How to: How I changed my 05's Front Wheel Bearing

[Livin4Real]

I plan on tackling this repair tomorrow and figured I'd swing in here first and sure enough plenty of great tips as usual! I appreciate all the posts and pics from everyone's experiences. Also for those looking at doing this themselves you can pick up the hub assembly for $60 shipped from Dearborn Axle in Detroit, American made even! I realize stealerships have to make money but it's crazy what they charge for this repair

 

[SyberTiger]

I'm about 99.99% sure these are made in China. Let us know what the markings say on the pressed in bearing.

 

[Livin4Real]

I don't see any markings on the bearing, the paperwork that came with it says "Made in Detroit Since 1987". If it's not U.S. made then they have some great false advertising lol.

 

[SyberTiger]

I don't see any markings on the bearing, the paperwork that came with it says "Made in Detroit Since 1987". If it's not U.S. made then they have some great false advertising lol.

It would seem that Detroit Axle really missed the boat if they had the opportunity to post "MADE IN USA" on their Ebay webstore but didn't. That is a huge marketing advantage so it would be disappointing if they weren't smart enough to take advantage of that. I hope your new wheel bearing is MADE IN USA and it lasts a million miles because that's a great deal for that price? BTW, did your new wheel bearing hub come with five new bolts for remounting. I know that is important for those who have really rusted old bolts.

 

[Livin4Real]

No bolts, I actually went to the stealership today to pickup the 3 hub bolts but they were closed. My caliper bolts are still in great shape, so I don't plan on replacing them. I checked prices on the hub assembly at Autozone while also looking for bolts and laughed. I can get both front hub assemblies and both rear assemblies for what they wanted for one front assembly, crazy!

 

[Livin4Real]

Do the hub bolts come together all 3 in a package by chance? I'm only finding them by singles thru Silverstate and my local dealer as part # 1L2Z1107AA.
And they run $12 a pop thru my stealership and $8.60 a pop thru Silverstate!!!! Yikes!

 

[icepickjazz]

Some kits have them and some don't.

 

[Livin4Real]

$36 for 3 bolts..........grrrrr

 

[SyberTiger]

Two things I learned in this thread about purchasing wheel bearing hub assemblies:

(1) Purchase quality (USA made) bearings unless you enjoy re-doing this job after a year or two and potentially having to re-purchase for a second time new wheel bearings. You may save money in the beginning but in the end you will spend more and you'll end up having to do more work.

(2) Purchase a wheel bearing hub assembly that includes the 5 bolt kit to avoid having to shell out extra dollars to buy the bolts separately. Purchasing the bolts separately ends up costing you more money in the end. The exception, of course, is if you plan on re-using your old bolts and a thread locker.

Happy New Year everyone....may your wheel bearings last a million miles!

 

[bikedad]

Thanks to this thread I just did both front bearings in my 2006 EB. It was nice to know what gotchas to look for.
I purchased the Deep Offset 12 point 13mm-15mm box wrench from Sears but didn't need it.
I had in my arsenal some impact wobble sockets from Harbor Freight. An air impact gun and a short extension which worked great to get the 3 bolts off the hub.
I had to use a gear puller to get the axle shaft to release from the hub. I applied a lot of pressure then smacked the turn down nut on the puller with a 5lb hand sledge to break the axle loose inside the hub then kept turning until it bottomed the axle. I then used a cold chisel to break the hub loose. (Oh and PB Blaster is your friend)


I applied Anti Seize to everything that needed it for a future bearing change. I'm assuming I'll be doing this again.
I did use Red thread locker on the hub bolts though. My bearings did not have the bolts in the box but they looked fine so I reused them.

Again, thanks to the OP for this thread.

 

[fedyfedz]

Thanks to this thread I just did both front bearings in my 2006 EB. It was nice to know what gotchas to look for.
I purchased the Deep Offset 12 point 13mm-15mm box wrench from Sears but didn't need it.
I had in my arsenal some impact wobble sockets from Harbor Freight. An air impact gun and a short extension which worked great to get the 3 bolts off the hub.

I did the same thing but the wobble socket still didnt fit so we pushed the drive shaft towards the engine leaving plenty of room to work. The hardest part for me was the hub being stuck on with high strength SILICONE what a nightmare. I hate to heat both hubs for about 20 minutes each with a torch then use mini sledge some elbow grease and a few chisels

 

[98Rig]

looking at doing my front wheel bearings, anyhone had experience with primechoiceautoparts.com? they have the hub bearings on there for almost 50% off at like 50 bucks a piece. i have an 03 ex with my front right grinding badly. now mind you were looking at trading it up in a year or 2 for a full size f150 so i just want something to get me through to that point.

 

[ShawnTRD]

A cheap one we installed on my wife 05 lasted only 13 months. One month past the warranty...

