rob160

I found this on another site and feel it is very important!! and will cut and paste it. There is a lot of information to go over, but can save you a ton in $$$ and stress. I hope "borrowing" this information from another site does not offend any of the DTR members or sites where this information was found.

Anybody with a "Unit Bearing" style front wheel bearings (FORD and DODGE!!!) MUST be informed! HOW TO SAVE MONEY & EASY UNIT BEARING REMOVAL TRICKS

the links at the end should take you to the pages directly.

This is copied from http://www.cumminsforum.com

The prices on the 2003-up front hub/bearing assemblies are outrageous. The best price from DC that I can find is from allchryslerparts.com - $251 each plus shipping. Quad 4x4 gave me a quote for $342.95 each. Some dealers are charging up to $450 each.

Realizing that Dodge is really just an assembler and all their parts are sourced from elsewhere, I went on a search for the company that supplies the hub/bearing assemblies. I eventually found them - SKF Industries. These guys are the OEM supplier to Dodge, and they're based out of Sweden. They recently bought Chicago Rawhide.

It turns out that SKF won an award for the bearing design on our trucks. An Automotive News PACE award, to be precise. I *think* it's called an "X-Tracker Asymmetric Hub Bearing Unit" (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Here's what the judges at Automotive News had to say about these bearings:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Automotive News
"SKF's X-Tracker is the most significant innovation in the global hub bearing market since the integration of ABS sensors in the 1990s. It consists of an asymmetrical two-row wheel hub bearing arrangement with the outboard bearing race a significantly larger diameter that carries more rolling elements than the inboard row. This uniquely innovative architecture increases the camber stiffness of the hub unit by as much as 70 percent, adds significant load-carrying capacity and extends service life. This is accomplished without need to change any of the surrounding components and without increased cost."
Pretty impressive, no? I know, get to the point. Back to the good stuff.

So SKF is just a bearing manufacturer. As such, anyone who has an account with them can buy anything from their product line. A quick search on their website came up with part number BR930502. With that in hand, I did a Google search on "SKF dealers" and came up with a lot of hits. I submitted quotation requests to about half-a-dozen of them. Of those, only 3 or 4 were able to locate the part number. Of those, the two lowest cost dealers were Dalton Bearing, Inc. and E.B. Atmus. I ended up going with E.B. Atmus, who had great customer service. The price? $168.74 plus shipping. I ordered up 2 of them which came drop-shipped from SKF's warehouse in Hebron, KY. Shipping cost me $10.

So for a grand total of $347.48 I have 2 brand new OEM front hub/bearing assemblies.

Below are a couple pictures of the bearings, which arrived today. They are even made in the US! They come pre-packed with grease, and the ABS sensors are included and installed. I'm very excited about finding this deal. Isn't the free market grand?

The SKF bearing number for the unit bearing is: BR930502. You might be able to cross reference this from another bearing supplier.


http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/3r...tml#post447198


Great photos on how to remove unit bearing
http://www.solidaxle.com/PDF/Dodge_S...Directions.pdf
http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/3r...tml#post694286

There is mention of using your "Power Steering" and an extension and socket to easily remove the unit bearing, but I have been unable to refind that post!

I really hope this information helps everyone! at least a little bit! I wish I had found this sooner! I am probably going to go to one of those hub conversion kits if this happens again! (3rd time!)

Lets thank the originators of the posts I "borrowed" for their efforts.

Just the messenger,

Rob

txfiremedic

Thanks for the info Rob!!

Jeff in TD

There was this nice write up here.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=217250

rob160

Thanks "Jeff in TD" that shows it better than the one i first saw. any ideas on how to "save the page" to a folder on the computer? for future reference? i keep getting a "showthread.php.htm" but it doesn't when i revisit it.

R

Jeff in TD

I have no idea how to save the page, but I do have it bookmarked...

wiskeyVI

Great info.
Kudos for all your work!

Bark

rob160: Thanks for the post. I save a lot of posts that I think I will want to look at later (including some by Jeff in TD:) by cutting and pasting the entire post with pics and all into word and saving it as a word document. You can also click on file (in internet explorer) and select "save as" than select save as type "webpage complete". You can than view the file offline using IE.

snoyes

I've started doing the cut and paste as well... maybe we could talk to the admins about making a section for good information/techniques, etc. and putting these in a seperate section as stickies... Of course, just an idea..

ratsun

I agree a bookmark feature for the forum would be awesome!
Somewhere we could save stuff like this, sometimes I spend hours trying to find posts I read a year or two ago.
Thanks Rob160 good stuff right there.

levigarrett76

Thanks for sharing that with us...Info like this is what makes these forums priceless

rockcrawler304

Great info. Thanks!!

Freelove33

I realize this is quite an old post. But does the 2002 2500 use these same bearings?

Freelove33

Old thread I know, but are these bearings the same as the ones of my 02 2500?

patdaly

Nope, but ours aren't that expensive relatively speaking.

Freelove33

Is there a quality aftermarket wheel bearing for the 2nd gens or should I stay OEM?