cuccamonga

A few weeks ago my right front wheel bearings basically exploded. The wheel went directly down to the spindle. I was able to limp it home for a few miiles but barely. Had to replace the spindle, bearings, rotor, hub and pads. I know what a bad bearing sounds like and didn't notice anything with this one it was totally outta the blue. Now I'm kind of worried about the other driver side bearings. I checked them and they seem fine. Should I replace those as well? Does anyone know about regular maintenance on the bearings? Don't wont to get stranded on the interstate.

XLR8R

Regular maintenance?

You mean like keeping the bearings clean, adjusted properly and packed with high-temp axle grease...

ScottN

You can't maintain those bearings, as they are sealed units.

You can, however, replace them with maintainable bearings... I think I might do this the next time I need a new hub:
http://emsoffroad.com/shop/index.php...4fb3b4036fafcd

It includes manual hubs, so you can enjoy the benefits of that - including using 2wd low.

tool

Right, but this is a differen hub I believe as the truck in his signature is 2wd.

I was unaware of bearing replacements availble for 4wd units though??

I know I replaced my front hubs on the '99 as a complete unit, hub/bearing.

m.rehme

62,000 miles and having problems isn't good.
I have been replacing my front bearings every other brake change, that works out to about 120,000 -130,000 miles.

jethroish

getting ready to replace my left front at 120,000 miles.

ScottN

Right... seeing a 2wd truck around here is even more rare than on this site.

XLR8R

The '98 doesn't have sealed bearings - I've had them out at the shop for cleaning & repacking when I replaced the rotors...

displacedtexan

The 4x4s do...

a77ssii

Just went through this. Check my sig for the truck. Thanks to eveyone out there I found it was my brake caliper hanging up and building enough heat to boil off the grease in the hub only got about 10K out of the hub before it was toast.