, so you might aswell jsut get used ones anyways. Belive me, I've changed A LOT of unit hubs!! Way more than I should have had to.

A friend who got a great deal on a 99xj with all the options had bad hubs. He's not much of a mechanic, so I helped him change the hubs. At the time I told him get timken, and you'll never replace them again. Well, a week after doing it, one of them went bad. I swore it must have been something else, but I checked and it was indeed the hub unit. So got free replacement, and it did it again!! They were properly torqued...there really isn't anything IMO that you can mess up while changing one of these. So then I gave him one of the spares I had from a junk yard, and he hasn't had a problem since!! It was the passenger side that went 2x. The driver side timken is AFAIK holding up fine.

Isolated incident; thats not really enough justification to recommend getting junk yard parts. If it's a wear item, get a new unit and spend the money to get a good one.

91 Jeep Project said:

Isolated incident; thats not really enough justification to recommend getting junk yard parts. If it's a wear tiem, get a new unit and spend the money to get a good one.

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Ofcourse I don't have anything to back this up with but IIRC when this was happening I posted about it over on jeepin.com and got a few responses saying that timken hubs weren't holding up so well. That being said, it is what it is.

I agree, probably an isolated incident. Potentially a bad batch got sent to a parts store. Just throwing it out there. Results will vary.

cal said:

Buy Timken brand, they last the longest.

Shop around. Locally I can get Timken unit bearings for about $75.

-Cal

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Parts store chain? I'd like to find them at that price.

John B said:

Parts store chain? I'd like to find them at that price.

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That price is crazy i pay over $200 for Timken unit bearing in RI

The local "Parts Plus". I pay about $120 if I go to Napa.