hub conversion

[AaronE19]

hey guys-
I posted awhile back asking about converting my broken factory auto hubs to manuals (what brand to get, yadda, yadda). I ended up with Warn's, as most others have (couldn't get ahold of the MileMarkers). shortly after I had them put on, I ran across a bit of a problem: cruising along on the expressway at about 75 and I feel this sharp pull to the passenger side, damn-near put me in the ditch. I thought I had blown a tire or something. I get out with the flashlight and look, only to find that the tire is fine. OK, obviously something else is going on... so I get back in and drive for a bit to try and figure out what the deal is. as soon as I get going I hear this fierce wheel bearing noise coming from the passenger side. so I stop again and get out to look or see if I can smell anything weird, and the hub is just blazing hot. I crawl along until I get to the next exit and find a hotel (1:00 in the morning). there's a mechanic right across the street and they take her apart in the morning to find, you guessed it, my outer wheel bearing had siezed and welded itself to the spindle.

my question to all you fellow wrencheads out there is this: the guy who put the hubs on wouldn't have had to touch the wheel bearings at all. however, he would have had to take the old locknut off and put the new conversion locknut on, right? he would therefore also have had to take the preload nut off and put it back on again too, right? is it possible that he over-tightened the preload and that's what blew out my bearing?? those nuts are pretty idiot-proof, but nonetheless... it's all a little fishy for me to just swallow this rather substantial bill and not do a little investigating first. especially since a) those bearings weren't more than two months old, b) the grease that was left in there was good and the seal wasn't leaking, c) I hadn't had my truck in the bush since I had them put on, and d) this guy was the last person to have it apart. anyone else smell something rank here?

any insight you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated, as always.

Aaron

 

[leebo]

I'm sorry to hear that. You hit the problem with the manual hubs that both me and mattadams as well as several other members have dreaded. Check out this tip on the main page.
http://www.4x4central.com/tips.htm#bearing

The problem with the hubs is that the new nut that warn provides has a way of working it's way loose. I've made it a point to make sure that I check it every now and then. It seems that each time it does work itself loose. If it's left too long it may get to the point where it falls off all together. If this happens the bearing spins without any preasure on it and allowing it to sping on it's own. Thus causing it to wear out premature.

 

[Brian1]

Sorry to hear about that. I would suspect the guy but anything is possible.

I modified my lockwasher myself because I had problems during installation. I welded to the tab so it would stay in place on the spindle. No problems since I put it on.
Here is my My Hub Fix

 

[Gofast]

Just an opinion..

Sounds like the guy put to much preload on the bearing. It will be hard to prove, and everybody hates to cough up money after something goes wrong.

Anyway, If the bearing is to tight it will sieze quickly. That's due to all the extra friction of beaing to tight. If the bearing comes loose ( Like mine has ) the wheel will wobble side to side and have little affect in the short term on the bearing. Yes it will wear on the bearing but it usually doesn't sieze, the danger is the wheel coming all the way off.

Good luck

 

[AaronE19]

thanks for your thoughts guys. true, I probably can't prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this mechanic didn't read his torque wrench right (or didn't use it at all... whatever), but I'm willing to take his a$$ to court and find out for sure. I think if I explain that fact to him he won't have too much of a problem forking over for the repair, no one wants to get a phone call from a lawyer. he's got liability insurance, that's what it's for. really though, had I not paid any attention and continued to drive on it with the bearing siezed, the spindle may well have heated up enough to weld itself to the axleshaft and my tire would have come flying off, making me just another SUV rollover statistic. this guy needs to be more careful, you know?

one other thing that was kind of strange was that I was charged for about 2 hours of labor for having the manual lockout hubs put on. it's really only about a 30-45 minute job with decent shop tools and I'm wondering if he had someone less experienced doing the work or just plain ran into some kind of problem, got frustrated, and didn't pay as much attention as he should have. anyway, I guess he and I will be having a little conversation sometime soon. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

thanks again

Aaron