 

[Livin4Real]

Just did my drivers side a couple days ago, much better ride now. It was 20 degrees here so put it in one of our barns and fired up the salamanders. I left the heaters pointed at the hub for awhile while I gathered tools, etc. I HIGHLY recommend folks advice about pushing in the driveshaft to give you room to work, that along with the wobble extension made it a piece of cake to get the bolts out. I just used a 3/8" ratchet with the wobble extension and short socket and 1ft heavy cheater pipe and alot of PB Blaster and they came right off. The hardest part on my experience was the hub was seized in the knuckle, slide hammer didn't budge it, luckily we live on a farm and had four steel splitting maul wedges laying around so I just used the steel wedges stacked between the knuckle and the bolt tabs on the hub and slowly hammered the wedges in farther, rotating from the set I had on top of the hub to the set I had below the hub til the hub finally fell off, so something to think about for those with a hub stuck in the knuckle. I wish I had pics but it was freezing and I was rushed for time. Since my bolts came out with no problems I reused them, just used red loctite when I put them back on. It went back together easy and drives alot better now. Thanks to everyone for the advice

 

[ademily87]

Did my front right last week as well. Not nearly as bad as I thought it was gonna be. A lil pb blaster and impact wrench we were good!!

And btw, you can get the timken hub assemblies that autozone has for $190 for $110 online at a place called rockwiseauto.com. just a heads up!!

 

[Free02Explorer]

You were able to get the new hub on fairly easy without any special tool? Thanks for all the info.

 

[ademily87]

You were able to get the new hub on fairly easy without any special tool? Thanks for all the info.

Yes quite easily actually.

 

[automark]

Thanks for the tips, and a comment ditto'd

Hi,
Did the LF on an 06 xlt, v6, 4WD just now. All of your tips and commentaries really helped! Thanks!
I have had a love for PB blaster for a long time. We are still going strong!

The high strength silicone ?gasket maker? was a pain, but after carving away the excess and more PB B, that and a good whack with a cold chisel at 3, 7, and 10 oclock along with additional pressure from the puller, and it came away.
I second the use of the anti-seize, and would ensure that you are using high heat, hi quality version of it.

The high offset 15mm was my friend.

The part numbers for the 06 were:

HUB 29 aka Motorcraft 7L2Z-1104A ( it came with the new lug bolts pressed into the face of the hub.

A package of three quality bolts to go through the knuckle and into the hubflange with pre applied threadlocker was Motorcraft p/n 6L2Z-1107 A.

The recommendation is to use new bolts, so I did, and also got the new axle nut. It is a 32mm special nut with the rotation free washer swaged onto it. They are proud of them, $11.00 each. It's because it is a locking nut that is factory deformed so that you torquing it down causes that locking effect you are after. Look for the special little arrowheads in the face of the nut that you can see. Only the third one of these I've seen recently. Very good in high heat conditions, like this. It was Motorcraft p/n 705967-s439x and is known in HN1 in the blow up diagram on fordpartsgiant dot com.

By the way, 184 ft/lbs is one heck of a lot!

I didn't use new caliper bracket or caliper hold down bolts, as mine were excellent. Cleaned them and put some new red threadlocker on and they were good to go.

Best of luck to all that try it. It's really not that difficult. Just stay safe, be methodical, and don't drink too much before you're finished with the job! (ha ha)

Best regards,
MSH

 

[Artbaileyjr]

Piece-O-Cake

I did a front bearing/hub assy for the first time (for me) on my '02 EB today.

Had a handful of Valium and a fifth of Jack Daniels, bandages, pullers and offset wrenches handy. I didn't need any of that stuff. A 29MM socket, a set of metric swivel sockets, a regular old 3/8" & 1/2" metric socket set, a 1/2" breaker bar, a brass hammer and a couple of spritzes of WD40 took care of everything.

I loosened the axle nut and backed it out until it was flush with the end of the threaded stub-shaft, then gave it a good, hard, whack with a brass hammer. It just popped loose. I loosened the lug bolts; stuck a jack under the control arm until the tire was off of the ground. I removed the wheel/tire. I removed the two caliper mount bolts and hung the caliper from the spring with a piece of wire. I set the rotor aside and finished removing the stub-shaft nut. After removing the ABS sensor cable from the plug and the harness mounts, I used a swivel socket and loosened the three flange bolts starting with a breaker bar and switching to a ratchet. The stub shaft could be slid back far enough for the swivel socket to fit right in there on all three bolts. Before the final removal of the bolts; again, a smack with a hammer from behind, on the heads of two of the flange bolts, and the bearing broke free. A few more turns and the bolts and bearing were in my hands.

I used the supplied bolts for reinstallation and Loctite for the axle nut. After the wheel/tire was back on, and on the ground; rather than walking to the tool box for a torque wrench, I simply used the 18" breaker bar and stood on it at about 10" from the socket. Pretty close to 180 ft/lbs.

It took less than one hour from tools out, to backing out of the driveway. It would have been a waste of electricity to turn on the compressor.

I've noticed that there is mention of a 30MM axle nut, but mine was 29MM.

This job is a piece of cake. Everything is nice and quiet now.

Art

 

[SlammedExploder]

Alright ill join the party and share my info... i just did my 2006 Limited 4.0 4x4 last night (front left) had no play in the wheel when lifted but it "churped" and i had a vibration on teh highway that would come and go... anyway teh most helpful tool was teh craftsman 13mm/15mm offset wrench described earlier ($15 at sears but worth it) aswell to seperate the hub off the spindle teh silicon is eaasily beat by a wood chisel (its all i had and actually proved to be very easy) i ended up hitting it twice in top and once on the front and it dug so deep the hub came loose right away. aswell i remved teh dust cover from behind the rotor and that gave me alot more room... im an experianced mechanic and this job took 1.5hours with a 10min cigarette break in there... aswell i used BLUE locktight incase i ever need to seperate it from teh truck agian lol.. .hope the wood chisil idea helps you guys cuz it made it so much easier for me!!