Mile Marker hub issue

Had a rubbing/grinding noise coming from the LH hub, popped the dial off and saw some milky grease so I tore the whole knuckle down and cleaned/repacked the wheel bearings, spindle bearings, cleaned off the caliper mount, wheel hub, and disassembled the mile marker hub to clean it. When putting it back together I put a light coat of synthetic wheel bearing grease on the moving parts. Took it out the next day and the noise was still there, just worse.

Here is the advanced diagnosis I performed..

jacked up the lh front wheel, spun the tire, no noise or resistance, locked the hub, after half rotation hub engaged, gnarly sound coming from hub similar to a bad wheel bearing. unlocked the hub, after half rotation it disengaged and free spun again with no issues. this was with the truck in 2wd.

jacked up the rh front wheel, same free spin when unlocked, same noise just lessened with the hub locked.

also hear the same noise when driving the vehicle with the hubs locked in, with the vehicle in either 2 or 4wd.

These hubs are less than 3 years old. Are they that poor of quality? Should I be using atf instead of wheel bearing grease to lubricate them?

swapped hubs with spare set I snagged from a friend. raised wheel, spun tire, no noise locked or unlocked. took it out saturday, same noise with hubs locked in 2wd and 4wd. front diff is a true trac. I'm at a loss.. any ideas?

Front axle shaft bearings. Just a guess!

spindle bearing was checked and greased.

Did you take it out Saturday with the swapped hubs or you put the original hubs back on? If hubs that didn't make any noise started making noise like the originals just from being on the vehicle, the issue may be with the axle shafts.

You didn't notice any worn parts when disassembling the hub? A super thin film of wheel bearing grease on moving parts is usually fine for re-assembly of cleaned parts, ATF is just what is used to clean grease out of the hubs without disassembling them. The hubs can get whatever other grease they need from the grease that slings off the wheel bearings into the hub.

One really good test would be to use the original hubs on another Explorer (or Ranger) to see if they make the same noise, or perhaps the swapped hubs as well to see if they went from being quiet to making the same noise. If the hubs don't make noise on another vehicle, it may be something related to how the hub is (or isn't) seated on the axle shaft splines.

Mile Marker hubs supposedly have the same lifetime warranty as Warns, so you could try contacting them about replacements and they will hopefully just send you out a new set and pay for the shipping back of the old set.

I'd say you should consider taking the originals back apart to inspect closely for wear or any telltale signs of axle shaft problems. Generally I'd say it's just the hubs going bad/wearing out from 3 years of use, but if you had a second working set suddenly start making noises only after being mounted to your vehicle, that indicates the vehicle causing issues with the hubs. Replacing them, even with brand new ones, without fixing the underlying cause, might just result in two brand new hubs being affected in the same exact way as the originals.

good points.. thanks for the reply

I have been starting to think of the axle shafts as being the problem was well. In a land full of JKs and TJs I'll have to see if I can find someone running an older D44 to run my hubs and test for noise. I have a feeling I'll find something I dont wanna see when I pull the shafts though. Fingers crossed.. now to find time/space to do it.