Unit bearing and front shafts D30

Hey guys I just jacked up my front axle and shook the tire up and down and I saw that not only the stub shaft/ unit bearing wobbled, but the whole front shaft moved. I was just wondering if this was caused from the unit bearing being bad or something else. Thanks! uke:

sounds to me like a bad wheel bearing.

GrimmJeeper said:

did you look at the knuckle to make sure it wasnt moving as well? can you move the axle shaft with your hand without moving the tire? if the ball joints are bad the whole deal would move, including the knuckle. if the unit bearing is really bad the shaft would move with the bearing possibly, but it would have been making a hell of alot of noise before that happened.

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Hey thanks for the quick response. I just looked and the knuckle does not move. I can grab the shaft and move it slightly... but it might just be because of the limited leverage with my hand. It also seems that the shaft moves within the u joint aswell, but I think thats just because I have neglected to grease it for awhile . Does this sound like the unit bearing? It did make a lot of noise, but then again my whole jeep makes a lot of noise so i cant tell what is what. The other side didnt move at all either.

pull it out, its not that much work. take off the tire, pull the caliper and rotor, then 3 bolts on the bearing and the shaft comes out with it. its probably the bearing, but if the shaft is moving at all at the ujoint you need to replace it.

GrimmJeeper said:

pull it out, its not that much work. take off the tire, pull the caliper and rotor, then 3 bolts on the bearing and the shaft comes out with it. its probably the bearing, but if the shaft is moving at all at the ujoint you need to replace it.

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Ok yah sounds good... can I take off that huge ass nut without an impact wrench?

Loosen the nut before you jack up the truck. Or, put the wheel back on, set it down, and loosen it. Once it is loose, it'll spin right off. While you have it apart, go ahead and put in a new u-joint. They're only 15.00 or so, and you already did all the work.

sheeks175 said:

Ok yah sounds good... can I take off that huge ass nut without an impact wrench?

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yea but get a new one from the auto parts store first, it will probably fall apart if its rusty. mine did.

I replaced the drivers hub last weekend and the passenger hub this weekend... my impact gun wasn't strong enough to take off the axle nut. The drivers side I literally had to jump on a breaker bar with a lead pipe extension. For the passenger side, I only had to stand on the breaker bar (I'm 200lbs. the oem specs are supposed to be 175lbs of torque). in my case, the unit bear was seized to the knuckle. Since I didn't have any bolts of a suitable size laying around, I used a bad 1310 ujoint I had laying around. Slipped it between the axle housing and the outer shaft yoke. Turned the steering wheel and it popped the shaft and unit bearing out. Now, I had to put the axle nut back onto the shaft and tap it with a hammer to seperate the shaft and unit bearing (rusted together).

Use liberal ammounts of PB Blaster on the 3 hub bolts. I'd also recommend taking a wire brush to the exposed tips between coats of PB Blaster. I needed a 12pt 13mm socket for those bolts. Do yourself a favor and use antiseize when you reassemble everything. I also took a dremel with a sanding wheel to the inside of the knuckle to clean off the rust residue before I gave it a light coating of antisieze.

I had intensions of replacing the ujoints (I think those are worse than the old hubs), but I can't get the retainer clips to budge. They're rusted to the caps and yokes. All 8 of them (4 clips, 2 joints)... Might just buy new alloy shafts and keep these as emergency trail spares.

Oh, don't forget to pick up new cotter pins for the axle nut retainers. I think they are 2.5" long.

Hey guys sorry to bring up my old thread, but anyways here we go. I got everything off and was going to replace the whole hub assembly until i figured out that my spares (1992) didnt fit under the disk brake that was on there (for 1989 D30???) anyways I had to put the whole thing back together with the old worn out unit hub. My question now is instead of replacing the whole assembly how would i go about getting the bearing out and replacing it with a new bearing? This is for a 1989 hub assembly I believe. Thanks!!:moon:

afaik, the hubs are non-servicable. you gotta replace the entire thing. There are 3 hubs for XJs... 84-89, 90-99 and 99-01 I *think* you can use any of them on any XJ axle, but you have to use brakes from that year range, too. rotors are specific, but calipers only have 2 ranges, 84-89 and 90-01.

Hub Assembly, Front 84/89 53000228
Hub Assembly, Front w/ 2 pc.stamped rotor 90/99 53007449
Hub Assembly, Front w/ 1 pc. Cast rotor 99/01 53007449AC


Edit: I was mistaken, the 84-89 hubs were partially serviceable.

Bearing, Front Hub (2 req.) 84/89 53000238
Seal, Front Hub 84/89 Inner 53000239
Seal, Front Hub 84/89 Outer J3238137
Seal, Front Hub 84/89 Center 53000237

Hmmm. Partially serviceable? That must be the bearing inside then, because it was visable compared to the 90-99 hubs. Well good, now how or who can I get that replaced?

BUUUUMMMPPPPP

check your favorite parts company with those part numbers. those are factory part numbers and should be searchable for anybody who sells replacements. either the entire thing, or just the parts.