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replacing front hubs

superdave

superdave

NAXJA Forum User
Location
NW Tennessee
How difficult is this task? 1-10 with 1 being easy as changing a headlight and 10 being you better pay somebody to do it. I also need to put in new ball joints. I have a good place to do it and plenty of tools.
 
Well i'd say a 4 or so. The ball joints are gonna be harder to replace than the hubs. Once you remove the brakes, the nut on the axle shaft and the three bolts holding them on they SHOULD come off. Sometimes they are a PITA I have heard.
 
I have never replaced ball joints. I did need to use a puller to get the hubs off. Difficulty #3 for the hubs, with 1 being a carwash and 10 being swapping in a jet turbine. Ever since I replaced the hubs I have used anti-seize on everything.....
 
If the hub bolts are out and the hub is seized into the knuckle(common problem), put the spare on and put a bar from the spare tire to the frame. Start the Jeep and turn the wheel it will pop right off. I'd suggest if you have not done ball joints have someone around who has. I rate hubs on really rusted ones a 5-6. Ball joints a 6-7. That is on the worst case scenario. Good Luck
 
i used to hit potholes a lot an destroy hubs like a champ. it can be done in 45 minutes. but the first time took like 2-3 hours. not really a big deal. hub nut, then wheel, then brakes off, then three 12 point nuts hold the hub there. i rate it a 4 as well.
 
Hubs......... shit that is a 20 minute job for both sides! That is a 1 on your scale..:D Do not forget to tighten your stub bolts to 175 ftlbs.
 
I've had the job go all the way between about 2 and 10, depending mostly on how rusty everything is, and how recently the job was done before.

My son has a 96 that spent much of its life on the Massachusetts seashore. It had apparently never been apart on one side. I did a hub on that, and not only was it seized in the bore, but the bolts were seized so badly in their bores that I had to shear two of them off, and even then the hub would not come out. I had to cut an ear off the hub, chisel the hub out, and even then I was unable to hammer the stub of one bolt out, and had to burn it out with a torch, bit by bit.

On the other hand, I've had a few that just popped off.

Make very sure that you clean the bore, clean the necks of the bolts, and apply anti-seize liberally when reassembling, and you'll be glad next time you need to do a U-joint.
 
Thanks for the advice. I am going to spray everything down with a 50/50 mix of acetone and ATF which I have read works better than any available penetrating oil. Hopefully it won't be bad. We have an air chisel with the pickle fork attachment so I think the ball joints should be no big deal either. IF you can get it in there.
 
a slide hammer works well too. smack around the hub on with a hammer on the knucke and wail away with a slide hammer. worked well for me since i was trying to not destroy the hub to keep it as a spare, and it pulls it out straight so it will come out much easier along the same axis
 
we didn't have all the fancy tools, when we pulled my buddy's hubs, I sent him to the hardware store to buy a bolt just a little longer than the original three that hold the hub in place, and we would thread that all the way to the end of the threads on the hub. Then we just beat the heck out of the bolt, as we moved it around from hole to hole, it slowly drove out the rusted in hubs without destroying the bearings.
 
Hackmeister said:
a slide hammer works well too. smack around the hub on with a hammer on the knucke and wail away with a slide hammer. worked well for me since i was trying to not destroy the hub to keep it as a spare, and it pulls it out straight so it will come out much easier along the same axis
Click to expand...
A slide hammer works well if you don't have to hit it too hard (danger of impacting bearing races), but do not ever use it without the axle nut in place, or you run the risk of pulling the hub apart. I've done just that. You can loosen the nut first, and then tighten it just a bit over finger-tight, and it will protect the hub from separation.
 
They came out fairly easily. However the lower ball joint on the right side is shot as well. I can NOT get this thing out. The new joint has a groove in the top for a snap ring. The old one is so deep in the hole that even if it had a snap ring there's no way to get it out. It won't budge up or down. I have run out of ideas other than taking a torch to it to heat it and see if I can get it to do something. HELP!!!
 
I rate it as 2-3 on the difficulty scale (-2 on your scale, there are several more screws to remove on headlights) and 6-7 (yourscale) on the PITA scale. PITA rating is due to the center bolt tightness, long cheater bar is a must or air, and freeing the hub from the nuckle.
 
OK after more research it seems I need a ball joint press to get this thing out and the new one back in. I can rent one from autozone. But, the new one came with a threaded insert that looks like it screws into the hole and the new joint fits inside. The existing hole has no such threaded sleeve and the hole is bigger than the new joint. Possible I have the wrong ball joint? Or do I have to punch out the hole or something. Now I see why they wanted $279 to do this.
 
superdave said:
OK after more research it seems I need a ball joint press to get this thing out and the new one back in. I can rent one from autozone. But, the new one came with a threaded insert that looks like it screws into the hole and the new joint fits inside. The existing hole has no such threaded sleeve and the hole is bigger than the new joint. Possible I have the wrong ball joint? Or do I have to punch out the hole or something. Now I see why they wanted $279 to do this.
Click to expand...
The design changed, I'm not sure what year (but then I'm not sure what year you have). The first design uses a threaded insert to adjust vertical height. The second uses a top joint with vertical movement built in. This results in two things. First, the later version is easier to replace, needing no adjustment. Second, when testing for ball joint wear, vertical movement at the top is not necessarily a sign that the top joint is worn out, but it is definite that the bottom is.

In short, it looks as if they gave you the wrong part.
 
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