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- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1994 Ranger XLT
So I was following Glacier's Brake job Diary as a reference while changing out my rotors, pads, and wheel bearings. Started as a wheel bearing replacement job, then figured it would be easier to just get new rotors instead of messing with replacing just the races (rotors still had some life left, but they were nearing the end, so whatevs). Good reference, but doesn't have much info for manual hubs, so I thought I'd post a little diary of my own with a couple of pics for reference. Might help out some other newbies.
Here's how the manual hubs look like for comparison. There isn't a weird key thing like the auto hubs have, and the inner nut is different, and I guess the auto hubs don't have the outer nut (which must be torqued on pretty good, preferably with a specialty socket). It's not super complicated, though. The washer with all the holes lines up with a pin on the inner hub nut, and it also has a keyed part that goes into the groove on the spindle.
Manual Hub Assembled:
Manual Hub with Nuts/Washers Removed:
Nuts/Washers on Display (Left to Right is Outer to Inner):
Captain's Log, Stardate 2012.11
Upon inspection, my front tires had a lot of play grabbing them top/bottom, left/right and wiggling. This was OK, because I knew the bearings needed to be replaced or maybe repacked (I was opting for the nuke-from-orbit approach: 4 new bearings for the front, they're cheap enough). Removed tire and outer hub piece, and realized my truck has manual hubs as opposed to the auto ones in Glacier's guide. I mean, I knew that, just didn't think about how they would be different inside. They weren't terribly difficult to figure out, but the first side I did, the outer nut was finger loose.
Took out all the nuts/washers, removed the rotor and bearings. Packed new bearings with grease into new rotor, installed wheel seal. So far, so good. Now, because the outer and inner hub nuts had been finger tight before, I reinstalled them the same way. And when I got the tire back on, I noticed there was still some play, although less than before.
Note: there are 2 sizes of rotors listed for my truck (1994 Ranger XLT 4WD V6 4.0), I'm not really sure what to look for to tell you what size you have, apart from measuring what's on there already or guessing and seeing if the size you picked fits. My door doesn't have the sticker with the axle code that might have this information. Anyway, turned out my truck uses the smaller size brake rotor. Maybe because it's not ABS, I dunno.
So I go to do the other side, and it's a mess. The o-ring on the outer hub piece got trashed (Napa part # 727-2153; 3 1/2" inner diameter, 3 11/16" outer diameter, 3/32" wide), and everything is brown and ****ty inside. The outer nut is on tight, had to whack it loose a bunch of times with a hammer and punch. Now, I made an assumption here that this was because of how ****ty it was inside, but really, they are supposed to be on tight. So got this side cleaned up and installed the new hardware, play was better than before, but still there (because I didn't torque outer nut).
So, I did some research and found out the procedure for manual hubs: Torque the inner nut to 35 ft lbs to preload/set the wheel bearings, then back it off a little, then hand tighten it (people are saying 16 INCH lbs if you care to measure). Then the outer nut gets torqued to 150 ft lbs, although some people are saying the outer nut will come loose, and this should be 200 or 250. I don't off-road as a hobby, so I just did it to 150, keeping in mind to check the wheels periodically for play.
To torque these nuts, a special socket is needed (to do it right). Was a little hard to find, when I talked to NAPA, their computer pulled up the one used for the auto hubs. Turns out they had what I needed just sitting in one of the aisles. Part #776-9026, 1/2" drive spindle nut socket.
Socket Description:
Socket:
Now all my wheel play is gone.
TLDR:
Installed new wheel bearings for manual hub
Missed step to torque outer nut
Wheels still had play
Went back in and torqued outer nut
Wheels no longer have play
???
Profit
Here's how the manual hubs look like for comparison. There isn't a weird key thing like the auto hubs have, and the inner nut is different, and I guess the auto hubs don't have the outer nut (which must be torqued on pretty good, preferably with a specialty socket). It's not super complicated, though. The washer with all the holes lines up with a pin on the inner hub nut, and it also has a keyed part that goes into the groove on the spindle.
Manual Hub Assembled:
Manual Hub with Nuts/Washers Removed:
Nuts/Washers on Display (Left to Right is Outer to Inner):
Captain's Log, Stardate 2012.11
Upon inspection, my front tires had a lot of play grabbing them top/bottom, left/right and wiggling. This was OK, because I knew the bearings needed to be replaced or maybe repacked (I was opting for the nuke-from-orbit approach: 4 new bearings for the front, they're cheap enough). Removed tire and outer hub piece, and realized my truck has manual hubs as opposed to the auto ones in Glacier's guide. I mean, I knew that, just didn't think about how they would be different inside. They weren't terribly difficult to figure out, but the first side I did, the outer nut was finger loose.
Took out all the nuts/washers, removed the rotor and bearings. Packed new bearings with grease into new rotor, installed wheel seal. So far, so good. Now, because the outer and inner hub nuts had been finger tight before, I reinstalled them the same way. And when I got the tire back on, I noticed there was still some play, although less than before.
Note: there are 2 sizes of rotors listed for my truck (1994 Ranger XLT 4WD V6 4.0), I'm not really sure what to look for to tell you what size you have, apart from measuring what's on there already or guessing and seeing if the size you picked fits. My door doesn't have the sticker with the axle code that might have this information. Anyway, turned out my truck uses the smaller size brake rotor. Maybe because it's not ABS, I dunno.
So I go to do the other side, and it's a mess. The o-ring on the outer hub piece got trashed (Napa part # 727-2153; 3 1/2" inner diameter, 3 11/16" outer diameter, 3/32" wide), and everything is brown and ****ty inside. The outer nut is on tight, had to whack it loose a bunch of times with a hammer and punch. Now, I made an assumption here that this was because of how ****ty it was inside, but really, they are supposed to be on tight. So got this side cleaned up and installed the new hardware, play was better than before, but still there (because I didn't torque outer nut).
So, I did some research and found out the procedure for manual hubs: Torque the inner nut to 35 ft lbs to preload/set the wheel bearings, then back it off a little, then hand tighten it (people are saying 16 INCH lbs if you care to measure). Then the outer nut gets torqued to 150 ft lbs, although some people are saying the outer nut will come loose, and this should be 200 or 250. I don't off-road as a hobby, so I just did it to 150, keeping in mind to check the wheels periodically for play.
To torque these nuts, a special socket is needed (to do it right). Was a little hard to find, when I talked to NAPA, their computer pulled up the one used for the auto hubs. Turns out they had what I needed just sitting in one of the aisles. Part #776-9026, 1/2" drive spindle nut socket.
Socket Description:
Socket:
Now all my wheel play is gone.
TLDR:
Installed new wheel bearings for manual hub
Missed step to torque outer nut
Wheels still had play
Went back in and torqued outer nut
Wheels no longer have play
???
Profit