I figured id let everyone know, Finished the front end rebuild, all on saturday. Thanks to everyone for the help and input.

I know alot of people said its not all that bad, but that was probably one of the tougher tasks id taken on recently.

Few things I came across, perhaps will be helpfull to others.

- I first loosened the axel nut with a 3' bar, broke loose easily, then i loosened it up, leaving it still on a few threads

- I then seperated the hub extensions, and Im glad i did as you will read below. I put a 5' bar through the studs so it hit the ground, keeping the assembly from rotating, I cannot imagine getting these loose once off.

- If you have a dually, hit the rotor to hub extension with penetrating oil a week before, and when you do get the wheel off, hit them with a wire brush. You can not get an impact, a socket, or even a ratcheting wrench on. These were by far the most time consuming on the whole job, used a 7/8" wrench , with a 3' bar, took alot to get them off.

-Once the hub extension was off, i loosened the 4 rear bolts , almost fully out, then used the power steering trick, worked like a charm, I cannot imagine doing this any other way.

- I then pulled off the rotor, hub and axel in one piece, carefull not to trash the seals, luckily they were fine. filthy but fine.

- Once all out, you can just slip out the axel without worry of seperating the hub bearing.

- the ball joints I cut out with an hot wrench, which worked nicely, they fell right out, and left the spindles so hot, the new ones went in relatively easily with the cheap harpor freight press.

all in all, took me about 11 hours, with a part time helper. I also had the luxury of working in shop space used for semi and loader repair, so i had access to more psi than the typical garage. plus pnuematic grease and all the toys.

naturally the 11 hours wasnt just ball joints.
I did the ball joints, axel U-Joints, rotors, brakes, replaced a few trashed studs, tie rods, end links , stabalizer bushings and a few odds and ends.

Drives like a dream, smooth, no knocks, very tight in 4x4. the steering wheel is upside down, but the alignment shop can figure that out.

 

Feels good to have that done, doesn't it?

 

Who's parts did you use ? ... mostly moog? Did you buy mostly online or locally (dealer / napa)

I'm about to do this same thing ... not looking forward to it I'll be doing the track bar, and cross over steering as well.

 

I used all Moog parts, called in an order, picked it all up later that day.

I think all told i spend around $745 on parts, plus the harbor freight tool $40.

I will end up spending more to align after i get new tires.

 

Yeah, I know what you went through .... well except mine isn't a dually. I did mine over a year ago and I'm not looking forward to those BJ's going out again. I grease them religiously now that I have the zerks.

 

That would have been over $500 in labor at your average front end shop.

 

the quote i got which included the rotors and pads, and axel joints and all that was $2200.
I know that is high, but its a guy i have used many time in the past, either he was extreemly busy, or he knew what a B*%#$ it would be.
In either case, Ill keep the 1500 in my pocket.

 

Whats this power steering trick that you speak of? Doing mine next week.

 

Were you able to keep the zerks on your top ball joints? The place that did mine told me they wouldn't fit, so I only got zerks on the bottom ones. Did I get snookered?

 

yes , you can put zerks on the uppers, they should be 90 degree ones though. when you install them, make sure they line up with a point you can acess. I greased mine before reinstalling the axel, but for future there pointed back, with the wheel turned in, so i can get to them.

the power steering trick is once you have the axel nut broken loose, roll it out, leaving it threaded half way on or so, then loosen the rear (4) 12mm bolts. then put a socket and an extension ( you may have to play with a few lengths ) onto one of the halfway out hub bolts. start the truck and turn the wheel, the extension, if lined up correct, will bottom out on either the axel shaft, or some other part, pops the hub and rotor assembly right off. mine came off easy, hub remained in tact, some guys have horror stories of the hub seperating, then its $$$ time.

 

I've got zerks on my top ones and not on my bottom ones. These came from RockAuto.com .......... unfortunately, didn't give me warm fuzzies when I put the ones in without zerks, but there isn't a lot of room for zerks in there anyway, so whatever. Unfortunately for me, I'll be doing it again, however I already have slathered the wheel bearing with antiseize, so it shouldn't be as huge a problem as it was last time.

 

You can fit zerks in there. Although when one of my u-joints wore, and popped one of its caps out, it tore the bugger out of there like nobody's business! You can install a zerk with everything assembled, assuming there is a hole to put it in. I used an about 70 degree zerk. To grease everything, I would normally quickly raise one side of the axle at a time, and rotate the wheel as convenient.

 

So your basically using the power steering as a press to get the bearing out. Genius...

 

My 02 has zerks on the top of the upper ball joints and none on my lowers had them installed at dealer under warr. at 25K with no dirt road driving lol ,don't know what kind they are but there're POS if they go that quick. The uppers on my 98 have a little plug on the bottom side of the uppers , looks like ya have to remove plug ,rotate axle to gain clearence, install 90 zerk ,grease than remove zerk and reinstall plug. Might try this someday when I need to punish myself for something , It doesn't look fun if thats the way to do it . I can't see any other way.

 

Smokey... thanks for the play by play. I have this on my schedule so a couple of questions. I started on this job a few weeks ago but didn't have much luck. My steps didn't ezacly match yours so maybe I missed something.

You said, " I first loosened the axel nut with a 3' bar, broke loose easily, then i loosened it up, leaving it still on a few threads." I thought we were supposed to leave the nut snug? Does this matter?

Next you said," I then seperated the hub extensions..." What the heck are hub extensions? Help with this bit of terminology would be appreciated...Bruce