Wheel bearing brands?

Doing10to20 said:

You guys should go out on a date

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If he would of been around the old guys I hung out with when I was in my 20s-30s , he'd be running home forgetting his KJ

OEM ones are made by SKF I believe. My OEM ones lasted till 200k, got SKF ones to replace them. No issues, easy job. Probably took me 45 mins to do both using hand tools.

Installed my lifetime (made in China though) raybestos hubs. Seemed quality units but the abs sensor clips were in the wrong spots and wrong shape. Had to reuse some of the oem clips. Hardest part of the job was getting those little hose mounts in the right spot and installed correctly.

My oem hubs with 135k were not loose but had a slight scraping sound when turned by hand so at least a bearing or two was on the way out. I have low expectations for any non factory hubs and that’s why I went with a brand with a robust warranty. Will keep all posted in the coming months.

Mine had no play at all. I took it in to a shop to let them check to see what the noise was that had it roaring like mud tires. He could hear it was the front wheel bearings with a stethoscope. I opted to order the parts and do it myself after getting the repair quote.

From my experience, this is highly unlikely to be a speedy easy job. There was no wonder they wanted a lot to do the job.

I don't even get a bunch of salt exposure, yet this was still one more of a time consuming pain in the ass. I recommend to try to remove the centers and hit the axles, bolts and mating surfaces in the back with penetrating oil several times while waiting on parts.

I recommend a small sledge hammer with the wedge point on one side. A heavy duty puller. And an impact if you can.

The only easy part for me was jacking it up and taking the tires off. The rest was a pain. Had to keep hitting the rotor between the studs making my way around until it finally came off. That was both sides. The bolts were tough. The hubs were seized to the axles on both sides causing me to use a puller. And they were hard to get out of the knuckle or whatever you want to call it.

I rented a puller and it destroyed it trying to pull the hubs.

Like I say though mine is not all rusted up from running in salt spray all winter either. Maybe it was because they had been on there so long, IDK. But on mine it took like 10 minutes of hammering just to get one rotor off. Total ass pain.

I’ve had rotors seized to hubs before and it takes some serious sledge work to get them off, but actually replacing the hubs was less than a hour job. Hubs came out with about 5-6 sledge hits, no problem. I guess I was lucky this time.

I don't know why mine was such a chore at every step. All I can guess is because all of it was original and had been on there so long. But it was all seized together that is for sure. On the rotors I just kept hammering on the face and shocking stuff out until they came loose. Then they were on-off no problem at all. The hardest part though was getting the hubs off the axle splines.

I am sitting here hoping I put some anti-seize or lube on everything when I put it back together lol. Although I will probably replace the front axles next time around too. So I may not even remove the hubs from the axle next time. But I haven't replaced the axles before either. So I don't know the tricks and figure that job might suck too.

Well I have done the axles before... you have to take all the front suspension and brakes out except the lca and uca. Sounds worse than it is but it’s not a fun job. you’ll definitely need a ball joint separator and a (35mm?) axle nut socket and a large torque wrench and 1/2” sockets/ratchet. The axles themselves require a prybar to get free with a little evenly applied force. The right axle has an intermediate shaft that will need to be taken off the old axle and reused or purchased. Mine was in good shape so I reused. I would recommend Napa auto’s new axles for price, warranty, and quality of cv joint.

mercdudecbr600 said:

Well I have done the axles before... you have to take all the front suspension and brakes out except the lca and uca. Sounds worse than it is but it’s not a fun job. you’ll definitely need a ball joint separator and a (35mm?) axle nut socket and a large torque wrench and 1/2” sockets/ratchet. The axles themselves require a prybar to get free with a little evenly applied force. The right axle has an intermediate shaft that will need to be taken off the old axle and reused or purchased. Mine was in good shape so I reused. I would recommend Napa auto’s new axles for price, warranty, and quality of cv joint.

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Oh dear Lord, please do not use a ball joint separater, causes more issues than they are worth, big hammer and hit the spindle

AND ALWAYS< ALWAYS replace the intermediate shaft !!!

New hubs are whisper quiet, shocking how noisy they were (thought it was the at tires). Fingers crossed they last