Wheel Bearing Almost a disaster

[sermis]

Almost a disaster

I repacked all my wheel bearings except for the front right. It had a leaking wheel cylinder so I was waiting until I got a wheel cylinder kit. Well I had a flat on the way to recovering Barrman’s truck so this was a good time to tear it down. All the rest of the bearings were good when I repacked them. This is what I found.

The way this thing pulled to the right with the flat 15.5 X 20 I’m glade I did not loose a bearing.

 

[Stretch44875]

Looks kinda of crunchy. Any idea of the cause? Maybe the cup metal was soft?

 

[sermis]

I have not cleaned the rollers yet but they looked good. THe cup / race has meta as you can seel flaking off. It did not look blue like it got hot. It still had some grease on the rollers. Don't know what caused it but it was a wreck waiting to happen.

 

[houdel]

[quote="sermis"Don't know what caused it but it was a wreck waiting to happen.[/quote]

Well, thanks for the valuable lesson. Brake fluid and wheel bearing grease do not work together well. So if you have a leaking wheel cylinder, park the truck until you get it fixed.

A piece of cheap advice - take it as you wish. With the amount of metal flakes visible on your bearing cups, you most likely have damaged the cups and/or cones. Doesn't make any difference whether you can see it or not when you clean the parts off, there has to be some damage there. If you put the bearings back together as is, they may last two weeks, two months, or two years, but they are going to fail. You are right, you have "a wreck waiting to happen".

You already have the hub torn apart, so go to your local auto parts store and get two #3920 cups and one each #392 and #3994 cones (races). I can get the full set from my local Parts Plus or Carquest supplier for $60-$80 for the set (expect to pay 25%-50% more at NAPA).

It is worth replacing them now while you have the hub pulled off and not have to worry about them again for another 20 years or more. I'd rather see another posting about your experience replacing the bearings than a RIP posting after they fail on you. These trucks are just too big and too heavy to take unnecessary risks with them.

 

[gringeltaube]

I don't see how brake fluid could reach and affect just the outer wheel bearing cup.
And somehow the damage to the cup and cone do not correspond.
Could it be that someone very lazy just replaced the cone alone after water had entered the hub via a loose flange or non sealing locking hub?
Was the inner bearing OK?

 

[houdel]

I don't understand why the wheel mounting flange and lug nuts are covered with red slime. I COULD understand the companion flange gasket leaking and letting water into the outer bearing, mixing with the bearing grease and making a mess. Pics #1 and #2 make it appear as though some unsavory contaminate was forced from inside the hub outside to the wheel flange and lug nuts, but pics #3 and#4 do not show enough contamination to support that theory. We need more explanation as to the crud on the wheel flange and lug nuts in pics #1 and #2.

 

[rdixiemiller]

The red slime looks like where brake fluid is dissolving the red primer on the hubs.

 

[sermis]

Pic #1 & 2 are in the parts washer. Sorry, I cleaned it up to take a pic. I did not clean the bearing. The inside of the hub looked like the bearing before cleaning. I did not see any brake fluid contamination. I did notice that the cage on the bearings had some slite bends / bumps in them. I will try to post some pic's.
I am going to replace the bearings and cups. The inner cup looks like is was starting to fail also. Wonder if they used some off the wall grease in it to cause the failure.

 

[houdel]

If you did not have significant brake fluid contamination and your outer cup looked as it did in the pictures, you certainly need to replace both cups and both cones (races). They aren't going to last long as they are. The flat tire may have saved you from some really serious trouble!

 

[sermis]

Well here is what I found on cleaning every thing up. I don't have a history for the truck before I got it last year.

 

[sermis]

I did have the boots off and repacked them. They did not look contaminated with water. There was some grime in one due to not having the inner clamp mounted.

 

[houdel]

I'd have to say your cups and cones are pretty well f***ed. Time for a whole new set.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Have a good looksee at the spindle, looks like the bearing cones may have spun on the spindle.