1996 AWD front bearing leak

[SmoothJimmy]

Heard a low grinding noise when coasting. May be there under accel, but can't hear it over the engine. Figured that it could be front wheel bearings since, when coasting, weight shifts to the front. Also thought coast-side of diff pinion/ring, but that will have to wait.

Took apart the driver's side hub/knuckle and found the bearing was leaking grease, the dust excluder was playing defense like 'your Golden State Warriors' and a bit of dirt/water was in the grease at the bottom of the bearing/hub cavity.

The bearing feels sorta smooth when the hub assembly is rotated in my hands. I can feel the teensiest bit of roughness and there is no noticeable looseness.

I have yet to test end-play with a dial indicator according to Timken's website (.004" max)

This is the original hub assembly and the rig has 150k miles. Is this grease escape normal or is it time to replace?

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Time to replace. The seals are bad.

 

[410Fortune]

replace replace replace, stay away from those cheapo hubs on Ebay too.. they wont last!!

I sprung the $$$ for actual Ford pieces myself... $160 EACH

 

[SmoothJimmy]

replaced my old, leaky hub assemblies with brand spankin' new Timken SP450200 assemblies, snapped all back together and measured disk rotor runout and..... 60/1000s...yikes! Took off the rotors and measured runout of the mating surface of the hubs in multiple locations and...20/1000s....yikes!

Have I been sold some pre-warped hub assemblies that should be exchanged or must I play some sort of shimming game to get these into spec?

 

[SmoothJimmy]

P.S. I torqued everything to spec...always do.

 

[SmoothJimmy]

UPDATE: checked the other side and the runout on the brake disc was within spec (.003 inch). Sooo, looks like I got a bum hub assembly. Autozone will replace tomorrow. Anyone else ever get a wildly out of spec Timken hub assembly before?

 

[Dan Whitaker]

UPDATE: checked the other side and the runout on the brake disc was within spec (.003 inch). Sooo, looks like I got a bum hub assembly. Autozone will replace tomorrow. Anyone else ever get a wildly out of spec Timken hub assembly before?

Double check & make sure it's ****ed in the steering knuckle. It could be when you tightened the bolts it didn't seat properly. Are you sure you do not have bad rotor?

 

[SmoothJimmy]

Even if the assembly was in crooked (which it wasn't), that would have just changed the plane of the flange surface. Returned the Timken assembly for another and all was good. Can't believe (and neither could the auto parts store, tho they asked no questions regarding the return) that a new hub assembly could be so screwed up ...with .020 runout. Kinda scary QA for a company so highly regarded.